VOLUNTEER ROLES

The success of every Virginia + DC FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge event starts with our volunteers. Our region is lucky to have a strong network of dedicated community members, educators, parents, and program partners. Find out more about each volunteer role and how you can get started today!

*Position requires training in advance

Event Support

Master of Ceremonies

Plays high-energy, appropriate music throughout the competition.
Serves as the public voice of the event. Introduces both teams at the competition table, ensures both teams are ready, and starts the match by announcing, “Three, Two, One, LEGO!” Provides anecdotal announcements about teams that helps put them at ease while keeping the audience engaged. MC helps the audience visualize the action and excitement through commentary during the robot rounds.

Required Skills and Experience:

  • Knowledge of the competition game and rules helpful
  • Public speaking skills
  • Comfort and experience interacting with youth aged 9-14
  • Sense of humor

Concessions

Help staff the food and beverage area of the event, if applicable.

Required Skills and Experience:

  • Ability to work as part of a team and be an effective communicator

Floater

Provide assistance in various areas as determined by the manager of event-day volunteers. Often helps with last-minute tasks as identified by event staff and key volunteers. Floaters often fill specific volunteer positions for ‘no show’ volunteers and serve to fill-in to allow volunteer breaks. Floaters can be useful as messengers, problem solvers, and guides. They may also enjoy distribute pins, medals and trophies. They staff the practice field to help manage the flow of teams. They also might staff food stands and help with overall clean up.

Required Skills and Experience:

  • Flexible, ‘go with the flow’ attitude
  • Ability to work as part of a team and be an effective communicator
  • Ability to jump into a physically demanding role

Load In / Load Out

Repair and reset playing field after each team match. Plays a critical
role in ensuring smooth flow of match play and maintaining pace of the
Helps set-up or breakdown the event. May be assigned to set-up or breakdown a specific area of the event. This is a physically active role and requires the ability to lift a minimum of 15 lbs.

Required Skills and Experience:

  • Physically demanding role; ability to stand for long periods of time

Photographer

Help capture the moment!  Work with tournament leadership to develop shot sheet.

Required Skills and Experiences:

  • Experience shooting in fast-paced environment
  • Experience shooting indoors in low light
  • Access to Digital SLR camera or equivalent

Pit Administrator

Provides and distributes critical information to teams as needed.  The pit is the ‘information hub’ for numerous inquiries and this individual should be trained in order to answer all questions by teams and guests about the day—from schedule to venue information.  

Required Skills and Experiences:

  • Strong leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills
  • Ability to work as a member of a team

Pit Runner

Serves as team messenger—providing and distributing critical information to teams. Assists with distribution of match lists to teams as needed. Helps guide teams from pit to competition floor and is prepared to answer questions about the event from teams and guests.

Required Skills and Experiences:

  • Strong interpersonal/communication skills
  • Physically active role; ability to run for short periods
  • Ability to work as a member of a team

Registration

Assists with FIRST LEGO League team registration. Position provides direction, assistance, and information to coaches and other adults accompanying teams and distributes materials. Assist with area set-up and breakdown.

Required Skills and Experience:

  • Ability to be tactful and assertive
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills
  • Ability to collaborate with others and work as a team
  • Strong organization skills
  • Attention to detail
  • Self-directed individual
  • FIRST experience helpful

Technical Staff

From taping down gaff tape to figuring out why that AV equipment isn’t working, this individual may be called on to help with any of the technical aspects that keep an FIRST LEGO League event up and running. No formal technical expertise is required.

Experience and Skills Needed:

  • Basic computer skills
  • Tech-savviness
  • Ability to problem-solve onsite

Traffic Control / Security

Many FIRST LEGO League events are crowded; help direct and manage large groups of people moving from place to place. Provide security for the event by maintaining crowd order, including making sure only allowable volunteers and staff are near match tables and only allowable individuals view judging.

Experience and Skills Needed:

  • Ability to collaborate with others and work as a team
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills
  • Comfortable combining gracious professionalism with authoritativeness, when appropriate

Volunteer Coordinator *

This individual is responsible for the onsite management of event-day volunteers, including setting up registration for volunteers, managing any walk-on volunteers, and problem-solving. They work closely with the tournament director and venue on all volunteer logistics, including pre-event planning and communication. * Please note, this is a key position that involves a large amount of work in advance of the event; individuals should only sign up for this role if directed to do so by a FIRST LEGO League operational partner or FIRST LEGO League tournament director.

Experience and Skills Needed:

  • Basic knowledge of tournament structure and volunteer roles and responsibilities
  • Ability to collaborate with others and work as a team
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills
  • Strong organization skills
  • Attention to detail

Volunteer Room Assistant

Monitor and maintain the area assigned to volunteers to relax, store belongings, mingle, and eat. Not every event has a volunteer area, but for those that do, help is needed for set-up and break-down as well as overall monitoring.

Experience and Skills Needed:

  • Self-directed individual

Robot Game Support

Head Referee *

The head referee helps recruit, train, and oversee all tournament referees. Key volunteers require advanced training as prescribed by FIRST headquarters. Unparalleled knowledge of the robot game, mission, rules and Robot Game Updates. Responsible for tracking and timing robot performance rounds and coordinating referees with the emcee, scorekeeper, and the field manager. Performs quality assurance on tournament Field Setup Kits, all competition and practice fields in advance of the event. Providing input from referees and field staff to the judge advisor for final judging deliberations.

Required Skills and Experiences:

  • Advanced knowledge of the competition game and rules of play
  • Ability to be tactful and assertive
  • Physically demanding role; ability to stand for long periods of time
  • Outgoing personality; high energy
  • Strong communication and diplomatic skills
  • Ability to collaborate with others and work as a team
  • Detail-oriented
  • Strong assessment skills
  • FIRST LEGO League experience and training required

Referee *

Observes team robot game matches, identifies rule violations, assesses field for scoring of matches, and participates in deliberations regarding contested calls and official scores. Position works under the direction of the head referee. Requires advance training and intimate knowledge of current Robot Challenge Game rules. Plays a critical role in ensuring smooth flow of match play and maintaining the pace of the event. Embodies FIRST LEGO League core values while monitoring and promoting sage practices on and around the playing field.

Required Skills and Experience:

  • Thorough knowledge of the competition game and rules of play
  • Ability to be tactful and assertive
  • Physically demanding role; ability to stand for long periods of time
  • Outgoing personality; high energy
  • Strong communication, diplomacy skills
  • Ability to collaborate with others and work as a team
  • Detail-oriented
  • Strong assessment skills
  • FIRST LEGO League experience and training required

Field Manager

Provide assistance in various areas as determined by the manager of event-day volunteers. Often helps with last-minute tasks as identified by event staff and Keeps teams flowing to each area throughout the day and on schedule. From the competition floor, the field manager keeps in contact with the pit, queuers, and judging areas. Keep abreast of scheduling, audio and visual, scoring, and work with the MC. Coordinates several sets of volunteers, which may include field attendants, scorekeepers, score runners, and MC.

Required Skills and Experience:

  • Basic knowledge of the competition games, rules, and table set-up necessary
  • Ability to work as part of a team and be an effective communicator; ability to keep chain of command informed of critical issues and schedule
  • Physically active role; ability to stand for long periods of time and move quickly about the field
  • Excellent problem-solving skills
  • FIRST and/or FIRST LEGO League experience necessary

Field Resetter

Repairs and resets the playing fields after each match. Resetter plays a critical role in ensuring smooth flow of match play and maintaining pace of the event. Supervise the teams collecting their robot and attachments to assure that field setup pieces are not taken inadvertently.

Required Skills and Experience:

  • Knowledge of the competition game, field setup, and rules helpful
  • Ability to work as part of a team
  • Physically active role; ability to stand for long periods of time and move quickly about the field

Scorekeeper

This person is someone who is comfortable with computers and can enter data from score sheets into either Excel or a scoring program. Helps facilitate the final ranking for awards, the announcement of the scores by the emcee, and display of the scores in the pit area. Prints out the ranking chart and delivers it to the judge advisor after each round. FIRST LEGO League headquarters will provide an annual online training of the scoring programs it provides and strongly encourages this individual to take the training in advance if you will use the scoring software.

Required Skills and Experiences:

  • Basic knowledge of the competition game and rules helpful
  • Ability to collaborate with others and work as a team
  • Excellent computer skills
  • Detail oriented; driven to achieve high level of accuracy

Score Runner

Expedites the scoring process by collecting the score sheets from the referees and bringing them to the scoring table. May assist with set-up and breakdown of scoring system and/or field.

Required Skills and Experiences:

  • Basic knowledge of the competition game helpful
  • Ability to collaborate with others and work as a team
  • Self-directed individual
  • Ability to stand for long periods of time
  • Strong assessment skills
  • Physically active role; ability to stand for long periods of time run for short periods

Timer

This person is someone comfortable keeping the flow of the day going by constantly checking the clock and communicating the timing to appropriate individuals on the field. Works closely with field resetters and referees to keep on track with the timing between robot matches set forth by the tournament director(s).

Required Skills and Experience:

  • Ability to collaborate with others and work as a team
  • Ability to stand for long periods of time
  • Detail oriented; driven to achieve high level of accuracy


Robot Game Queuer

Manages team traffic to and from the playing field. Queuers play a critical role in ensuring smooth flow of traffic and maintenance of overall event pace. May need to restrict access to competition area from unauthorized individuals. Communicates with pit runners and makes sure that the runners in the pit are rounding up teams that are not in the queue, helps keep teams in order and ready to compete. This person should be very aware of the schedule, and needs to be able to keep track of more than one thing at a time.

Experience and Skills Needed:

  • Strong leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills
  • Ability to collaborate with others and work as a team
  • Self-directed individual
  • Physically demanding role; ability to stand for long periods of time

Practice Table Assistant

Provides direction, assistance, information, and support to teams at practice tables in the pit. Position manages the practice table schedule and oversight of field model pieces. Position serves as a role model for team members. Assist with practice table sign-up answer questions from teams and guests maintain practice table area

Experience and Skills Needed:

  • Strong interpersonal/communication skills
  • Ability to stand for long periods of time
  • Ability to work as a member of a team
  • FIRST experience and a general knowledge of the FIRST LEGO League Robot Game table helpful

Judging Support

Judge Advisor *

This is a key volunteer position. Key volunteers require advanced training as prescribed by FIRST headquarters. Rather than judge teams, the judge advisor oversees the judging process and judging quality for the event. The judge advisor ensures that FIRST LEGO League Global Standards for judging and awards are followed. Judge advisors are responsible for overseeing all judges for the event, including any necessary pre-event communication and training. Judge advisors assure paperwork is provided for the judges (including rubrics and scoring sheets) for each area being judged. Requires intimate familiarity with the Judging Manual and advance training.

Required Skills and Experiences:

  • Provides an opportunity to play a key part in event adherence to FIRST LEGO League Global Standards
  • Advanced level of responsibility
  • Knowledge of the current season project and FIRST LEGO League
  • Outgoing personality
  • Strong leadership skills
  • Strong interpersonal/communication skills
  • Strong organizational skills
  • Ability to collaborate with others and work as a team
  • FIRST LEGO League experience necessary

Core Values Judge *

Selects team award recipients through interaction with teams and contributing to the deliberation process. Interview and observe teams in the judging rooms, pit, and on the playing field. Position serves as a role model for the team members. Participates in writing short awards scripts extolling merits of winning teams and assists with award presentations to the teams. Information on FIRST LEGO League Core Values.

Require Skills and Experience:

  • Strong assessment skills
  • Strong interpersonal/communication skills
  • Ability to effectively relate to youth aged 9-14 and adults and be a role model at all times
  • Ability to work as a member of a team
  • Knowledge of award criteria and selection process
  • FIRST and/or FIRST LEGO League experience preferred

Head Core Values Judge – All the benefits and skills as listed above. This individual helps train and oversee all tournament core values judges, including assisting the judge advisor in facilitation of judge deliberations. Usually only necessary at large tournaments.

Robot Design Judge *

Selects team award recipients through interaction with teams and contributing to the deliberation process. Interview and observe teams in the judging rooms, pit, and on the playing field. Position serves as a role model for the team members. Participates in writing short awards scripts extolling merits of winning teams and assists with award presentations to the teams. Information on FIRST LEGO League Core Values.

Require Skills and Experience:

  • Strong assessment skills
  • Strong interpersonal/communication skills
  • Ability to effectively relate to youth aged 9-14 and adults and be a role model at all times
  • Knowledge of award criteria and selection process
  • Understanding of mechanical/design concepts
  • FIRST and/or FIRST LEGO League experience preferred
  • Ability to collaborate with others and work as a team

Head Robot Design Judge – All the benefits and skills as listed above. This individual helps train and oversee all tournament robot judges, including assisting the judge advisor in facilitation of judge deliberations. Usually only necessary at large tournaments.

Innovation Project Judge *

Selects team award recipients through interaction with teams and contributing to the deliberation process. Interview and observe teams in the judging rooms, piSelects team award recipients through interaction with teams and contributing to the deliberation process. Interview and observe teams in the judging rooms, pit, and on the playing field. Position serves as a role model for the team members. Participates in writing short awards scripts extolling merits of winning teams and assists with award presentations to the teams. The FIRST LEGO League Project changes with the yearly Challenge theme and is the opportunity for the teams to explore the topic in depth and allows them to have a first hand opportunity in proposing a solution to a problem they selected.

Require Skills and Experience:

  • Strong assessment skills
  • Strong interpersonal/communication skills
  • Strong assessment skills
  • Strong interpersonal/communication skills
  • Ability to effectively relate to youth aged 9-14 and adults and be a role model at all times
  • Ability to work as a member of a team
  • Knowledge of award criteria and selection process
  • FIRST and/or FIRST LEGO League experience preferred

Head Innovation Project Judge – All the benefits and skills as listed above. This individual helps train and oversee all tournament project judges, including assisting the judge advisor in facilitation of judge deliberations. Usually only necessary at large tournaments.

Judge Assistant

Assists judge advisors and judges throughout the event. Position manages team traffic before and after judging sessions. Responsible for keeping judging sessions on schedule, keeping waiting teams quiet, assuring teams are sent to correct judging location, and helping to prepare and break-down judging rooms.

Require Skills and Experience:

  • Outgoing personality; high energy
  • Strong interpersonal/communication skills
  • Strong organizational skills
  • Physically demanding role; ability to stand for long periods of time

Judge Queuer

Manages team traffic to and from the judging areas. Queuers play a critical role in ensuring smooth flow of traffic and maintenance of overall event pace. May need to restrict access to judging rooms from unauthorized individuals. Helps keep teams in order and ready to be seen by judges. This person should be very aware of the schedule, and needs to be able to keep track of more than one thing at a time.

Require Skills and Experience:

  • Strong leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills
  • Ability to collaborate with others and work as a team
  • Self-directed individual
  • Physically demanding role; ability to stand for long periods of time

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