Los Angeles Region FIRST® LEGO® League (LARFLL)
Volunteers
Overview
Why Volunteer? It's Fun! It's Inspiring! and it does Make a Difference. FIRST Works!
FIRST LEGO League (FLL®) is an international competition that develops critical skills in science and technology in a super-charged learning atmosphere. Teams of up to ten 9-14 year olds design, build, program and test autonomous LEGO MINDSTORMS® robots and develop solutions to real world problems based on their research and consultations with experts. Students acquire skills such as problem solving, project management, critical thinking and teamwork: skills necessary to their future and to the future of society.
During the fall 2010 FLL season, over 160 teams will compete an average of two times at three levels of tournaments in the Los Angeles Region. These tournaments will be held all day on Saturdays or Sundays from October 30 through December 18.
Volunteers are needed to enable more than 1,300 Southern California FLL youth to compete at tournaments and demonstrate what they have achieved!
Types of Volunteers
We need volunteers to be coaches and/or mentors for teams. Most teams meet 4-6 hours per week after school or on weekends during September, October and November. Volunteers are needed to help start new teams and to help existing teams. Each team needs at least one adult coach, but it is preferable for each FLL team to also have an adult assistant coach. Either adults or high school students can serve as mentors for FLL teams.
We need two types of volunteers to help run tournaments in November and December. Some positions, such as judges and referees, require training or prior experience with FLL or other robotics tournaments. Other positions do not. We are seeking adult volunteers for both types of positions, but we can also use high school students for many positions, especially if they have robotics tournament experience. Only Robot Design Judges need to have any technical knowledge about robots.
Tournament Volunteer Positions Requiring Training or Experience
Since Referees, Judges and Scorekeepers help determine which teams win awards at a tournament, volunteers for these positions should not be affiliated with any of the teams attending the tournament. Their duties at the tournament typically last all day--approximately 8 hours--and will include announcing and handing out the awards at the award ceremony. These positions require from one-half to four hours of preparation and training beforehand (self-paced materials plus a brief training session, which may be held on the morning of the event) as indicated below.
Prior experience may reduce or eliminate the amount of training required for these positions. High school students with FLL tournament experience and demonstrated maturity may be considered for positions marked "Maybe".
| Position | Training | Sharable? | High School Youth Accepted? |
| Referees | 3-4 hours | No | Maybe |
| Robot Design Judges | 2-3 hours | No | Maybe |
| Project Judges | 1-2 hours | No | Maybe |
| Teamwork Judges | 1 hour | No | Maybe |
| Scorekeepers | 1 hour | No | Maybe |
| Emcee | 1/2 hour | Yes | Yes |
| Field Reset Crew | 1/2 hour | Prefer not | Yes |
| Field Manager | 1-4 hours | No | Maybe |
| Pit Manager | 1-4 hours | No | Maybe |
Tournament Volunteer Positions Not Requiring Training or Experience
Some positions may be combined or eliminated at some events.
| Position | Sharable? | High School Youth Accepted? |
| Timekeeper | Yes | Yes |
| DJ | Prefer not | Yes |
| Sound/Video/Light Operator | Prefer not | Yes |
| Scoresheet Runner | Yes | Yes |
| Field Queuing Manager | Yes | Prefer not |
| Judge Queuing Manager | Yes | Prefer not |
| Judge Assistant | Yes | Yes |
| Pit Announcer | Yes | Yes |
| Team Registration | No | Yes |
| Volunteer Registration | No | Yes |
| Information | Yes | Maybe |
| Practice Table Monitors | Yes | Yes |
| Photographer | Yes | Yes |
| Videographer | Yes | Yes |
| Traffic Control & Security | Yes | Maybe |
| First Aid | Yes | Maybe |
| VIP/Media Coordinator | Yes | Yes |
| Concession Sales | Yes | Yes |
| Field Setup Crew | Yes | Yes |
| Pit Setup Crew | Yes | Yes |
| Judging Setup Crew | Yes | Yes |
| Judging Cleanup Crew | Yes | Yes |
| Pit Cleanup Crew | Yes | Yes |
| Field Cleanup Crew | Yes | Yes |
Tournament Volunteer Job Descriptions
See the Volunteer Jobs page to select volunteer positions that interest you.
FLL Events
The events that need the most volunteers are the qualifying events and the championship event. Please select one or more events at which you are available to help from the FLL Events page. Volunteers interested in participating in the championship event for the first time should prepare themselves by participating in a qualifying event first if possible.
Other Information
The dress code is Casual. You may be asked to wear a special shirt, which may be worn over your other clothes. Referees and emcees may be invited to wear funny hats; if you would not be comfortable wearing a funny hat, you might not be a good match for these jobs.
You will probably want to wear comfortable shoes. Judges and most other volunteers will be sitting part of the day and walking around talking / observing teams the rest of the day. Referees, emcees, field reset crew, queuing managers, scoresheet runners, and traffic control & security will be standing or walking most of the day.