Your job: assist teams and guests with competition- and venue-related questions. You're the help desk. When a coach can't find their pit, a parent needs the restroom, or a team wants to know when they're next on the field, they come to you.
It's a customer-service role, and it's the one that most shapes whether a visiting family feels welcome.
What you'll be asked
Most of the day is the same handful of questions:
- "Where is our pit?" and "where is Field 2?"
- "When is our next match?"
- "Where are the restrooms / concessions / the skills field?"
- "Who do I talk to about ___?"
- "Is there somewhere I can charge this?"
You will not know every answer, and you are not expected to. Knowing who does is the job.
Set yourself up to succeed
Before teams arrive, collect the things you'll be asked for and keep them at the desk:
- The pit map and the venue map
- The match schedule, and where the live schedule is displayed
- The event's timeline — when inspection closes, when finals start, when awards are
- A short list of who owns what: Head Referee, Judge Advisor, volunteer coordinator, Event Partner
Walk the venue once yourself. Answering "restrooms are past the pits on the left" beats pointing vaguely every time.
Be awesome at it
Answer the question they actually asked. A worried coach asking "when is our next match" usually means "do I have time to fix my robot." Give them the time and the margin.
Escalate quickly and by name. "Let me get Chad, he runs queuing" is a better answer than a guess. Guessing at a rules question or a scoring question causes real problems downstream.
Be findable. Stay at the desk unless you've arranged cover. A pit admin who wanders is a help desk that's closed.
Assume it's their first event. Many families have never seen a robotics tournament. Explaining something they could have looked up is the job, not an interruption.
When problems happen
Anything about rules, scores, or judging goes to the Head Referee or Judge Advisor — never answer those yourself, even if you think you know.
Anything about safety, injury, or a missing child goes to the Event Partner immediately.
If someone is upset, hand them to a lead rather than absorbing it. That's not passing the buck; it's how the event is meant to work.
Who this suits
No experience required, and no robotics knowledge needed. Activity level is low — you're mostly seated at a desk, which makes this a good fit if you'd rather not be on your feet all day. If you're the person friends ask for directions, you'll be good at this.