Hi to our participating Teams and All Volunteers,
Please liberally and broadly share this email with your parents, students, friends, co-workers and acquaintances in and outside of the FIRST robotics community
This email blast is focused on encouraging our teams and current and past volunteers, to assist us with committing to or, alternatively, recruiting additional VOLUNTEERs for all upcoming PA Events. Specifically, there is a great need for many volunteers, especially Judges and Referees for the upcoming Lancaster Area Qualifier on Saturday, Dec 6th. We need to fill all of the roles but these especially, or we jeopardize being able to hold this qualifier.
General Instructions below in this email.
The Sunday Dec 7th Blue Streak Qualifier, also in Lancaster, is open to volunteers as well, however we have nearly fulfilled all role needs.
If your team is competing one day but not both, please consider volunteering for the day your team is not competing.
Additionally in December, we have the Green and Red Scrimmage on Sat Dec 13th, at Team Powered event hosted by Mars Robotics Association. You may also volunteer for this using the process below or reach out directly. Volunteers are being organized by Mars Robotics, specifically Coach – Jeff Beckstead jeffbeckstead@aol.com.
Details of the three December events:
Sat Dec 6th, 2025 Lancaster Area Qualifier, Manheim Township – 32 Teams
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2025-2026-season/lancaster-area-qualifier
Sun Dec 7th, 2025 Blue Streak Qualifier, Manheim Township – 32 Teams
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2025-2026-season/blue-streak-qualifier
Sat Dec 13th, 2025 Green and Red Scrimmage, Gibsonia, PA – 24 Teams
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2025-2026-season/green-and-red-scrimmage
Also, please check out ALL remaining season events for the potential to Volunteer! There are 5 more weekends/10 more Qualifiers in the wings starting in January 2026.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2025-2026-season
The most critical roles we must fill in to make this event successful for our teams are cited below. Please know that these roles are fun, rewarding, and not high-pressure so please do not be intimidated by any of them. There may be formal training required by FIRST for a few roles, but most are simply On-The-Job.
We would love all of you to personally join us and to recruit aggressively and widely to assist us in expanding our reach. Volunteer opportunities abound! We welcome new volunteers from family, friends, the community and businesses alike. Please recognize that this is a great opportunity for coaches, mentors and parents to get an insider’s perspective of how FTC events are conducted in our State and Region. The perspectives and guidance gained will also translate into helping your own team and students to be successful.
You will find that most all those who want to attend would rather be directly engaged in the festivities than gather splinters in the bleachers. Our experience is that people truly do appreciate direct participation in the event and explore contributing in special ways, as well as have fun! Also, not all roles require attendance for all of the competition days of competition, so there may be flexibility that we can manage. Of course, if you are already registered to volunteer, then thank you, but please continue recruiting.
We cite the critical roles with vacancies below with a summary description to gain interest. Full descriptions relative to PA FIRST Robotics can be found in the attachment. Additional details are on the FIRST website under General Volunteer Roles: PA FTC Volunteer Role Descriptions 2025-2026 Season
Judges (no direct team affiliation or Conflict of Interest for the event you are volunteering for, and age 21 and over); Referees; Score Trackers; FTA and FTAA’s; Robot and Field Inspectors; Queuers; Field Reset; Load In/Out and set up crew; Team and Volunteer Check In
General Instructions:
We use the FIRST Event Volunteer Registration system for all of our events. Volunteering for an event is one of the options on your personal FIRST Dashboard on the FIRST Inspires website.
To access the FIRST Event Volunteer Registration system:
Browse to http://www.firstinspires.org. Click Log In in the upper right-hand corner. If you already have a FIRST account, enter your FIRST username and password, and click LOG IN.
If you do not have a FIRST account, click Register in the upper right-hand corner, then fill out the account form.
Once on your personal Dashboard, select VOLUNTEER REGISTRATION and then EVENT VOLUNTEERING.
To narrow the available events to Pennsylvania FTC events, under Event Filters select FIRST Tech Challenge, United States, Pennsylvania; optionally enter dates and/or event names and then click Apply Filters. Select the event on the right-hand side and click Volunteer. Follow the prompts to select the roles you are interested in.
https://www.firstinspires.org/resources/library/general-volunteer-resources has several good resources, including a Volunteer Registration Step by Step Guide if you have further questions about the Volunteer Registration system.
Youth Protection:
As with all FIRST Pennsylvania events, Youth Protection is paramount and mandatory and as such, volunteers are required to comply with Youth Protection protocols as is necessary to assure compliance with Pennsylvania Child Protection Services Laws.
Please go to the following link for detailed information and how to ensure your compliance and let us know if you would like additional guidance or instruction. We would be more than happy to assist you!
https://www.ftcpenn.org/volunteer/youth-protection
Thanks to you all for your consideration and let us know if you have any questions. We are so excited for this season and seeing all of our teams and friends once again.
All the best,
Tom Zawislak and Lena Kang
Pennsylvania FIRST® Robotics
FIRST Tech Challenge® Program Delivery Partner
phone: (302) 383-9925
email: ftc@pennfirst.org
Website: www.FTCPenn.org