Week Zero - Volunteering
KnightKrawler creates a wooden facsimile of the FIRST competition field and offers a full day mock competition for teams across Minnesota. This event happens around the last Saturday in February. These matches provide an excellent opportunity for teams to test their robot and see how it interacts with field elements and other robots before the competition season.
Volunteer Roles for Week Zero Event:
- Robot Check In (4 hour shift)
- Concessions (3 hour shift)
- Raffle and Welcome Table (3 hour shift)
- Parking Lot Attendant (2 hour shift)
- Merch Table (2 hour shift)
- Unload Assistant (2 hour shift)
- Friday Night Field Assembly (approx 5 hours)
- Field Maintenance During Event (8am-3pm)
- Field Teardown After Event (4-7pm)
Volunteer Roles for Building Week Zero Field
Each build season Saturday from 9am to 4pm
- Field Builder
- Field Painter (starting approx. week 3)
Field Building Timeline
Build volunteers can attend the FRC kickoff at Irondale (usually the first or second Saturday in January) and watch it with the team. In the afternoon, they review plans and generate lumber and hardware requirements to request from our sponsors.
Every build Saturday after kickoff until the Week Zero event, volunteers meet in the Irondale woodshop from 9 am to 4 pm. They will be constructing new field elements out of plywood and lumber and modifying past field elements to fit the new game. No experience or tools are necessary, there are tasks for every level of experience. Lunch and coffee are provided each week.
Three or four weeks after kickoff, enough of the field will be ready for painting and volunteers interested in painting will be needed.
The Friday before the Week Zero event, volunteers are needed to set up the field in the main gym of Irondale. The field setup can take 4 or five hours because it involves putting down tarps, masonite boards, and carpet; laying out the field; and erecting the field elements. We try to get an early start but often there are basketball games going until 8 or 9pm.
In the afternoon after the event, volunteers help tear down the field and put it back into storage.
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For volunteers wanting to help build the field elements, if you have your own tools, we suggest bringing the following:
- Tape Measure
- Pencil
- Hand Square
- Battery Powered Drill and/or Impact Driver
The following are optional:
- Earplugs (we also have extra)
- Safety Glasses (we also have extra)
- Star Bits (T-25) if you have one (we have extra)
- Drill bits (we have extra)