Opportunities

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES LISTING
FOR THE JEFFCO AND AFFILIATE (aka State)
DESTINATION IMAGINATION^®TOURNAMENTS

Thanks for checking this page out and remember....

VOLUNTEERS Are What Make Destination ImagiNation® Happen!

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES OFTEN DISAPPEAR FOREVER !!!!

Even if you are a seasoned veteran of DESTINATION IMAGINATION® there may be a few things on this list that you haven't thought about doing. This is also a great place to start for anyone even remotely curious about DI. The list spans opportunities at all levels in the organization.

The Jeffco DI Volunteer Coordinator is: Diane Fechenbach
303-791-4591
dfechenbach@qwestoffice.net

Please contact her with any questions regarding the Volunteer Opportunities

Download Opportunities as a quick notebook page with Jeffco specific detail

Download Opportunities as a generic information page or handout for your group

MAIN OPPORTUNITIES

TEAM MANAGER click: This is the big one, the main jelly bean, the whole enchilada, and the very best way to understand the value of DI. While a cliché, it is still true that it is the journey as much as the destination that proves to be the learning experience. Being a Team Manager is a significant time commitment that many dedicated parents, teachers, and other community members make as an investment in a student's future. What also should be noted is how often it becomes a rewarding life investment for the Team Manager as well.

Teams require one Manager 18 years of age or older. It is always best to try to have at least two Team Managers, especially at the Rising Star! and Elementary Levels.

TOURNAMENT OFFICIALS click: After months of work for the teams, the Challenge competitions come down to the final eight minutes of performance and the sequestered Instant Challenge appraised by trained and dedicated volunteers. No competition could exist without those willing to understand the nuances of some pretty amazing Challenge implementations.

If you love kids and enjoy watching them perform, volunteer to be a Destination ImagiNation® Tournament Official!! Because they have worked so hard to solve the Challenges, your teams deserve to be appraised fairly and well.

It takes many volunteers to provide the best appraising and Tournament possible. So we're requiring each Destination ImagiNation® Passport holder (if you have an Individual Team Passport or a 5-Pak Passport) to provide at least one Appraiser for the Jeffco Tournament. If you have more than three teams, you are required to provide one Appraiser and one Tournament-day volunteer, or two Appraisers. Appraisers must commit to a half-day training and to appraise at the Jeffco Tournament. Appraising is fun! Where else can you spend the day with great people watching the greatest kids in the world astound you with their solutions!

Appraisers must be 18 years of age or older to participate. Team Managers can not be Appraisers for their selected team Challenge.

MORE OPPORTUNITIES: There is certainly something for everyone!

Timekeepers: Timekeepers are needed to keep accurate times according to the specifications in the Team Challenges.

Qualities Required:: Requires an individual who can clearly understand the time limitations of the Team Challenge being appraised, is friendly, is able to focus on keeping time without being distracted by the entertaining aspects of the Presentation; is comfortable using a stopwatch or other timing device.

Announcers: The announcer introduces each team to the Appraisers and the audience. At some sites, he/she also presents the team with their Improv Element choice and announces that choice to the audience.

Qualities Required: Is upbeat, enthusiastic, and personable; is comfortable speaking in front of an audience, has a loud clear voice that carries across large spaces without a microphone; is able to maintain energy and enthusiasm throughout the Tournament day, understands that it's the teams not the Announcer that should be the center of audience attention.

Doorkeepers: The Doorkeeper's job is to insure that 'limited access' sites remain quiet and secure during team Presentations. The Doorkeeper serves the important function of securing the audience entrance to Presentation Sites when directed by the Head Appraiser or Announcer. At times this requires a diplomatic touch and a sense of humor.

Qualities Required: Understands the importance of securing the doors of limited access Presentation Sites; is not intimidated easily; is diplomatic and confident in this role; has a sense of humor

Information Provider: The main Information Provider greets arriving teams and spectators and answers basic questions related to the Tournament site, physical facilities, and general information. Wandering Information Providers do the same.

Qualities Required: Is upbeat, enthusiastic, and personable, has a solid knowledge of the Tournament site location. Has the ability to answer the same questions no less than one thousand times.

Sales: Is the main or associate Sales individual at the Tournament DI Store. The DI Store features all sorts of Tournament items such as T-Shirts, Books, Pins, Glow Lights, etc. It is often the focus of semi rabid Team members and parents especially when it comes to DI pin collecting.

Qualities Required: Honest, upbeat, enthusiastic, and personable, with a good sense of humor and sales ability with diverse age groups. The ability to conduct monetary transactions, make change, and provide responsible tracking for the day's receipts.

Checker Table: The Checker Table is the place where teams go to be sure their Tournament forms are in order before they actually check in with the Challenge Appraisers. The Checker provides the teams access to blank forms that have been discovered missing or inadvertently lost in the hectic pre-performance time period.

Qualities Required: Is upbeat, enthusiastic, and personable, has a solid knowledge of the Tournament Rules and form requirements. Has the ability to deal with team members and Managers in a relentlessly positive way.

Supervisor in Cafeteria Areas: The Cafeteria at the Tournament is the de facto commons area and gathering place. The Cafeteria Supervisors help maintain general order and provide an official presence to prevent the normal team exuberance from getting out of hand. The Supervisors also provide general information to the wide variety of individuals attending the Tournament.

Qualities Required: Is not intimidated easily; is diplomatic and confident in this role; has a sense of humor; is upbeat, enthusiastic, and personable, has a solid knowledge of the Tournament site location. Has the ability to answer the same questions no less than one thousand times.

Appraiser Food Coordinator: Food coordination for the many, many Appraisers at the Tournament is a demanding task given the varying schedules that the Challenge Presentations break at. The food is catered, but the multitude issues of getting both the main meals and snacks to the Appraisers falls to the Head Food Coordinator and the volunteer food coordination staff. It has been clearly determined that Appraisers get very cranky and unpredictable when they are not fed. So perhaps this volunteer position could also be described as the Appraiser Food Coordinator and Group Safety Official.

Qualities Required: Is upbeat, enthusiastic, and personable, and can help a group of somewhat confused, shell shocked, Appraisers refuel for another four hours of well fed, clear minded, evaluation.

Score Runners: The Score Runners physically transport the raw score sheets from the Challenge areas to the Score Room. In many ways this critical task resembles a marathon run around a stadium track that can exceed eight hours. Fortunately it is most often done as a relay with multiple runners, plenty of food, water and breaks. Make no mistake, however, that a Score Runners' day is measured in miles. This is especially true of the State Tournament.

Qualities Required: Physical and mental endurance for repetitive critical task performance. Dependability and dedication to the task at hand. The ability to quickly travel physical distances with ease and the ability to tolerate and adapt to changes in route, weather, and crowd conditions.

Score Room Score Checker: The Score Room Score Checker does exactly what the name implies. As the scores come in from the Challenge areas, the Checker verifies that there are no major inconsistencies or errors before the raw data is input into the scoring programs for final tabulation and analysis.

Qualities Required: Has the ability to work with a team of scoring officials, is mathematically inclined, understands the importance of checking the scores

Score Room Data Input: Once checked, the raw score data must be input into the scoring computers for tabulation. This is another mission critical operation that while not as physically demanding as a Score Runner requires a focus to the critical task at hand and is marathon in nature.

Qualities Required: Keyboarding Skills. The mental endurance for repetitive critical task performance. Dependability and dedication to the task at hand. The ability to quickly input large amounts of data into a computer terminal.

Score Room Award Certificate Generation: There are many special Awards given out at a Destination ImagiNation Tournament. The recipients are, of course not known until the completion of the Tournament Challenges. Once the scoring data has been tabulated it then becomes a task to physically generate using computer publishing the Award certificates that the teams and special recipients anticipate. Much of this work is done in the final hours between the end of the Tournament and the Awards Ceremony.

Qualities Required: Keyboarding skills and a good eye for graphics tasks. Dependability and dedication to the task at hand. The ability to quickly input names and recognize pleasing graphical positioning.

Video Media Production Crew: This is a tentative area that we may be experimenting with this year. Essentially the crew would be present shooting digital stills and possibly some video at as many of the individual Presentations as possible and then doing a crash edit at the end of the Tournament to present a simple media slide show as a preamble for the Awards Ceremony.

Qualities Required: Crew Chief and Crew members are upbeat, enthusiastic, and personable, have a solid knowledge of the Tournament site location and enjoy working with all age groups. Interest and ability in Media production. Artistic eye, and skills in both analog and NLE (Non-Linear Editing) Techniques a plus. Have a reliable personal digital still camera 2.5 M pixels or greater that they are willing to use to photograph teams in performance.