There's no need to lose sleep or to stop having fun! Come to the "Dark Side"™ and help us challenge—some would say torture—next year's contestants... Bring your incredible talent and innovative ideas through the secret door and help prepare future World Champions.

Volunteer for any of the following areas:

Technical

• Judge
  • Create, document and program problem(s) that will be presented to contestants
  • Meet 6-8 times 3 months prior to the Contest (one in-person with a fabulous BBQ and several teleconferences)
  • Work the Contest: judge problems, answer questions, monitor the floor
  • Solve last-minute issues with problems and problem solutions
  • Assist with administrative tasks, including: password assignment and distribution, crowd control, problem printing, problem "stuffing," problem distribution at the contest, workstation assignments at the contest
• Operations
  • Maintain and enhance the contest environment software (team effort) — the contest software is completely written and maintained by the current judge and operations teams
  • Setup the environment prior to the Contest (and test!)
  • Address issues (in conjunction with the host site staff) with workstations, printing, etc., that occur prior to and during the contest

Administrative

• Assistant Contest Director
  This is an internship to become (or see if you want to become) the Regional Contest Director (eventually).
  • Work with host school to ensure smooth running of the contest
  • Update the Contest Administration Handbook
  • Work with Judges to ensure a full problem set
  • Work with Operations to ensure a smooth contest
  • May represent the Region at World Finals meetings (some subsidy provided)
  • Be onsite the day before and the day after the contest to assist with oversight activities
  • Work with the World Finals management to ensure the contest meets all regional requirements
  • Participate in discussions that impact regional contests
  • Coordinate with media and work to "advertise" the contest
  • Identify and contact non-participating eligible schools to increase overall contest participation
• Web Master
  • Pre-contest: Update Web pages with current contest dates etc. (summer)
  • Post-contest: Update Web pages with contest results
  • All year: Periodically check Web pages to ensure they are "up"
• Assistant Registrar
  • Set up Central Contest Web pages (maintained at the World Finals Contest site; software changes frequently) with Regional information
  • Learn the system in order to answer questions for regional participants
  • Assist with printing badges and certificates
  • Work with host school to ensure smooth on site registration process
  • Assist with setting up registration prior to registration opening.
  • Assist with registering contestants; collecting fees as needed; distributing badges (and yelling reminders to people to wear their badges)
  • Learn to use the system to provide lists, such as:
    • Participating teams
    • T-shirt size list
    • Teams and team member lists
  • During the Contest, update the online system with corrections as needed
  • Provide final list of participants to Operations team
  • Assist with assigning team stations for the warm-up and the contest
  • Assist with other administrative tasks, such as stuffing problem sets, assigning workstations, etc.

Students who have the time can perform any of the above tasks that do not directly involve the contest environment or problem set. If you are interested, please contact the Volunteer Coordinator, <volunteer@socalcontest.org> .