There are many ways in which parents can help out:
- Taking turns providing a snack, or making all of the phone calls when you need to schedule (or reschedule) a team meeting.
- Assisting you at team meetings. It can be very helpful to have another adult to help monitor the kids as they work on their Team Challenge. Your team will probably find that they need to break up into smaller groups so they can work independently on different props, devices, or costumes. It’s nice to have someone who can supervise the kids in the next room who are painting the scenery, while you monitor the group that’s cutting PVC pipe and drilling holes in a piece of plywood.
- Volunteering to be your team’s Appraiser. This is the term that DI uses for the tournament officials who run each Challenge site, and score all of the teams. In order to do this properly, we need many Appraisers for every tournament, and every NH team is required to find at least one adult who is willing to do this. Your Appraiser should plan on one Saturday for training, and a second Saturday at a regional Tournament.
- Volunteering to help on the day of the Tournament. Each team must provide a volunteer who can work for two hours on the day of the Tournament. For example, they might be assigned to help check in the teams as they arrive before the start of the Tournament, or work at the concessions area.
- Become the assistant Team Manager. The job is much easier if you have someone else to share it!
- Provide a place for the team to work, if you’d rather not have them work in your own house.