POV: SkillsUSA Technical Chair

I began my teaching career in October. The students had been served by a long term sub since August. I had never taught. Needless to say, the first couple of weeks were rough. I am certain that I learned more than they did. 

Starting a new career in education in the middle of a semester is an exercise in patience with a superset of asking “what’s that?” Once I found the teacher restrooms, in January… I thought I knew it all. Then came February. My colleague who started the program where I was the additional teacher was James Dinsmoor. I will never forget when he told me about SkillsUSA “Hey man. You need to fill this paperwork out so you can get a sub for when you are out at Skills.” 

A: I had never done sub paperwork so I was completely lost

B: What was a SkillsUSA? 

“A” was easy. My 2nd grade teacher and my grandmother’s neighbor for a decade was the school bookkeeper. So I walked in with my “I have no idea what I am doing" face and I am sure to her it looked like the big headed freckle faced boy from 20+ years prior asking for help. 

“B” was different. I had no idea what I was in for. Three days with 40 kids at a conference center in Atlanta where the students could go to the airport - actually they were encouraged to just go to the airport to get food… and they were “competing” in a ton of contests. I had no idea what was going on. I just rode the wave. I had no idea that my school had a huge target on its back when it came to SkillsUSA video production contests. The year before the school swept all of the contests - there were 9 at the time - 4 national contests and 5 state only. I had no idea that I was about to embark on a journey that would take me to Kansas City twice and Loiusville for a third SkillsUSA National conference. 

I look back now more than a decade and half later and I laugh. Now my teaching career is a thing of the past but SkillsUSA remains a major part of my life and my job. 

In my role at Amitrace, I work with schools and teachers to build their programs both with equipment and teaching techniques. That leads me right into a perfect role with SkillsUSA - specifically in the Video News Production contests. I have been with the company under two years and I have worked at three state conferences and the national conference as a judge/tech chair. I am now on day 1 of my fourth state conference and a week out from working my 5th. These two (TN/AL) as Technical Chair for the Video News Production contest. 

If you don’t know what the contest is, at its root, its teams of 4 students producing a 3 minute newscast. That’s it. But much deeper than that, it’s a group of students working to produce a newscast under the pressures of success and hopes and dreams of their parents, teachers, schools, and more. It’s a stressful contest. I think it’s the only one where the four person team has to perform perfectly in one shot. There is no re-do and there is no second chance. They tell the judges they are ready to go and they set sail on a 3 minute show… 

As I sit here now in Chattanooga watching the clock tick until I think it’s not too early to go to the contest site, I thought “This experience may be something to get more people involved in SkillsUSA and help them understand the behind the scenes of a contest like Video News Production.” 

SkillsUSA Tennessee SLSC

My preparation for this contest started several months ago - actually over a year ago. We were on site at the SLSC as a sponsor last year. I already had a relationship with some of the AV teachers in the state but I was intent on meeting more. As I met more teachers, I found out that many weren’t happy with the VNP contest. They had a lot of questions and most importantly, they felt it didn’t match what the students experienced at the national contest. 

I have known the SkillsUSA national tech chair for VNP for many years and last year was the first time that I got to work the national contest as a judge - I had been to 3 as an advisor. My eyes were opened. The teachers here had a point, what they experienced was nothing like nationals. As a matter of fact, it was so far different from nationals that it was almost not the same contest! 

Later in the year, I was asked to volunteer to help run the contest. I did and later was added to the Tech Chairs email. Truthfully, I didn’t want that. I just wanted to sit in the background and see what needed to be worked on before I offered my help on the larger scale. But…I’m never one to back down from a challenge. 

It’s now April but about a month ago, I made a trip to Chattanooga to visit the team at Chattanooga State where the VNP contest is held. First, WHAT A GREAT PLACE TO HOST A CONTEST! They have a great studio and plenty of space for us to run the contest. I am so excited to be able to work with Chris Willis and his team to make this contest happen. 

During my visit, I asked what was needed most and the response shocked me - “You have already done it. You are here and doing preplanning.” I in no way want to demean or put down previous contest coordinators as I know what they had to go through - they are still classroom teachers who were tasked with running a state contest as well as their normal duty… Not fair to them at all. I can not imagine. I would not have done it! 

Since then, I worked to create a “what to expect” sheet which gives all of the advisors the run of show, what the contest will be, what they and the students need to bring… as much as I could put in there. Having run this contest three times prior, I know that the advisors are hit with a million messages as they head to the conference. I wanted this one to stand out so not only was it sent as a contest update but I also sent it as an email - that way they didn’t have to go look for it later when they second guessed something or had a concern. 

Also in the last two weeks, I have researched and compiled over 20 stories for the students to read and use for content for their show. You have no idea how hard it is to live in one state and find news about another that isn’t death, crime, politics, and anything else that would cause a meeting. Those stories were compiled so that the students have a choice of content to write about but don’t have to deal with searching the whole internet to find stories! 

Did you know that office depot printers will only let you pre-pay $100? It takes over $150 to print the stories for the students to use at the contest…. And about an hour of sitting there while the printers run. Each team gets an envelope with their 52 pages of content. 

The hardest part of the whole tech chair thing is scheduling. Having the contest offsite means transportation… That means the potential of a lot of down time for high school students which is NEVER good. Luckily, several of the advisors drive their students to/from the offsite contest locations. That means I can get creative with the schedule and make it work so that there is only one bus run needed from the convention center to the college. The buses run on a 4 hour loop… Imagine groups of high school students with up to 3 hours of free time on their hands. 

The problem with me is that despite my best efforts my brain never turns off before big events like this. So there I was at 1am this morning fretting over the schedule and making changes so that one of the teams who will be driven over will be first so that those who are riding the shuttle aren’t messed up in case the shuttle runs late but they are also all done before the 12:30 shuttle bus so they can get back to the convention center because the next trip back is 4:30… Then I have the issue of schools with more than one team. I know what it’s like to be an advisor. I know that I want all of my little duckies in a row together, not in two separate places at two different times. 

2am - I shut off my laptop and tried to go back to sleep… 

8am - I was at the convention center to check in and get my Tech Chair envelope. 

9am - Reworking the judging sheets to help it make better sense for the judges, added places for notes, and trying to make that portion go well with the biggest focus on getting teams feedback from the judges; something that has been missing for a long time from most SkillsUSA video contests. 

After tap dancing and spending too much time sucking down iced coffee at Panera, it was time to head to Chattanooga State to set up for the orientation. If you are in the North Georgia or Chattanooga area, you have to go see what Chris Willis and the team at Chattanooga State are doing. A 24 hour radio station paired with one of the best collegiate studio spaces that I have seen make this place really stand out and a great place to host an event like this. 

1pm - Orientation begins. I think my goal with orientation is quite simple: put the kids at ease, make the advisors comfortable and get everyone on the same page when it comes to what to expect during the contest. We go over the goal of the contest, check everyone in, and I answer questions until the most inquisitive of students has been satisfied. Then they team go to the control room and studio to familiarize themselves with the workflow. The teams are shown the 5 buttons they are responsible for - 3 cameras, M1 for their VO graphic, and Take… 

2:15pm - Orientation is over. The teams start to disperse. One team rode the shuttle bus over and now we are working to get them back to the convention center before the next scheduled bus arrives at 4:30… A couple of quick phone calls and we are sent across campus with a walk-jog to try to catch the bus that leaves from another contest across campus at 2:30. 

2:30pm - I, along with the four students and advisor, arrive at the entrance to the target parking lot just in time to see the bus we are trying to catch pull away and go the opposite direction toward the exit… Luckily, the team is a part of a larger group and they make arrangements for someone to come get them but they are still stuck at the contest site for another hour. To say I was frustrated was an understatement… 

4:00pm - Back to the hotel to do some work work… I still have to pay the bills. 

Tuesday morning - Contest day! 

5:45am - I leave the hotel to go to Walmart because I realize that I don’t have a way to label the envelopes and that voice in my head says “get another pack of paper….” 

6:15am - McDonald’s drive thru simply because some traditions never stop. 2 Sausage egg McMuffins and a Large Iced Coffee (In my radio days, that order included a pair of hashbrowns and the coffee was a Dr Pepper…. That probably explains why weight has always been an issue for me. 

6:45am - Arrive at Chatt State. Update the schedule. Label the folders. (write this piece of the article while I wait…) 

8am - The teams arrive and it’s go time. The rest of the day will be spent in 20 minute windows either checking in teams and getting them started, moving teams in/out of the studio and control room, and having tough conversations with teams that don’t hit the deadline. 

1:28pm - It’s all over. The scheduled end time was 1:20 pm but we had some organizational issues with the next to last group and had to start them a little late. 

4:08pm - My first big mistake of the day… I am overcome with the blessings of being done and feeling like I did a good job making the contest happen so I send an email to the advisors for the contest thanking them, thanking the host school, telling where pictures can be found and sharing that I hope to have the contest videos up by the end of the week. 

5:02pm - The first email listing all of the things that were wrong with the contest and how a team feels like they were slighted in the contest. (Oh if they know what I know…) 

7:50pm - The next email with a list of grievances. (It’s always the teleprompter…)

(I remind myself that 2 out of 8 isn’t bad)

11:22pm - I am going to try to get some sleep because the last 2 nights have been a struggle in trying to cross every T and dot every I … 

On the rubrics note: When I say that there is only 1 person who knows the final scores - that’s 100% true. The judges are broken into 3 focus areas and they don’t see each other’s scores or notes. Nor are they even scoring the same thing. The thing that most people who have never run a contest like this don’t understand is that there are actually 4 contests happening at the same time - scriptwriting, technical directing/directing, floor managing/studio operations, and being on-air talent. Sure a team may mess up something in front of the camera but what are the other elements that they put together before the show and behind the scenes during the show that made them stand out. The other layer of this is that I don’t know what the team’s numbers are so until I submit the final paperwork, I have no idea who is who… The only thing I know in terms of scoring is if there are infractions that cause deductions and that is either because I see them or the judges ask me about them.  

Oh well…. I’ll call it a success in that all of the teams were treated fairly with the same concern to detail at every step of the process. The judges scored each team with the same attention to detail. And most importantly, we did what they said couldn’t be done: “I don’t think you will be done with the contest by 1:30.” 

I’m home for a bit then hit the road to Mobile Alabama to run the contest there. Stay tuned for part 2… If this one is anything like last year’s contest in Alabama… It may be my last article ever.

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Meet the Author, Tom White

Tom White is the Education and House of Worship Specialist at Amitrace. Tom's role is to help educators build better programs through better training, planning, and equipment. Before joining Amitrace, Tom was the Broadcast Engineer at Grady College of Journalism and Communication at the University of Georgia. Prior to that role, Tom taught at Morgan County High School and Rockdale Career Academy where he and his student produced thousands of live streams for sports, news, and community events. Tom’s program at the Rockdale Career Academy received the NFHS Network Program Of The Year in 2016 and his program at Morgan County High School received the New Program of the Year title in 2018. Tom has been a long time contributor to many publications and is the host of Teaching to The Test Pattern Podcast.

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