Is VMS always so sluggish?

[BakingSodaVolcano]

We're hosting an FLL tournament this weekend, and I am the Volunteer Coordinator.

Has anyone else who has held this position at an event used VMS (Volunteer Management System)? We are being forced to use it, and it would be okay if it actually didn't hang (it's SO sluggish) and crash a lot.

Anyone have any VMS tips on how to make it work? I have emailed FIRST support. Unfortunately, ALL of our volunteer info is in the system and not much outside the system except for a separate worksheet I've been filling out since VMS is missing a "summary of all positions" feature.

[dna1990]

Re: Is VMS always so sluggish?

Last year was my first to really try with it. I have to say, it didn't match well with my way of thinking and the number of volunteers we try to wrangle. But on top of that, yes - I had it lock up and not always honor all the drag/drop stuff. I tried to skip those features as much as possible.

It could be browser-dependencies, so if possible try another one. But me thinks it is just too fancy for what it is needed, in terms of web functionality. And every year they encourage/force more events to use it, and more volunteers to be fully in VIMs, so I am not surprised to see it bog down.

FRC events don't seem to mind, they have been more involved with it over the years...I wonder if theirs is a better experience, or they just know the tricks to make it efficient?

[Tom Mosher]

Re: Is VMS always so sluggish?

My local tournament director says VMS is crud.