Check in for your volunteer shift at MIT’s Pierce Boathouse. Premiums will be available from there (not from any other location along the river, such as the main volunteer check-in tent at FALS).
When you arrive:
- Proceed to the registration desk, usually in the back-left corner of the boathouse, to check in with the volunteer coordinator and collect your premium, radio and megaphone.
- If you are at a River Control position in a launch (RC01–RC13, RC20, RC21, RC32, RC41, RC53, RC60, RC61, RC63 or RC64):
- Sign out a personal flotation device (PFD), usually from the desk in the front-right or back-right corner of the boathouse, if you did not bring one of your own;
- Identify and locate your launch using the dock map;
- Identify and introduce yourself to your launch driver.
- Muster in front of the yellow sign for your River Control position on the main dock to await further instructions and deploy to the river as soon as possible.
Volunteers in River Control launches in the basin should leave the dock by 7:00 a.m. and be in position by 7:10 a.m. at the latest to control the arrival of crews whose race starts at 7:45 a.m. each day. Volunteers at land stations near Cambridge Boat Club and the Eliot Bridge should board the shuttle bus, leaving promptly at 6:45 a.m.
Note that we have implemented a new River Control numbering scheme this year (2024). All River Control positions, except those in the basin, now have different numbers from previous years.