Every year, we have a cohort of MU students who graciously donate their time to helping run the back end of the competition. They get coffee and tea for judges, hand out snacks, read captions, call ins and outs, take pictures and operate the sound board. Here they are at this year's training day, which always happens the day before judging starts!

Photos by Liv Paggiarino and India Garrish

Two buttons to rule them all: these are the remotes that judges will be using to vote in or out on each image and story they see this week. (By Liv Paggiarino)

Student volunteers gain the training necessary to fulfill their duties throughout the week, which include reading captions, calling ins and outs, operating the sound system and providing judges with snacks and (most importantly) caffeine! (By Liv Paggiarino)

MU senior and social media volunteer India Garrish smiles while going through images to post for the day. #Meta (By Liv Paggiarino)

CPOY Coordinator Anto Tavitian shows student volunteers how to operate the in-and-out voting machine during training Saturday. (By Liv Paggiarino)

MU graduate student Lexi Deagan explains to undergraduate volunteer Liz Goodwin how to operate the soundboard during volunteer training Saturday. (By Liv Paggiarino)

We design and make our own buttons here at CPOY; it's tradition! (By India Garrish)

"Don't ever hit 'save' on this," Anto says while explaining how to read captions of entries during volunteer training Saturday. "You'll make me very sad if you do."* (By Liv Paggiarino)

*No images were harmed in this training. There is one computer that we ask our volunteers not to save anything on, because they aren't making any changes to the files but other computers are.

During CPOY week, the building's staff graciously shares some fridge space with us so that we can provide food and beverages to judges. (By Liv Paggiarino) 

MU student volunteers Elizabeth Underwood and Sammy Snyder peek into the fridge that'll hold beverages for judges during volunteer training on Saturday. (By Liv Paggiarino)

MU student volunteer Joel Chan stands in the break room while going through training to make coffee for judges. (By Liv Paggiarino)

MU graduate student volunteer Jessi Dodge tests the microphone during volunteer training and setup on Saturday. (By Liv Paggiarino)