Uncrating at Championships

[alicen]

hello CD~

I was reading another thread about the uncrating on Wednesday at Championships, and I noticed a comment someone posted about wishing they knew earlier, so they could've planned travel better.

So here is my question to all the people of the forum.
Would it be helpful to those with travel issues for a more local (or somebody else who will be there early) to extend an offer to uncrate their robot Wednesday evening?

That way, the teams that aren't able to get to the Dome on Wednesday will come to their pit with the crate out of the way, and a robot waiting for them.

Please let me know what you think of this idea. Any problems, comments, criticisms, just post.

Thank you :)

[Mark McLeod]

We've asked fellow teams in the past to uncrate for us.
We always travel after school on Wednesday to lessen the impact on student studies, and don't arrive at our hotel until 11pm or later.

This year we need a team to take it through inspection for us too :)

One potential problem in doing this for another team is-if a crate is recorded as overweight and the team wishes to protest the additional cost the crate cannot be opened until it has been reweighed by Shepard. There have been quite a few mistakes in weighing in the past.

I'd suggest the teams know each other well, and exchange cell phone numbers for last minute decisions that have to be made.

[mathking]

We have had our fellow OSU sponsored team 677 uncrate on Wednesday night for us in the past. I think the advice to exchange cell phone numbers is sound, but it can definitely save you some time on Thursday morning. This can be really important if you have repairs or upgrades to make.

Alas that we are not going to Atlanta this year, because for the first time we have a completely functional robot in the crate. It would be so novel to pull out a robot that we were not planning on changing and set it to work.

[alicen]

Okay, from what you have both said, this is a useful idea. To make it work, numbers would have to be exchanged, but that's not too difficult ot work out.

I'm going to look and see how many local teams and non-local teams might be able to offer up time to uncrate other teams robots (after they're done with theirs of course)

If a crate needs to be re-weighed, then a phone call can be made to that teams contact, and a decision can be reached before preceeding.

If there are teams that are completely ready to also go through inspection, that MIGHT be able to be coordinated as well.

Is there enough interest to actually try and work this system out?

[alicen]

So, is anybody interested in this? I realize that this might pertain more so to the teams that win something week 5 and only just then find out they can go, but the question still applies.

Is there anybody interested in having their robot uncrated for them at championships Wednesday night?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Just to alleviate some concerns...
Pits are open on Wednesday evening to help alleviate inspection issues and to try and clear the floor of shipping crates. That is all.

Inspections will be carried out on Thursday as well. We are hoping to inspect enough robots on Wednesday to insure teams will be ready for the early match schedule on Thursday afternoon. If you can't arrive on Wednesday, there will be plenty of inspectors waiting for you on Thursday morning. If you are able to be present on Wednesday evening, please take advantage of this early inspection.