Not to Be a Total Stick in the Mud
 

but there were some things I saw last weekend at Alamo that I suspect happens at other events that needs to be addressed.
1. I saw some teams brought cheerleaders to the event. It's great that you get the school involved and they add atmosphere to the event but please if they come don't have them doing maneuvers at the side of the field. It's very dangerous.
2. Please don't play on the ramp at the end of the event. It's not a toy and it could flip up and you could really get hurt.
3. I have no idea why but every event I go to people insist on going down into the field area where they don't belong. If you do not have a drivers button, a media pass or are a volunteer of any sort you are to stay out of there. Especially when you come through the back exit where there is a big old sign saying it's off limits. You are not allowed to go down onto the football field during a Cowboys game (without SEVERE consequences) why is it ok to do it here?
4. Why oh why do people insist on running through the pits? You may need your robot fixed but if you flatten and hurt someone I would certainly hope they would take priority over robot since your carelessness. It's too crowded in the pits to be running don't do it!
5. I saw several teams having to carry their robots to the field. I think it would be an awesome thing to do if a veteran would help them out with an extra cart (if they have one. One of those furniture movers might be all that's needed). Not only is it unpleasant to have to carry a 120 pound robot from the pits to the field but it can be dangerous as well). Who knows? It might attract the attention of a judge and get you a GP award.

While having a good time is the main reason we are at the event please be mindful to not do things that can ruin a good time by doing silly things that aren't necessary.

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May I add another?

Yelling "ROBOT!" does not make it okay to run over someone escorting a group of VIPs who may not know to leap out of your way instantly. (And exactly why should they?)

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I saw similar things at GSR. There were kids with capes on in the pits. Ummmm safety hazard? yes. loose clothing is not allowed no matter what. great team spirit but not in the pits please! No one wants people to get hurt. The first aid kits aren't there to be used all the time, just for emergencies. Not trying to be ,as Koko Ed said, "a stick in the mud". i agree with him on in this situation.

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Quoted for truth. You're announcing your presence for other people's safety, not as a demand that people make a path.

On the other hand, teams quite often cause problems by standing outside their pits in the aisle talking, strategizing, or working on their robots. Especially working on robots. Pit space is limited, yes, but aisle space is even more limited and a lot more people are using it.

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Not only that, but everyone is always yelling robot. You'll hear it a thousand times a day if you're in the pits. Everyone gets desensitized to it to some degree, and shouting it louder doesn't help.

Call out 'Robot', sure, but if someone isn't 'hearing it', give them a gentle tap on the shoulder. They've probably heard you but don't realize they are in your way.

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I think yelling Robot coming through is fine. If someone doesn't hear you, tap their shoulder. Disagreements?

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This one annoys me to no end. Why do teams feel they have to bring EVERY STUDENT down into the pits? If you're not working why are you there? Is it part of your strategy to block other teams from getting to and from the field? Because that's what you're doing. Send them up into the stands to watch matches and scout and strategist and whatever and leave the pits to those who have to do work on the robot.

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Maybe it's just me, but I've seen quite a few people outright ignore those who shout "robot", simply out of spite for the fact that it's shouted too loudly, and too frequently. I have also noticed that politely saying, "Robot coming through, excuse us", goes a very long way.

People in the pits hear loud noises all day. They're bombarded by power tool noises, queue people ordering them to the field, music from the field, cheering from the stands, etc. The last thing they want to hear is the word "Robot" projected as loud as possible, 3 feet from their face.

Try being polite when moving your robot. You might just surprise people into listening to you.

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There's nothing wrong with being a stick in the mud. There's nothing wrong with caring about the events that you participate in and that you want to help shine. There's always something wrong with selfish carelessness.

Not sure why the new teams don't get the word about building or buying robot carts to transport their robots. So much of this was discussed last year at the end of the regional here in CD. I'm sure that it was discussed by the event planners, too. It should have been.

There is no reason for the pathways for the robot to and from their pits to be blocked. Not at the Alamo Regional.

I'm scratching my head over the bridge play, though. Not cool.

Edit: Ed, I think some of what you are seeing with the students in the pits - is the young age of the teams at the Alamo. I think a lot of what you are seeing is that. Also - At the BEST competitions, there is a Spirit break and teams bring their cheerleaders and drumlines for the Spirit break. At BEST Regional level, teams bring their cheerleaders and school bands to the event. A lot of the Texas teams are also BEST teams. There could be some crossover at a FIRST event. My opinion is that the event planners should be aware of the problems of crowding the floor around the field and they should plan for it. After the Alamo last year, I was very frustrated with the crowd situation. I thought about events that I had been to where the crowds were huge and happy/excited and the one that came to mind was IRI. Even in a high school gym that did not have the space that the Alamo venue has - there is not that crowd issue. The teams maintain - themselves - very well. I think that is key and I also think the event planners are key - in managing the crowd behaviors.

Some guidelines could easily be developed.

Jane

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It would have been tough to tap me on the shoulder as I was facing them and trying my best to move my group over before they ran us down. The aisles were HUGE and they had plenty of room. They were returning from a match, not late for one...not that that would be any excuse. I don't like apologizing for rude teams to a major university's engineering department dean.

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Same thing at KC, except at Greater Kansas City it was those superfan suits (Basically a full bodied spandex suit that goes from your feet and covers everything including your head.) I'll give some of them credit for wearing safety glasses over the suit ::safety:: , but still, I'm fairly certain it violates the same reason as to why I'm not allowed to walk around in full tint safety glasses. Having never worn a superfan suit, I'm not qualified to talk about the visibility from within one, but I can imagine that if a piece of spandex is covering my entire face, visibility is limited.

Here's to hoping some of the things mentioned in this thread change and the next 5 weeks of competition are more safety inclined.

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I think safety Captains sometimes focus on safety glasses and clean pits and don't realize that this goes into after regionals too. You don't have to be building something to worry about safety. DON'T PLAY ON THE BRIDGES!!!!

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Kids being kids.
We told them to stop.
It just shouldn't be done in the first place.

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This is something I think we can and have to fix and yes furniture movers with a bit of rope is all that is needed. Some sort of cart should be a requirement to compete not just a strong recommendation (http://frc-manual.usfirst.org/viewItem/6#4.2.2). If a team falls while they are carrying their robot through the pits it would be horrible. We require that you don't have sharp edges that might cut someones hand but carrying a robot through the pits is allowed and that might break someones leg.

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Oh yeah, that reminds me. We should probably encourage teams to use gloves too. Carrying that weight that long with bare hands has got to be brutal. I mean some of those kids were stumbling by the time they got to the field and I'm amazed no one fumbled a bot to the floor.

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On the subject of yelling "Robot," I tried to only let myself say "'Scuse me," with enough volume to be heard but not yelling at people. Hearing "robot" all day causes it to become ignored (at least for me in a couple instances). I also noticed several teams, on several occasions, yelling "robot" when there was nobody blocking their path. For courtesy, if you feel the overwhelming need to yell "robot," at the very least don't do it when nobody is in the path.

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Why did they have access to the field?

Jane

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Its a bit hard for teams that come from other places using crates and fedex to ship robots. Batteries and a half taken apart robot with bumpers are nearly 400 lbs. making a cart a requirement would not be ideal for such teams.

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Teams should have to communicate with the regional director or with teams to find some way to have a cart. Carrying the robot for every match is not acceptable.

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Lifting and carrying a robot to and from the pits isn't ideal either, and down right dangerous for the people lifting, the people the robot might end up dropped on and the robot its self. I agree that a cart isn't just a good idea- it's essential and should absolutely be a requirement just like safety glasses.

A trip to Home Depot can get you a very decent 'garden' cart for about 100 bucks you can put together in the pit. At the end of the event you can take apart and ship it home or sell it to another team or whatever.

It's money well spent.

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Regarding the cart issue, in 2010, we didn't have one. We had poles that we put trough dedicated holes in the robot to carry it everywhere. I was on the drive team, so I was carrying it very often. Even at ~90 lbs IIRC it was a pain and began to hurt my hands. Luckily, we had a short walk from the field to the pits, but at Hatboro this weekend, the walk was relatively substantial as we had to go to a separate gymnasium and the door was at the opposite corner of our pit.

Carts are extremely helpful and a requirement might not be a bad idea.

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Depends. I've tried some on, and visibility varies greatly from not being able to see at all to being able to see with very "gritty" but slightly tinted vision. I would entirely argue that they don't belong in the pits, safety glasses or not. That being said, if the hood/face is down (most, if not all, have zippers in the back starting at the head, I don't see a major issue as long as they have safety glasses.

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maybe FIRST can provide flat carts for teams with hardship to use at regionals.

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I agree with all that is being said here and just want to add one thing. I witnessed a UL Safety Adviser ask 2 visitors to put safety glasses on when they were entering the pits and they got very upset and walked out. I know most teams do this already but a quick reminder to all parents and visitors will help keep the pits just a bit safer and the volunteers a bit less stressed.

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The extra cart idea is a great one for those of us with space in a trailer or box truck going to an event. Even a movers dolly would be a benefit to someone.

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Honestly, I have never seen these issues happen at a Michigan event (except people not getting out of the way for "ROBOT!"). Might be due to experience, but we all have carts, people never go beyond the blue curtains when they aren't supposed to (we don't even really bother with the drivers' passes anymore) and people were smart enough not to play around on the field or practice field bridges.

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Speaking from personal experience, this can, in fact, win you a GP award. Back in 2007, my team then, 114, built one of the rookies at the PNW regional a robot cart out of castors and a piece of plywood. Not sure how the judges heard about it, but we won the J&J Sportsmanship Award.

In summary: Do good.

-Mike

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They were volunteers from a team and a team that won they event. they always are on the field after the event. We just have to make sure they don't play on the bridge. That's all.

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What is a good number of students to bring into the pits? We are wanting to cap it to 13.

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I work the field not the pits so I'm no expert on the subject by no means but I do know having whole teams down in the pits is unnecessary. Talk to Jeff Huspen about what a good number is. He's been at this since 1993. Everyone should seek his advice on such matters.

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Our drive team is normally able to fix most of the problems on the robot, so I only keep 2-3 other students around to be in charge of organizing the pit, charging batteries, fixing things, and talking to the judges. Others are allowed to stop by but they shouldn't stay for very long; they have other jobs already that are best handled out of the pits like scouting, spirit and helping other teams. We bring enough stuff that having 13 people and the robot in the pit would be close to impossible with out pushing out into the aisle.

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13 people in the pits is too many. We Use 2 mechanical, 1 electrical and 1 programming in the pit crew. We will also allow 1 or 2 students to temporarily work in the pits to spread pout the experience. Add 2 mentors and the pit still gets too crowded.

Our drive team is not part of the pit crew and do not work on the robot. The scout team will spend time in the pits but not hanging around our pit.

We will also have other students from our team helping other teams in the pits

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Last year we had no cart but we did have a solution: four U bolts attached to the corners of the robot. We had four strong people carry the robot this way. It helped that our robot only weighed in the 90s before battery+bumpers.

We are making a cart for our 120-lb robot but keeping the U-bolts to get it on and off the field.

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13 is way too many. Sometimes we'll have 8, and that's a lot. Usually it's it's maybe 4 students and 1-3 mentors working at a time. Programmers and Drive Team stay close (in districts, really close because there's no time to go anywhere) and work on the bot directly when they need to or code/strategize when they can. Mentors and scouts come down for consults and practice field time as well as when we go to the field (to ensure there are people there to talk to judges and other teams).

Remember pits are at best 10x10' with a 30x40" robot in the middle and usually a 2.5'? table at the back, plus whatever else you bring. With our shelf and rolling toolbox, 13 people wouldn't have room to move. We get there occasionally, but clearing the pit is a delicate art.

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In my now 9 years of being on a drive team and moving robots to the field, the most effective way to clear a path is the following:

Send one drive team member ahead of the robot, not pulling it, an independent person. This person walks ahead of the robot, and politely asks anyone who may be in the way to please move out of the way momentarily for the robot to pass by. If they are facing away from the robot, a gentle tap on the shoulder followed by the same explanation does wonders.

Our team hasn't yelled robot in the 7 years I have been on it, and we don't need to. We move through the pits just fine without creating extra noise pollution. Teams should try it, you will be surprised how much easier it is to move to and from your pit.

-Brando

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This is SO effective! We migrated to this from yelling over the past few years, and it works so much better.

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how many people can you fit inside your 10x10 pit, with a robot, table, and tools, and still be able to work safely? The pit can get badly crowded, and I've never seen a team able to fit 13 people around 1 robot at the same time! If you have people who are sitting there doing nothing, send them into the stands. If you have so many people you're overflowing into the isle, send some into the stands.

Then again, if you have enough people to do all your scouting, compose the drive team, make repairs to the root and still have some left over... send them around to help out struggling teams! Have them go talk with the Rookies and see if they need help or fill them in on how the competition goes. Help those rookies with scouting so they know how to do it. Help them get to a point where they can pass inspection.

We have the drive team (4 people) whenever they aren't driving, and 3-4 others who are responsible for fixing anything that breaks and talking with judges. Add 1-2 mentors and we're under 10 people total... and the drive team doesn't actually spend much time inside our pit - they're off talking with their next alliance, or in the stands talking with our scouters.

There are special occasions when we bring more of the team down to the pit, though - being the only all girls teams at the regionals we attend leads to some face time with different VIP's, and when we know ahead of time they're coming over, we can bring down additional members for the experience.

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I suppose it depends on how effectively your team utilizes the space. Between our robot and our storage we use approximately 29% of our floor space. This is with bumpers on our robot and 160 cubic feet of storage space. We have had thirteen people in the pit working on several occasions and at times had over sixteen before. Perhaps teams should invest in how they utilize the space provided instead of heaping 'material' in their pit?

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This should be the recommended way to move robots around at an event. The "ROBOT" screaming actually causes problems. It tends to give kids the idea that robots have the right of way over people and they expect people to clear a path for them instead of clearing a path themselves, and it adds to the overall noise in the pits, making the environment more hazardous.

Thanks Brando!

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

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A best practice that the safety inspectors can pass on while they do their rounds. I need the lingo. What would be a good name to call this position, leading the team robot safely through the crowded pits without yelling. Robot docent? Robot Page? Help!

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This has been a problem at every event I've been to. And worse at Championship considering the distances people need to travel.

I would hope that this is something that the green shirts could address. But it seems like their attention is focused on what is going on inside individual pits more than what's going on around them.

Maybe events could post big signs at the pit entrances with some basic "Shop Safety" rules on them. At least it might get people to think about the right mindset that they need while in the pits.

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This was a massive problem in St. Louis last year. I keep meaning to say something to FIRST about this. Having a robot is not a license to run people over.
I do remember a more civil time when kids walked slowly in front of their robots and yelled "robot" with their arms out or waving a flag. And ALWAYS waiting for people to move out of the way.

I think we need to change the culture back on this one.

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Vanguard.

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Another Problem with shouting "robot" and also loud cheering in the pit is that it interfers with teams being interviewed by the judges.

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I like it!!

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That seems like a remarkably small space to fit a robot, worktable, storage, battery station, driver console, and chairman's displays/materials in. Could you elaborate on exactly how you guys fit so much into that space and help the rest of us out?

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In response to "why are there so many kids in the pits" question, I can say from personal experience that the pits are the best place to be at competition. They are the place to be if you want to help fix the robot, learn more about the team, and generally benefit from the competition experience.

But I don't need to tell commenters about that. If you are a part of FRC, you understand that. What I would like to remind posters about is how demeaning being thrown out of the pits is.

You have worked for six weeks, putting your team above friends, social engagements and sometimes even school to build the robot that now lies broken before you. Now, an older and supposedly wiser member of the team yells at you to leave. Your commitment doesn't matter, or the fact that you could actually help. Only the fact that you are a Freshman and look like you getting in the way.

I know that there are safety issues, and that order in the pits must be maintained. I hope you realize that just because you are an indispensable member of the pit crew does not mean that everyone else should just go away.

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This is very true which is why I don't demand that any team member never be in the pit it's just that they shouldn't stay there for very long. Competition is far more than just working on the robot and in fact I hope my students know that they can work on the robot all they want when we are home in the shop but they get limited chances to meet other like minded people and to watch the robots actually compete. They also have many other ways that they can contribute to the team, and learn about engineering besides for working on our robot.

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You can actually work with your team in visiting the pits.

- Go in very small groups, taking turns with time limits. Then return to the stands or the meeting place. There are jobs like Scouting and Spirit that need attention. There are also jobs like helping with lunches and team errands.
- Have 2 people in charge of distributing giveaways go through the pits. That job can be swapped off with 2 more people, and so on.
- Tell the parents and guests of the team not to crowd around the pit and block the path of the robots, the Ambassadors, the Judges, and the FIRST folks.
- Each team can lend a hand with keeping the pits friendly, fun, and manageable by having a team plan and implementing it. No team needs to set up a party shop in the pits.

Jane

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This was version #1 from last season. Version #2 this year is much more efficient.

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It's broken:(

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I understand the allure of working in your team's pit. But I try to impress on all my students that we're here for and as a team, and we each have our own jobs. No matter how much you enjoy it or how much you've put in, hanging around the pit talking slows work on our robot down, impedes neighboring teams, and restricts traffic for everyone. It's also a drastically inappropriate use of your time if you're not the best person(s) for that job.

We're happy to rotate people, call students from the stands, and have observers if they're not impeding teams and/or volunteers. In the mean time, there's other work to be done. Before I spent so much time in our pit, I earned my place by visiting other teams, introducing ourselves, helping them and looking for solutions to our problems. Even now as the adult manager, I spend a lot of time with my alliance partners, scouters, and other teams. There's plenty of competition experience to be had everywhere.

With no offense towards anyone in particular, I have little patience for any attitude of "I deserve to be here" because I earned it or even because I know best. Part of inspiring students to STEM and other professional careers is teaching them to work on a team and appreciate the value of every position on it. Understand that if we're asking you to leave it's because you're impeding the performance or ourselves or others and because your time, for the current moment, could be better spend elsewhere.

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Your dropbox hates hotlinking. I'll attach your picture to this post for clarity.

If that's representative of your claim that you only use 29% of your pit for storage and robot, then I'm skeptical. If that's a 10' x 10' pit and those square on the corners are 18" squares, then it sure looks like you're already using nearly 30% of your pit space without a robot in there. And a robot with bumpers is going to take up about 10% of your pit space as it is. Basically, I'm skeptical of your claim that you can have 13-16 people fully contained in your pit and working productively on a robot.

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Perhaps he's talking about using 29% of the volume of the pit, not the floor area. Perhaps also the 13 students are stacked vertically in pairs to use the full 10' height.

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I'd like to suggest "Robot Escort" - kind of like a police escort.

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

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Hmm, a new role for Robodox?

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It is impossible. Assume that the average person takes up 1 square foot of space that leaves 5 square feet of non-human existence and you can barely fit a robot much less tools, the table, and have room to work (because 1 square foot is just standing room not moving around and actually working).

What I really can't stand is when people put so much in their pit for display, storage, and "cool factor" that the team members have to stand outside of their pit to work or have the robot sticking out the front.

There is no reason why a team would need more than 7 people in their pit. (4 drive team and 3 pit crew). If you trained your members properly there would be no need to have a judging reps because you pit and drive team should know your team inside and out.

If teams stayed on top of how many people they had in their pit area and the spill out effect that happens into the aisle. The pits would be a much safer, happier, quieter, and nice place to be for guests and sponsors.

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We have over 50 students on the team. The pit crew is just a few students with experts for components bought in when needed to work on problems. At Seattle last year the students came with a new pit crew member. The position is host/bouncer. He was host to any guests that came and a bouncer to keep our own team from filling the pit or aisles around our pit. By answering the questions that people had he allowed the pit crew to work undisturbed. The mentors stay out of the pit unless invited.

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Shortened for simplicity.

Coming from a vet like you KoKo, I completely agree. The goal of creating a competition based around science, learning and technology rivaling a sporting event brings with it some of the normal dramas and creates its own.

2 & 3 are the same old thing you get at any event. Falls on volunteers to be diligent but given the sheer masses sometimes, you're bailing water out of the titanic with a thimble. #4 is one of those things it's everyone's job to use common sense. #5 is one I still shake my head at. Even FTC level teams use carts and you can carry those bots one handed. As for #1, I guess that one is a failure of people to read event site rules.

I'll add to the list though voo voo zella horns :yikes: and over the top horns. Those things I'll happily stick in the mud.

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Yes, vehemently. There is never a need to yell anything.
That's more like it.
Teams should learn from this.
Seconded. Do we get to vote on it now?

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Oh, I am so glad you mentioned this. Last year I was talking to judges about 60% of the time I was in the pits, and teams would plow through screaming ROBOT with no regard for what they were interrupting. This meant that I had to repeat things and get uncomfortably close to the judges just to explain parts of our robot. This is especially difficult for teams like Gatorzillas, who have a pit that's not conducive to quickly shuffling judges in as a robot comes plowing through.

As others have said, our policy is to send whichever driver is holding the OI ahead of everyone else to politely clear the way, with the other driver pulling the robot behind. Admittedly, when I took point, I'd mix it up by throwing in sarcasm, but I wouldn't advise that particular method, especially around anyone on a Segway.

From one BEST/FIRST vet to the rest of you, what things that are common place in BEST competitions would you rather not see at a FIRST regional? I think it would be good to compile a specific list.

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This may not be the thread to do this in. It might be good to start a separate thread.

I will add a couple of thoughts here:

1. Many teams treat the FRC pits like they treat the Display halls - using those for social gatherings. In LASA, we treat both competitions the same:
- enjoy the competition/check out the Displays and Pits but you have jobs to do and don't shirk those
- don't cluster, gather, block, bottleneck
because
- you each have jobs to do
- don't hang around the Pit or Display
because
- you are interferring with the work that needs to be done
- for Display purposes, the presenters that maintain the Display are there to talk about the team and the community involvement to visitors, guests, VIPS, Judges, and the teams. They are not there as a magnet for their fellow team members.
- for the Pit purposes, the pit crew is busy maintaining the robot, the Pit, and making themselves available to talk with visitors, guests, VIPS, Judges, and other teams. They are not there as a magnet for their fellow team members.

Because of the nature of the Displays and their purpose, I think some of the FRC/BEST teams fail to completely grasp the importance of the purpose of the Pits and they overwhelm them with social clusters and bottlenecks.

2. This is a different discussion but it is an important one. BEST is student centric. FRC isn't. The programs both support and encourage STEM initiatives but their programs are very different. It takes a lot of time and effort to help new team members and parents understand and grasp the value of those differences each year. Some teams do that well. Some teams don't. The teams that grasp the value of the differences and work towards setting the bar of excellence in each - are the ones that we see garnering awards and recognition in FIRST and BEST and the other robotics programs as well.

One thing that I love about BEST is their approach to the Pits. They are not open to everyone. They are only available to those who have pit passes and to BEST folks which include Judges and invited VIPs. I like that and think FRC could benefit from something similar with designated times for the Pits to be open to the everyone.

One of the things that I despise about the BEST competitions at Regional level are the bands that are allowed in the stands to support the teams. Not all teams can afford to fund their bands or their cheerleaders travel and they can seriously impact the Spirit Award and other awards, in my opinion. The noise level is dangerous and ridiculous. It totally overwhelms to the work of the DJ who, 9 times out of 10, blasts the speakers to distortion to try to overpower the bands. It's insane.
---
In Texas, I think a lot of this has to do with how young and inexperienced so many of the FRC teams are. We should see huge strides in development in our regions in the next 3 to 4 years. That is the hope.

Jane

Re: Not to Be a Total Stick in the Mud
 

Also, the 2013 FRC game will be to see who can stack the most amount of freshmen in their pit. Stack Attack II?

Re: Not to Be a Total Stick in the Mud
 

I think one of the most inspiring things about FRC competitions is seeing teams working on their robots. Removing that from the public's view would be detrimental to the program. Some outside observers don't always believe that the students are building these robots. FIRST does a very good job of keeping spectators safe and just the safety glasses requirement alone keeps some people out of the pit.

Teams are able to take their own view on how welcoming they want their pit. For example at Alamo team 4000 (a rookie team) had a pit that included cut outs for people to take photos with, they obviously didn't mind having people come by their pit. On the other hand (this is just my take) team 245's pit was less welcoming which is not a bad thing. Their students were diligently working most of the time and I don't think many spectators would have interrupted them. How you construct your pit and how you interact with it and manage it determines a lot.

Re: Not to Be a Total Stick in the Mud
 

One thing I admit to is I screwed up on the queing design at the entrance and exit and caused quite a stir making people have to walk all the way around the field(it would have worked the same on the exit side but that wasn't as far a walk). Jess pointed out I could have made an alley at the entrance that would have eased that problem and then people wouldn't be compelled to dart underneath the bleachers to get food.
My apologies for the inconvenience it caused.

Re: Not to Be a Total Stick in the Mud
 

Every year we bring gray vests to our pit. If we see a team member standing around in the pit without doing anything, we put a vest on them and send them around to help other teams. It keeps our pit from getting crowded because our rookies learn really fast not to stand around doing nothing ;). And having people going around trying to help all time isn't too bad either.

Re: Not to Be a Total Stick in the Mud
 

I absolutely agree with everything you have said. What I don't feel is necessary, is having large groups forming and blocking the robot access to and from the field and making it difficult for the Judges and VIPS and the teams that are working.

Jane

Re: Not to Be a Total Stick in the Mud
 

Another thing I would like to point out at events. When you have a question to ask about a certain point of the event you should make sure to ask the right personnel the question so you can get the proper answer that you seek.
All game rule related questions should be asked of the referee (particularly the head referee).
Any technical questions you have about the robot should be brought to the FTA's attention.
Safety Issues should be brought to the attention of the Safety Advisors who are dressed in dark green shirts.
Pit issues should be brought to the Pit Adman table that is usually located in the center of the curtain on the opposite side from the playing field.
Any Inspection questions should be taken to the Inspectors (they have the bright yellow baseball caps)
Any controls questions should be brought to the attention of the Controls System Advisor (the CSA will have a bright orange baseball cap).
Just because someone is wearing a volunteer shirt does not mean that they will have the answers that you seek and worse yet they could end up giving you the wrong answer which could cause you and your team valuable lost time and headaches that you do not need.

Re: Not to Be a Total Stick in the Mud
 

This was a massive problem in Montreal as teams had to cross where the public went to and from the stands, the coat check (a very nice feature indeed) and the FLL event. It didn't help that people going by would be enthralled by the lights and excitement of the event and stop in the middle of the que path to watch. Most people at the event had never seen a FIRST event before so it was quite a challenge to keep the event moving a everyone safe and away from the playing field area ( I must have made a few hundred "saves" over the weekend playing goalie and blocking people from entering the playing field area. It made the que teams job much much harder that it had to be but I don't think there was any other way to run the path so we made the best of it).

Re: Not to Be a Total Stick in the Mud
 

Based on this post, I sat down with the green shirts for a few minutes at breakfast first thing on Thurs, made this suggestion using Alan's title of 'vanguards" and asked them to spread the word.

I still heard "robot" throughout the 3 days, but it sure seemed like I heard it a lot less.

Thanks!

Re: Not to Be a Total Stick in the Mud
 

I only heard it a few times myself. When I went to visit the Sacramento regional, it was painful to hear everyone yelling robot (though the aisles did seem smaller and more prone to being blocked).