New Room...with a catch
 

Our team, for many years, has had a space a bit larger than a two-person cubicle. Recently, we have been offered a room in the main school building. However, that would be a difficulty for us, because we are in the tech yard on the opposite end of the school property. However, we really need the space. What do you suggest we use the space for?

Here is an inventory of the space we are allowed to use:

-Our room
-A classroom (must pack in/pack out each day)
-Machine Shop (same)
-Fabrication room (two stories)

Re: New Room...with a catch
 

What you just described is almost exactly what our team has been givin and used for the past 5 years, and its a wonder. We have a corner of an old room to store stuff in, an entire metal shop (although its rotting away, our auto shop program died out years ago) and a 2 story wood shop that we mainly work out of.

unpacking/packing up isn't that big of a deal, as long as everything is kept organized. It usually only takes us about 10 minuets max. Only take out what you're going to use.

I'm not quite sure I see the problem with it "being on the other side of the school", maybe you could explain more?

Re: New Room...with a catch
 

We have the same setup--pack in and out. What we use are those totes that the KoPs come in to organize stuff. There is, for example, a tote for each design team (ie, shooter) and one or more for each systems team (ie, electronics). We keep the stuff that isn't regularly used in bins on the bottom shelf of our closet (ie, gears, motors, etc...). At the end of each session, someone calls cleanup and we spend 15 minutes cleaning up. An appointed person is in charge of the closet where we store our bins during the day to make sure it is organized at the end of every night.

Recently, the teacher of our room granted us one table upon which we could leave stuff out on--we use it to showcase the robot in progress to all the students in the tech classes.

Re: New Room...with a catch
 

Well, you ARE "Spartan Robotics"...:rolleyes:

Although the distance isn't very large, we are scattered as well.

Use the fabrication room and machine shop for fabricating and machining. The small 'area' for storage and minor paperwork. The Classroom for 'clean' work, like CAD, Non-Tech, design, etc. If you have to, set up a skype between the two areas with USB webcams so folks can talk and look across the distance easily.

Re: New Room...with a catch
 

"On the other side of the school" in our case means that it is around 1300 ft linear distance away, and 1500 feet away by the actual path we would have to travel. This would involve going outside, through parking lots and the back of the football stadium, and then going back inside. That's really the biggest issue in terms of the space. We're glad to have it, but it's a bit of a hassle to get to and to use. And as for the skype suggestion, our internet at the school is often flaky and/or over-zealously filtered.

Re: New Room...with a catch
 

Can you maybe use the room on the other side of the school as storage for stuff that you might not need all the time - and then try to plan for when you need it? That might be the easiest way to go.

Re: New Room...with a catch
 

This is probably the way to do it. We have a small storage room (about 9x10) that we manage to stash most of our gear in.