Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

Rain? Prepare for Armageddon to strike when you go to St. Louis. Two year in St. Louis. Two year's of Tornado scares. Tis the season.

Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

If you plan on renting cars, get full coverage that includes hail damage.
When we returned ours last year, we saw tons of cars with hail damage with NO insurance.
Thank god we elected to pay more to park in the covered structure Saturday of the tournament with basic coverage.

Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

I feel like this should be said...

Prepare for rain.

I feel like it needs to be said yet again, as when we were unloading in 2012, it started off as a slight drizzle that in 20 min turned into a downpour. I was very thankful that I was rooming with a friend of mine who wasnt in the early group to head to the competition that I trusted, I had her run through my stuff ad grab me more things to wear.

It was wet and rainy on and off that day, and downpouring when we packed up. Just before it was dinner, and during Einstein, there was gigantic hail and awful weather outside. I would also recommend a brain and a laptop or some device to be able to check the most recent weather updates and be able to contact someone at home with. [We had a fair share of terrified mothers who had my number. I was flooded for nearly an hour with calls after a robodawg mom and dad or two got a hold of my phone number.]

Aside from that, having so many people around, being polite about hygiene is a must. Have something fun, small, and contained to keep you busy, especially if you are stuck in the pits like I was [a joy of being team captain]. Don't forget to wander the pits and make sure to talk to some of the Lego League teams! Some of those kids are amazing!

Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

A few decks of cards. Everyone likes to crowd around a circular table for a good game of Egyptian Ratscrew!
Might I also suggest; a few extra team shirts for trading.

Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

I haven't been to worlds, but I assume one would want to bring a bag for buttons :)

Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

Wear comfortable shoes. The pits are massive (the champs are like MSC but 10 time bigger). Also try to be patient when walking around. Security is very tight and will not allow you to walk into certain places whatsoever (there is no access to the arena floor at all if you are not part of a drive team like at the events) so have a good idea how to get from the pits to the stands.

Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

Don't forget to bring your Gracious Professionalism!

[/Dorky mentor]

Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

Pre-load your phone with the necessary apps & services:
FRC-Spyder
Q&A
Manual
FRC-Megaphone
Also bring a charger to use in your hotel room AND the pits. Batteries usually last about 80% as long as you need them, and that last 20% is CRITICAL.

Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

Items on my "essential" list for competitions, besides the ones already mentioned:

1. Clipboard! ...preferably one bought brand new at the beginning of the season, or one that has been "refurbished" with colorful duct tape and stickers. My own scouting notes are quite interesting (less robot-esque and more people-watching...), and a clipboard is completely necessary for this.

2. Purple pens ...my team is Purple Precision. If you're Marjie Jenkins, your pens will all be pink. Basically, a pen with your meaningful color of choice.

3. Permanent marker ...for those random sightings of awesome people. Awesome people can be defined any way that you like it. I've outgrown my "OMG it's DEAN!" phase, but I still adore talking to Mr. Flowers given the opportunity. He is such a gentle person. I also like to have a marker on hand for when I run into friends that I haven't seen in a while.


And, it's been discussed already, but DEODORANT!
I can NOT emphasize this enough. Please, please, please reapply every two hours, or more as needed. I know of a friend who carries Febreze to competitions with her, just in case she needs to freshen her team up. Bringing deodorant can greatly reduce your chances of random sprayings of Febreze.*

...*I do NOT condone the random spraying of strangers. It was just a funny scenario. I mean, imagine someone walking through the pits just randomly spraying some of the unfortunate people who forgot their deodorant. The safety advisers would have a field day, poor Green Shirts.

Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

In addition to deodorant, I'm a big fan of face wipes and dry shampoo. Not 100% necessary, but I like it because I just start to feel really gross by 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

Just a note on this: There are some tools that can be taken on airplanes in carry on bags. The list of them is here: http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-informat...ohibited-items When traveling to Vegas this season, I went through PHL airport Security with a set of T-Handle Allen Wrenches, Allen Wrenches, a crescent wrench, a plastic container of misc hardware, and a set of pliers in my carry on bag and even though they were all 'allowed' to be carried on, my bag was pulled off of the conveyor and searched. Everything in the bag checked out fine, but the TSA agent suggested that if I were to travel with an assortment of tools again to remove them from whatever they're in and place them in a bin for easier viewing while being x-rayed.

Otherwise, here are some good things to keep on hand at the Championship:

-Pit Map
-Notebook and Pens (Bring a half dozen or more, someone always will 'borrow' your pens)
-Clipboard (I always bring one that can double as a dry erase board)
-Sharpie/Expo/Permanent marker
-Index Card/Business Card/Small Sheet of paper with important contact numbers and hotel information in case you lose your phone
-Phone charger
-Reasonable amount of cash
-Camera
-Safety Glasses

For those of you that are on Drive Teams traveling to the Championship, it's a good idea to keep a reasonable assortment of tools/common parts on your cart/with the robot when going to and from the dome floor. In years past, there have been instances where we would opt to not go back to the pits in between matches to avoid all of the extra walking and time taken to do so. With more teams at this year's championship, there may always been ample time between matches to go back to the pit.

Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

Let's see... There was a Tornado here last week, it's been pouring rain here this week and the end of last week... Not really sure what to expect next week. Just know that out of the days you're in St. Louis, you'll probably see the sun out one minute, then pouring rain within the next fifteen, especially this time of year.

Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

In the past, we've had a driver bag that contained essentials like pliers, snips, zipties, electrical tape, and wrenches in the sizes we used on the robot.

Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

Deodorant cannot be stressed enough. To quote a teammate "body odor is a body don't-or."
Also bring a slinky for the escalators. :P

Re: What personal items to take to St. Louis?
 

This is just good air travel advise in general, my friend puts his various pocket and keychain tools (all TSA approved) in a separate ziploc bag ahead of time, and puts that in the bin.