Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

It sure would be spiffy if FIRST provided us an actual pit area with pipe/drape, signage, and power BEFORE we arrived to load in (see below). It sure would be spiffy if we didn't have to waste our time finding someone who could correct this issue and then wait around for them to find the myriad other people who actually were permitted to perform the labor to correct the various omissions.

Maybe we had to pay extra for that privilege, not sure....

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

My understanding was that FIRST took over handling some things that were formerly managed by SRE. This made trying to find answers and especially accountability a tougher road to navigate this year.

There was also a new AV company.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

It would only make sense to upload only the difference. What doesn't make sense, then, is why it would take so long to upload between matches. Are robot/field logs also being uploaded, not just the scores?

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

You can't double the size of the playoffs, and then add only an hour to the schedule to compensate. Yes, I'm talking about you, FiM and MSC. And it didn't help anything that the hour was taken up by a speech and award given by Dean to the governor, and by a field delay.

Regarding the MSC productions, RoboZone had the whole season to evolve and had excellent mentor direction in the first place. Jim Zondag for sure, but I'm sure there were others.

The crew from the PBS station that makes the MSC special also does their homework. They come to districts to see how the game goes, what kind of camera angles they will need, etc. And they often practice during the qualifications at MSC so they have it down before we get to playoffs. Not that there's no issues, like the time a couple years ago we had to convince the boom camera operator that he couldn't put the camera in the goal mouth because it would block game pieces. But in general, they do a good job of preparation to get the production values high.

I think this is the kind of preparation and partnership Carolyn wants to see between SRE and FIRST.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

My perspective was from the Information Booth, aka, the crossroads of the worlds. Over the past 5 years - I believe I have heard every question there is out there dealing with team questions, volunteer questions, spectator questions, family questions, venue questions, first aid questions, and FIRST program questions (on and on).

We invite spectators in. We advertise the event at every Metro link stop and throughout St. Louis. Bring the kids! See robots!

Well...maybe. On Sat. at noon badging was packed up and moved out. But the throngs of people and lots and lots of kids came pouring in. We invited them! But think about this. What is there for them to do on Sat. afternoon.? FLL was closed. The pits were closed to the public. The Innovation Faire closed at 2. And FRC, if you found your way to the Dome - was it a 2 hour break???The Student Ambassadors were also packed up. And Union Station was shutting down.

What are we showing exactly?

And it was interesting that badging, which was SUCH A PRIORITY, on all the other days, causing some mentors and teams to stand in horrible lines on Wed. for 2+ hours (until it was decided to call off the required badging, BUT required to resume on Thurs - so teams would not miss the 5pm drivers meeting) and then it took at least 5 minutes to fill in the information for each badge, print it out, put in in the sleeve, put on the lanyard if the person is not pre-registered. But suddenly it become a non-priority on Sat. at noon. Boom. BUT how does that information get out to all house people so they know the change in status and that badges were no longer needed? It was a bit bumpy.

And suddenly, how do the VIPs get badges, and find their way to the VIP area and get access?

So the volunteers in the Info Booth are doing our best to give out the right info, and come up with suggested activities and actions and explaining what FIRST is.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

He did not talk for two hours. It was closer to 25 minutes.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

While we're talking about AV...

I'm not sure how other fields were, but it seemed like every day when we came in the volume of the sound effects and MCs on Galileo were unreasonably loud. I had to go down stadium-side and get a volunteer's attention and ask them if they could ask the audio guy to turn it down several times, and frequently it seemed as if they did nothing. I heard numerous complaints from students, parents, and friends on our team and others around us.

Aside from the volume issues, there were several times when an MC's mic was clearly left on while they were trying to carry on a conversation at the side of the field mid-match, which didn't combine well with the GA calling the match and music playing. I mostly only heard snippets of Mark Leon talking about outer space (which is welcome any other time), but it was very distracting. The timing of music being turned on fairly consistently for the last 1/3rd or so of several subdivision awards speeches Saturday was also irritating. If we're trying to celebrate what teams are doing, it'd be great if we could hear what the awards were for.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

We got many reports at the "crossroads of the worlds" re: sound levels esp. on Galileo. They were all reported. It appears this was a struggle over many days.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

I think that it was demotivating for teams that worked hard all year to find that the divisions were combined and fewer awards were given. There should have be an EI, an Control, etc.. for each division.

I was also disappointed that the game was essentially a FLL game on steroids with no interaction between field halves, no strategy or opportunity for defense, etc... I personally feel that watching this game was on par to watching paint dry.

FIRST is an extremely expensive activity and I feel that teams deserve a better game than one that seems like an afterthought or teams should have a 48 hour period after kickoff to request a refund. Maybe then the GDC will come up with a game that teams would be able compete on a various levels.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

I was going to say something similar. For the other aspects the SRE people know what needs to be done and have done it before. However for the video you really need someone behind the camera and switcher who knows/plays the game and shows what they would want to see which most of the time will be what the audience wants to see. Sure there will always be cases where that big play is missed because they can't have a camera focused on every robot all of the time.

Of course in the PNW district the district volunteers and staff run every aspect of the production at the district events. At the DCMP a production company is hired and they provide the lighting and audio though the video and streaming was done by some of the same people who handled it at the district events.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Seems like there is a recurring theme here that no one has flat out said yet:
FIRST dropped the ball with communication this year.

From not knowing what the badges were, or when i needed them, or where to get them.
The last minute 2 championship announcement.
Poor communication about what was going on in the arena and when.
So many aspects of this year could have been improved with better communicate on FIRSTs part.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

From what I could tell, a team would need to check all of the following in order to know all of the available information about the Championship:

• FRC Administrative Manual
• FRC Game Manual
• Championship A-to-Z Guide
• FRC Championship Event page
• FIRST Championship web site
• FRC Blog
• Team e-mail blasts
• FIRST social media accounts
• Documents in the team registration packet
• Pit Admin announcements
• Explanations from volunteers

It seemed that most (but certainly not all) of the information was out there somewhere, but it was in so many places (and in some cases made available so last-minute) that most teams couldn't keep up with them all, and some teams don't even know everywhere to look.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

Don't forget the app. It had the conference times, but lacked team divisions and pit area locations, and often crashed or didn't load properly.

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

that's why we do our obnoxiously loud cheering from the back :P

Re: 2015 Lessons Learned: The Negative
 

^THIS^

Even as a veteran of FRC, the shear amount of communications/announcements, to-do list items, and media to follow were astronomical. To keep up with all that, on top of running a team and building a robot was daunting for a first year coach...