Sure he could lock it

or

maybe some people could bury the hatchet and come up with ways to stop thieves while still sharing the spirit of FIRST

or

we could use this thread to beg Dean to stop the visitors all together

I leave it up to you

Ok, ok

I dont know about you guys, but I hear more and more bitterness in each additional post. Lock the thread.

I think that we are all getting a little to emotional here. It is not FIRSTS responsibility to take care of your stuff, nor should it be. You just need to keep a sign in/out list for tools and just look after your stuff. And yes every team needs a locking tool box.

Security
 

Ok this is what my team does

First off the team is divided into two different parts for the competition Drive Team and Scout Team. The Drive Team is the only people allowed in the pits consists of six students and 8-10 adults 6-8 engineers. People on the Scouting team stay in the bleachers and are not allowed in the pits at the beginning of the competition they can go in the pits to scout before the competition starts. When we compete there is always 2 adults at the pit watching our stuff and like 8 adults up in the bleachers watching are stuff with the rest of the team.

One other general suggestion would be bring only the stuff you need at the competion with you. For example I've seen teams with like 4 labtops running around. There is no need for 4 labtops. In fact I don't truly understand the need for labtops in the FIRST place other than if you need to program your robot with it but that should already be done.

Anyways that is my little rant on this whole security issue

If you have a glitch in your programming (or all of a sudden, the robot doesn't want to work), then the labtop can save a competition for you. You know things always go wrong no matter how many times it works before hand. But you are right on one thing: you don't need 4 with you. One should be enough, and as long as someone has it with them at all times, you should be set.

Last year at Nationals, my team elected not to have our crate removed from the pit area. Instead, we pushed it in the corner and used it for storage. Every time our pit area was empty, we would take all items of any significant value and lock them up in the crate. We have done this many times in the past and have never had anything stolen (except for the robotic dog, but that's another story entirely....)

I thought teams were required to have their crate removed from the pit area? That's how it seemed to me last year at the Sillicon Valley regional. There certenly wasn't enough space to keep it in the "pit" area, and there weren't many "corners" to slide it into... How'd you work that out? I love the idea!

How did you manage that?
 

We would have loved to keep our crate at the Nationals and both regionals we attended. But we were told that removal was REQUIRED. So we kept our tool boxes locked when not in use and everybody was responsible for their own stuff. Especially the laptops.

As a side note, it is a good idea to have people in your pit at ALL times. Last year we just happened to have our student marketing lead on duty in the pits when the judges came by. Everyone else was out watching us compete. I'm not saying it won us the Xerox award, but it probably didn't hurt to have somebody who knew the robot inside and out and could talk about it confidently there. The judges were impressed by our concept, so we might have won anyway.

The judges, and other teams looking for alliance partners for that matter, come when they come, if you don't have somebody in the pit you are missing an opportunity to make a good impression.

Just another little tip from Team 330's "Unwritten Rules of FIRST"

Re: How did you manage that?
 

Last year at Nationals, my team (271) kept our crate in our pit area. We didn't move it, we just left it where it was. What ended up happening with that, was the table was in the back of the pit, and the crate was on the left hand side. There was a lil gap (corner) that was made between the table and crate and that's where we put our stuff (when there was someone around) since it was a bit difficult to get into and you would notice if someone was trying to take something from it. Honestly, with the lack of seating available, my seat was on top of the crate and that's how I answered any questions by scouts or judges or whatnot. It also kinda kept me and the interviewers out of the way of anyone actually doing anything in the pit. So, I guess it isn't required to remove your crate, at least we didn't.

~Christina

We've always kept our crate in the pit, not only to lock things up in but it also has mounts for a vice, drill press. ect. quite a handy idea, teams always come to use it. Crates can be great accessories to the pit.

Laptops, Crates, and Locks, Oh My!
 

1. Laptops are useful for multiple things: Programming, reprogramming, and perfecting programming. (Oh, and goofing off playing Starcraft, but that's a whoe other discussion...) They definitely should be something every team brings to their competitions. If your program has a button misassigned, there's a good chance you won't notice it until it counts, and it helps to be able to fix it on the spot. That's a lesson learned the hard way.

2. Crates are very, very useful to keep at your pit. You can lock parts in them and use them as an extra workbench - very nice.

3. LOCK EVERYTHING WITH MATCHING PADLOCKS! Make sure you have a padlock for everything, and, if possible, have them all be the same key. Give every team member a key and make them wear it with their SME card. This makes life a lot easier.

And here's a song to the tune of Opera Man's Concert for NYC bit.

Oh, Mr. Nick Renolds...
Why are you so angry? Can't you put the past behind - where it belongs? So, you lost some tools - and a laptop - but that doesn't mean you have to chew out every-one! Visitors are nice, visitors are great, but the way you portray them is that they are all thieves! Change your POV - your perspective - and take the mirror angle of your big long rant. Pretend you're a spectator. And you like all the bots. But there's a guy saying you're a thief. And you overhear it. Do you get ticked off? Yes you do, cause you're probably not! They're not all thieves! How would you like if someone called you one? You need to calm down and listen to yourself once in a while! Now I'll end my sond with three words: Lock it, Brandon!

Dan. Your last post was informative, constuctive and had some great points that would aid many teams, I applaud your post.
The song however was not neccesary and just full of non-sensical clap trap. Music and poetry is not your forte but up till then you were doing good.
My original post is totaly innocent and didnt deserve to be flamed on, it was my oppinion for security and a heads up reminder... Thats all.

Brandon... If you would like to lock or remove this entire thread then I have no problem with you doing this, possibly we should have a censorship team who would be responsible for passing thoughts and ideas prior to being posted.
Any Volunteers......:confused:

Hold it, Nick
 

Woah, Nick, listen to the song again. There is a point in there, and it's clear. You portray visitors as criminals, thieves waiting for you to step away so that they can take your precious tools and laptops. That is something that visitors are definitely not. Visitors are people interested enough in robots to come back to see how they work outside of the matches. They may even be more interested in robots than you are. You are a pathetic person, Nick, to stereotype all visitors by a singular hunch that a few people not personally involved in the FIRST competition stole a couple thousand dollars worth of stuff from your unattended booth.

ugh, this really is getting out of hand now. FIRST will not survive without visitors. and i NEVER leave any of my personal things of value in the pits alone. i will always give my digital camera to a teamate to watch. and the chances are that the stuff stolen was from someone not connected with the FIRST community. there are lots of JERKS in this world who would do something like stealing from a bunch of HS school kids.

LESSON: DON'T LEAVE ANYTHING OF VALUE IN YOUR PITS UNATTENDED
(sorry for the caps, it had to be done)

my $.03


Brandon, please lock this before someone says somthing that they wish they hadn't. :eek: