Handouts at Competitions
 

"Do not sell any products. This includes food, hats, shirts, or any promotional products.
Do not give out any free products, such as candy, water, soft drinks, or fruit. You may
trade team pins, however."

What do other teams think about this? Is this rule effective for regionals as well as nationals, or just regionals? Personally, this being my first year in FIRST (no pun intended, we're a rookie team), I was looking foreward to brainstorming ideas of items to hand out at competition, and to seeing what cool ideas other teams came up with to give out at competitions. Was there a big hassle over this last year? Just thought I'd try and get some feedback on this


BTW thanks to ahecht for pointing this out!

omg wth teams were always aloud to give out items in the past. that was fun!!!

They probly dont want to clean and items left. Also people shouldnt sell stuff at the regionals its not there competition.

-Tton

I know teams passed out candy and stuff. One of the Hawaiian teams at SVR last year passed out chocloate covered Macademia nuts. At Nats, I know that multiple teams were passing out small bags of candy. I dont believe that any of these teams were ever asked to stop.

Cory

Can someone show me where the official document is posted?

Personally, I think it's a bit frustrating. Many teams have done tasteful (both in flavor and in style) alternitives to buttons and they were undestructive.

For the most part, the 'no candy, water, soft drinks, fruit' is there to prevent additional littering in team areas and make teams buy from the concession stands at the venues. I would be happy with this ruling if the venues provided reasonably priced food. On the other hand, I do see how some teams have created problems with their handouts. 2 years ago, 247 ('da Bears) had gummi bears. These were a huge hit with all the teams, but, some people missed their mouths when eating them and didn't pick them up off the floor. I can only assume that this was a sticky mess for the janitorial staff. Then again, some things aren't outlawed that possibly should be, such as bubbles.

Bubbles are fun, everyone loves them, but they are often spilled creating a large mess or small sticky spots when they pop. These can be especially damaging to robots if a few people are having fun in the pit areas and are a little to close to another team's electronics. Soap + Electricity = Bad.

I don't have much for defense against the new ruling, but I will probably still have my backpack of good food when I go to competition(s) because I refuse to pay the overpriced concession stands

these rules were stated in the site info document for each regional

Everything listed in the banned list examples were types of food. However, it specifically states that you can't give out products.

So which is it, no food products, or no products (except buttons) at all?

Considering it is true for all the regionals, I would expect that the Championship site info will say the same thing when it is released.

Yeah...things other than buttons were cool. I got so much stuff from the Johnson & Johnson team that had boxes of products. :)

The rules for each site are on the 'Site Info' document for each regional, the list is found here : http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2003/rgevents.htm

All of the products mentioned as prohibited are edible. So I think inedible products are OK.

Sun Screen anyone?:D

All examples are food, but it clearly says "products."

Handouts
 

We will need to specifically ask FIRST. I see the rule as ALL items given out food or non food.

This definatly needs to be clarified on the FRC boards so that an update can be made.

The food ban is because the vendors at the competition make $$$$ off us to pay for the venue. When we bring in food they lose money.

I am sure the venue is pushing this not FIRST.

Sounds like were in for a good ol' time at the regionals this year!




Is that a non-sanctioned candy bar in your possession?

I agree that the people can make a mess with food. But this also makes hading things out at regionals more difficult. In fact some teams have a reputation for handing things out like the Bagel bytes. They hand out bagels. I agree and disagree with the rule. As far as selling things I wasn't aware of any teams selling things at regionals.