FIRST "Policing" at this weekends regionals
 

Ok, so one of the biggest rifts teams have had with FIRST this year is the new rule that only RAW MATERIALS may be brought to the regional competions, and manufactured items, even if they are exact duplicates to parts on your robot will not be allowed to be brought to the competition.

For the nearly 100 teams that attended this weekends' 2 regionals at VCU and KSC, how was this rule enforced?? Were they actively searching through toolboxes, bags, backpacks?? In other words, how concerned were they about this rule. Did any teams bring parts with them?? Were they allowed?? Or, if they were caught with a manufactured part, what happened to them??

I would appreciate all input possible as we attend the Long Island Regional next week. We had a critical component on our robot break on shipping day and just ran out of time to fix it.

Not much policing
 

At VCU this rule was not very strictly enforced, if it was enforced at all from what I could see.

Re: FIRST "Policing" at this weekends regionals
 

Just a quick point....this was by no means a "new rule"...last year, the same ruling was made that at the ship date, all construction, be it spare parts or new components, had to cease, and any additional components that needed to be made had to be made on site using raw materials you brought with you...

Also, I don't personally think that FIRST is concerned as much about smaller items, such as a new gear, as much as they are complete new systems. I.E., FIRST is trying to prevent teams from bringing basically a whole new machine with them to the first event. However, this statement in no way means that I agree with sneaking around the build cutoff/ship date to finish up things that were not done before the date. In my opinion, the limited amount of time given for the build is part of the challenge, and that challenge is negated if teams regard the ship date as "OK, we have to have something in a box and out of our hands by then, but we can still keep working on a few odds and ends..."

IMHO, how well a rule is enforced should make no difference to a team. Gracious Perfessionalism should govern their actions.

~Tom Fairchild~

</SOAP BOX> ;)

I was just about to say that as Well Tom.

All of our manufacturing stopped at the correct day...now we are just gathering our raw materials for the competion. I'm so excited about it. It's gonna be awesome!:D

[quote]Originally posted by Tom Fairchild
[b]IMHO, how well a rule is enforced should make no difference to a team. Gracious Perfessionalism should govern their actions.

~Tom Fairchild~

Yes it should!!!!!! But lets face it we don't live in a perfect world. Therefore FIRST should keep an eye on teams.

Machined Parts
 

What about the three-day rule? You can not determine if a team machined a part within the three days after a competition or not, so that you have to rely on Gracious Professionalism. I personally think that no team will take an advantage of the lack of possiblities to check the rules, so far everyone behaved very well.