if i recall correctly the announcer at philly threatned many times to send out the attack monkeys on any who wasnt wearing saftey glasses...i was almost hoping for the monkeys but of course safety comes first.

May I recommend everyone go out and buy some COMFORTABLE safety glasses. For the cost of about $10 you can buy a pair with adjustable sides and nosepads and an overall better form factor then those cheap horridly uncomfortable ( and constantly fogging) glasses suplied by most teams. A comfortable pair you call your own will make you much less likely to pull them off constantly. I have even forgotten I am wearing mine. Try checking out your local hardware store ( I got mine at Lowes). The emphasis on safety glasses varies widely from regional to regional. At KSC we wore ours but I never saw anyone asked to put them on in the pits, there seemed to be absolutely no enforcement except for the drive teams, and even that was lax (we were allowed to remove them in the staging area behind the feild). At MMR it was much stricter, with the MMR Safety Man going around making sure people wore them (humourously, he caught our sw guy (who was frantically programming some expiremental code on a laptop) somewhere between 20-30 times, to the point where he just kinda gave him a look everytime he came by, which immediatly cuase our sw guy to put his glasses back on). I honestly do not think we have a right to complain about how a regional decides to enforce safety glasses. It is after all their property, and they are the ones responsible when a student loses an eye. It is fully within their right to mandate we wear the glasses, even if they themselves dont.

Yeah. KSC was really lax. So was SBPLI. At both the drive teams all had to wear them, of course, and that was well-enforced, but in the pits nobody said anything to any member of our team - and we had a lot of people running in and out of the pits constantly.

Well, of course, at Long Island the monkeys weren't trained to attack. They were, according to the announcer, under the scorer's table operating the ScoreFIRST DB instead.. :rolleyes:

The monkeys hurt! :)
OW, with the claws and the HURTING!

the only person for guidanced I can turn to is prof. frink :
-"the goggles, they do nothing!"
-"that monkey is going to pay!"

LI was lax about this also but most were following the rule (in cluding me since my were wired on my body and I had no choice! :rolleyes: , I did get alot of "whats that?" though :D )

The constant reminders may be part of the insurance: 'we kept telling them, they chose to ingnore'. That type of thing.
That said, the spectaters could sit within 10 feet of the field at VCU, and I think there is a greater chance of stuff flying from a bot collision then in the pits. They still should be warn in the pits.
/me is still waiting on implantable robotic eyes.
Any teams want a summer project...:)

Safety Glass Nazis
 

The WMR was REALLY bad. Every time I took off my safety glasses to rub my eye I was tapped on the shoulder within 3 seconds to get a stern warning to put them back on. I believe I was tapped on the should about 12 times on Thursday alone (and that is not an exaggeration).

There were actually two guards whose full time jobs were to walk around and check for safety glasses. It was kind of funny to watch them as they went around to each pit and look closely at every face to check for safety glasses. Most of the people were calling them "the safety goggle nazis".

As a decoration, we have a stuffed one-eyed monster (from Monsters, Inc.) on the front of our robot. Just to make fun of the safety goggle nazis, we made a special goggle for his one eye. It looked just like regular safety glasses except it only had one lens over its eye. I wish I had a picture to attach to this post. I know at least a dozen people came over with cameras to take a picture. If someone reading this has a picture, please send it to me.

-Chris

At the CR, it wasn't that bad. They announced you to have your glasses on, and when you went on to the field, they freaked about it, atleast to our team. Eather that that, they didn't really care too much about the glasses....

I know it's kind of funny to be hitting on the "goggle nazis" but I have seen some pretty ugly crashes in the pits, on the way to the field and in staging that make me cringe everytime I think about what would have happened if the glasses were not on. (One cracked the lens of the wearer)
Nobody says you can't decorate them with your team colors or used colored (tie dyed)chums to keep them around your neck.
Al

At SV and LA, where i was on crew both times, the safety glasses rules were moderately enforced on the pits and totally enforced on the field. We had several near misses on the practice day with people out on the feild and accidently bumping their head/face on the robot because of gettign hit by a ball that had missed the goal. THe purpose of safety glasses is NOT to be a burden on you, but for your own safety. As an EMT, one of the things we kept learning and reviewing in EMT class is how sensitive the eyes really are. It does not take too much force to seriously damage them. FIRST would hate it if someone's eyes were injured in a preventable accident. So people, please do not rag on the "goggle nazis" or whatever you call them. They are there for your safety, are only volunteers and human, and only want the best for you. Besides, is it gracious professionalism to ignore the rules set up by FIRST?

The Bottom Line
 

The "Safety Glasses/Attack Monkeys/Goggle Nazis" discussion has been interesting.

Being a professional at DuPont, safety is ingrained in each employee. It is part of our job.

When the Miracle Workerz joined FIRST, one our biggest concerns was safety. I know that we cannot control what others do or even how FIRST enforces (or does not enforce) safety rules. However, what we can do is to teach our team members to act safely. We do our best. It is difficult, but it is worth it. We are constantly concerned about the personal tragedy and the future of our program if one of our team members got hurt during the season.

Think about it for a minute, we have industrial strength devices that we are working on for months. During the build phase, we are in a fairly controlled environment. Then we go to a venue where we are in a confined space with 30-60 other groups who are sawing, drilling, routing, etc. THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS ENVRIONMENT. The least people can do is to wear safety glasses. Yes, they are sometimes very uncomfortable. But losing vision in your right eye will be even more uncomfortable. I do not mean to preach about this, but we all really take for granted that no one will leave the pits on a stretcher after a competition. Teams need to take responsibility for keeping themselves and others as safe as possible.

I was amazed when I saw stream after stream of elementary school students and middle school students shuffling through the pit in Philly. Don't get me wrong. I believe it is a great experience for these youngsters to have. However, if one of them gets hurt, FIRST will suffer.

In Florida, please be safe. The Miracle Workerz will try to have extra safety glasses, but will only be able to bring a limited amount with us.

Let's hope we all leave the pits and the competition as healthy as we entered.

See some of you in Florida.

-J-
:(

I bought my own nice, comfortable safty glasses. I saw some at Home Depot, but did not like them. I found mine at (I think) a hobby shop. They where $14, but work like a charm. I keep them clean and I forget I am wearing them.
Get used to wearing them and get wierd looks at McDonalds and Chick-fil-A when you wander in wearing goggles.:D

at SVR, they were pretty strict about wearing the safety glasses. It got to be a big concern for our team, with everyone searching like mad for them right before each match.
Personally, I think it is a little silly to require the drivers/human players/coaches to wear goggles. How in the world can they get hurt behind that wall? It seems like they would be much more likely to get hurt on the way to the match, with the crowds of people walking around, than AT the match...
just my 2 cents

The thing that bothers some of us isn't whether you should be wearing them or not *that's a given* it's whether you should get yelled at for taking them off to clean them or to wipe you eyes.

Also, I find it oxymoronic to encourage non-particapants to go down and take a look into the pits and not provide borrower glasses for them.

I agree safety glasses are necissary, it's just the methods are a problem...

SAfety glasses at Nationals
 

It appears that FIRST reads these post! The way the safety glasses at nationals was handles..... was the best I've ever seen. Two thumbs-up for FIRST!

I didn't see any enforcement in the pit at all. The only time i heard warnings and such were on the fields before play. I saw many many people in the pits without safety glasses and no one told them anything. The pits were quite chaotic and such tho, so many random people walking in and out, so i guess it would be near impossible to patrol everyone.