Re: Saving Seats
 

Bigger Pet Peeve-

Teams that stand up "down in front" completely blocking the field for all others to see. There were a few in Atl. who stood through their entire matches every time and made it impossible to see a thing from behind them for rows and rows. And that then required everybody behind to stand up too.

WC

Re: Saving Seats
 

FIRST is on the move. Growth and expansion are happening.
Dean's homework will impact next year and certainly 2008 in a big way.
Saving seats/seating/clogged hallways/pit accessibility for inspectors, judges - all of this plus more will need continued monitoring and changes. It can only improve with stepped up planning and coordination during off season. The FIRST teams by and large try to emulate GP whenever possible - having a safe plan for seating and hallway crowds, traffic flow, etc., in place enables the teams to continue to strive towards Gracious Professionalism, moving away from quarreling over lack of space.

.02

Re: Saving Seats
 

In Atlanta a team blocked off around 7 rows of seats and put caution do not cross tape on the sides. This I didn't like but unfortunately there is nothing we can do about that.

Re: Saving Seats
 

my team does save seats, but most of the time they are being used. also, we will let people use them if they need them; i have never seen any of my team yell or remove someone from a seat. the removal of teams before the ceremony was ridiculous. a few members from MOE and my team went over to get good seats in front of the podium and were kicked out for something about FLL, but that section was EMPTY for the longest time. and the standing up during matches, sometimes when our robot was firing in the goal like crazy we'd stand up and cheer, but usually sat down quickly..or at least tried. but other teams do need to realize that that team's robot is on the field and the only real way that their driver, operator, and human player can see that we're cheering them on and not just leaving them out to dry is by standing and cheering. just a thought..it's not perfect and i don't think standing up the whole time is right, but for a little bit should be fine. (we've gotten yelled at about standing up during a match AND about not standing up during a match to show support.)

Re: Saving Seats
 

I arrived at the location in question right after the confrontation occured, to watch my teams robot perform in its next match.

The fact is that there were many open seats available in front of Curie field when this particular incident occured, all of them providing a good close viewing position suitable for scouts. There were several rows of seats taped off with no one in them (an activity that I am not fond of), and anyone could have sat down in these seats without confrontation. There were also plenty of open seats.

Regardless of the rules, people save seats. People who would prefer to follow the rules can find themselves forced to save seats because everyone else does, producing a catch 22. It is not allowed in the rules, but it will happen anyway. This is human nature. When you run into that, instead of causing a confrontation, pick an open seat, sit down, and watch the match. It is usually not that difficult to find an open seat.

I run into "saved seats" quite often when I make the quick trip out from my support position in the pits to watch my team's robot perform in a match. When I do, I calmly explain that I will be there only for the duration of my team's match and there is rarely any conflict or concern. There is no profit margin in reading people the riot act with regard to the rules. If there is a conflict in spite of my being as accomodating as possible, I move to another seat. I almost never have to do that, and there is no sense in complaining on the rare instances when I do.

If you make an effort to avoid conflict, you are not likely to get one. If, on the other hand, you make an effort to cause a confrontation when interacting with others, you are likely to get what you seek. This is an important lesson to teach teenage students, especially those who are prone to causing confrontations. It does not matter whether you are right, or wrong, with respect to the rules. Causing a confrontation is not GP and we should learn to avoid this behavior, regardless of the situation. This is one of the things that we are supposed to be learning through our participation in FIRST.


Eugene

Re: Saving Seats
 

This year at the Arizona Regional we decided to avoid the problem. We sat as a group behind the blue driver station on the side of the arena. There was plenty of room to spread out and the view was not all that bad. When we competed, we went to the cheering section with the rest of the "fun bunch".

It was amusing at times to watch the stands in front of the field. Large blocks of seats were unused much of the time. Teams were standing and blocking the view of the match. We met several first time visitors who could not find a seat elsewhere and had a great time talking about FIRST and FIRST Lego League.

Saving seats is not right but after eight years of fighting, we gave up and had a great time.

Ken

Re: Saving Seats
 

Here's my beef. I didnt attend Atlanta, however I did attend BAE. I was formally without a team, yet I still am sort of attached to my former team and alma-matter. So I get there, and sit with the team who I've been on for the past 2 years. I got kicked out by a new parent who didn't know who I was, but it was very rude and the way she said it was inappropriate. I also think people who commute from the pits to the stands frequently should not be represented in the stands by someone's jacket or backpack. During lunch I approached a security gaurd and politely explained my issue with them, and when the team came back from lunch the gaurd had a nice converstaion with that parent.
We used to save seats when I was on 151 back in my youth, and we would save our seats per day, and when the next day came those seats were fair game. So we never argued or whatnot we were polite in our savings (We also had these neat seat back covers we used to use) But I agree with what the majority of you are saying, we should not save seats now that first is so big. I feel bad for the public who come to watch and get treated like garbage.

Re: Saving Seats
 

In previous years I seem to recall FIRST reserving a block of seats near the awards platform for team representatives designated to accept the awards on behalf of their team. I was working on the field for the full run of the competition this year, so I'm not sure if teams were told to send representatives to that section this year or not, but that may be the reason.

A number of years ago (Disney era), when an award was won the entire team would go up to shake hands with Dean, Woodie, etc. much like regionals work now. Given the mamoth size of the Championship event, it took an insane amount of time for team members to filter down to the stage from wherever they were sitting in the crowd (especially teams sitting in the back). As a result, a few years ago FIRST changed the awards structure, so two student representatives from each team would sit towards the front for easy access should their team win an award. With over 300 teams present, with 2 award representatives, that's over 600 seats to be reserved. In the interest of saving time given how long the awards ceremony already is, I have to say it's not a bad idea.

Re: Saving Seats (sit in them or lose them...no tape)
 

Here's a couple of suggestions for 2007 (as this "seat-saving ritual" seems to be more of an issue at the championships than at regionals).

1) Each team should mandate that 100% of their team IMMEDIATELY go to the stands and NOT "hover" around the pits at the beginning of each day. I know that the action is in the pit area, but it really doesn't help to have teammates hanging around. Doing that will create a good team spirit in the stands right away. Plus, the judges/safety people can't see your pit if 20+ of your own team members are haning around.

2) Each team should reserve their own "front row" for outside guests and actively be on the watch for families, young children and invite them to come down front and see the action. Definately the gracious thing to do! maybe even make-up signs "guests welcome" or "room available"...

3) Runners with match scouting forms traversing to the pits should have aisle seats and should NOT block/stand in the aisles. Also, in the USA, we drive on the right-hand side of the road, so people in aisles should abide by that traffic flow (maybe even tape some "up" and "down" arrows in the aisles.......my pet peeve was constantly zig-zagging left-right up the aisles while carrying the video camera, etc because people were coming down the "wrong" side of the road....Just a personal thing......

4) And....speaking of tape. I totally agree that teams should NOT ever be "taping-off" seats unless they're actively sitting in those seats. Use them or lose them or let others "borrow" your seats.

Yes, it's only gonna get more crowded in future years and we don't want FIRST to start to mandate even more rules. We can self-police this by coming up with good ideas besides taping-off sections. It's perfectly OK for FIRST themselves to cordon-off seats during the ceremonies for guests, award recipients, etc.

Hey, even better, how about having a "dignitary" section where guests for the currently-playing match can come and video/photo their match and then rotate-out with the next team? (not including the on-floor media rep.) There are lots of creative, positive ideas we can come up with.... :)

Re: Saving Seats
 

It would go a long way to open up the second level of the stadium for the entire event. One taim had a pair of binoculars on a tripod which made for excellent scouting from up high.

Re: Saving Seats
 

I understand the no saving seats rule on a per-day basis. For example, just because you sat in a seat on thursday does not mean it should still be yours on saturday. However, I do feel that this rule can be taken too far. Some team members will have to be moving back and forth. Even if my entire team shows up first thing in the morning, they will still not be able to park it there all day. If all my pit scouts come, put their stuff down, and go out scouting, am I to be considered "saving seats" if I am holding their spots for them? What if we have older people on our team who can't arrive early in the morning? Yes, only grab the amount of seats that you need. Yes, don't tape up seats and leave them there. However, if there were no saving seats it would be impossible for teams to ever sit together. I just don't think that it's logistically possible to have no saving seats. People will have to get up to do things and come back. Should we make the drive team sit far away from the rest of the team because they had to go down to the pit in the morning and we couldn't save a seat for them? So I agree that new rules should be made, but this could be taken to far.

Re: Saving Seats
 

Yep..we were running a huge scouting setup that depended on data from every match. Teams kept standing up in the middle of the stands and blocking the view for everyone behind them. This led us to miss data from a number of matches, thereby throwing our information off by a bit. Not cool in my opinion. :o

Re: Saving Seats
 

But...you see...there is the thing....called the Team Spirit Award...and I've never seen a team win the award when they sit down as their team is out on the field. My $0.02 about that.

Re: Saving Seats
 

Essentially you are telling us all to ignore the rules of saving seats. Despite the fact that we do not ignore rules about safety glasses, tape, and all sorts of robot and non-robot related rules. I think that many people who are reading this thread and many people in general would sternly object to this.

The fact of the matter is, if there were so many close and good viewing positions as you said, why could some of your team not shift to accommodate the scouts? There were no more than 6 individuals, meaning less than one half of a front row. Additionally, the team was just there for the match, but for the day. The argument that "we got there first" does not hold water in my opinion. Unless the team that is holding those seats has a full row in attendance, there is no right for them to deny others an ideal seat. There was simply no reason for you to not allow the scouts to sit. At the same time, if I recall correctly, there were not enough members of your team to make up the full row.

No one seeks a confrontation. If that were the case, I am quite sure FIRST would be no where near the level it is today. However, why do you suggest that there is something wrong with asking individuals to allow people to sit where there are no other individuals? The fundamental fact is yes, you may have gotten there first, but if there are empty seats, it is the right of other individuals to sit there. Support for your team is important and that can be accomplished by being as vocal as possible from anywhere in the arena =).

One last thing, as a teenage student, recently graduated, I sense a distinct level of disdain for members of my age group. We may be young, but we have all read the rules in this case and know the official stance. We are not boorish nor immature. One of the things that we are also taught in FIRST is to strive to be the best that we can be, which includes questioning when rules are not followed or not enforced.

Re: Saving Seats
 

You guys are one of the teams that almost didn't get scouted. If you must stand through your entire match, when scouts behind you need to see the field (and when bystanders, people just dropping by, etc. would prefer to see it), then please be as far back as you can get. Otherwise, you may be subjected to comments about "Lousy window!" from above and behind you. Team introductions and scores announced, stand all you please. Matches, sit down and cheer from a sitting position.