To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

There is a lot of talk about the problems teams are faced with due to the weather. Some arguments are quite compelling in favor of extending the shipping date. FIRST is willfully set in not giving the extension for understandable reasons. Hence, the debate has started. Do we extend the shipping date or not?

Please share your thoughts! What is the best solution? Do we ask FIRST to reconsider their position on the extension, or is there another solution we might consider--maybe more time during the “Fix-It window” period would be a fair compromise?

Re: To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

Maybe the best option is to enlarge pit access times for the regionals by a few hours.

Re: To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

Having had to cut Tuesday meeting short and then not being able to access the robot on Wednesday or Thursday kinda sucks. I would love an extension, but at the same time I enjoy the stress and real world application of having a deadline and sticking to it.

Re: To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

Deadlines are part of everyday life. If you were trying to win over a client would you like to ask for extentions? If you were the client would you give one?

Re: To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

There is no problems with weather stopping ship dates. Many teams have had problems that are far worse than weather (Flooding for example) The problem with extending the date is that the teams that did not have a problem with weather would have even more time. The weather has been unrully this year but FIRST'ers have the ability to overcome even mother nature. The teams should have their robot done before the 6 weeks (Even though most of us dont get it done until the overnight work-till-you-drop-athons on saturdays before shipdate). FIRST would understand if there was something that happened that would have caused destruction, but i dont think a few inches of snow would make them worry.

Re: To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

the only reason for FIRST to extend the ship date is if the shipping companies cannot make pickups on the 20th due to bad weather.

Re: To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

But isnt the slogan "Through rain, sleet, or snow".

Re: To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

I think that is the US postal service....

Re: To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

Well...then why dont we ship priority mail through them :yikes:

Re: To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

To add to everyone's weather comments, we have run a competiton in South Florida the last two years after the main playing field carpet was completely destroyed. We usually end up setting the offseason competiton field up at least twice. This year we will probablly have the luxury of having the competiton inside. Anyway the point I am trying to make here is FIRSTERS can make it thru anything and unless your shop is outside the weather shouldn't really be an issue. Pretty much unless there is so much snow you can't open your front door you can get to where you need to build a robot. Extending shipdate is definitely not an option though for obvious reasons. Extending the "fix-it" window sounds like a great idea though.

Re: To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

That is the only reason we got an extension previously. I believe in 2003 a Nor'Easter shutdown most of the Northeast. I think the storm hit affected teams at least down to Virginia if not further South and rather far West as well. They gave us a 2 day extension I believe because we got hit Monday & Tuesday of ship week and the freight delays made it necessary.

Re: To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

I think the nature of competing in a deadline means teams will inherently have various advantages and disadvantageous some expected others surprises, like weather.

Just a note about "overcoming" weather sometimes its outside of the FIRSTERS control. I'm sure the entire team would have been there on Wednesday when it snowed. District policy however is very clear if school is closed, no clubs can meet. In this case its more of a liability issue.

Re: To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

Quoted for truth--I can say quite literally that Mission Mayhem played through hell and high water.

If the weather is bad enough to shut down FedEx, I can definitely understand an extension from Manchester. Unless and until that happens, however, I'd expect to ship on the 20th and adjust your plans accordingly. It's just one of the unpredictable things about FIRST--students might miss school, mentors are pulled away by work (or exams), half the team gets knocked out of commission by a virus at the regional, the laptop breaks, your $??,000 field floods...but at the end of the day, you've got to pull it off one way or the other.

Consider 1902 last year. They were planning to shoot, but their college mentors all got hammered with tests during the later part of build. There simply wasn't the brainpower to get it done effectively, so they switched to a dumper. They adapted to the resources available (or unavailable) to them and worked it out. As I recall, last season wasn't too terrible to them.

Re: To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

We havent had many problems with weather. But, we had to go home many times because the school had to turn off the electricity to do some tests. And bad weather is expected this week. So, it will be tough finishing our robot.. I say that the shipping date should be extended.

Re: To extend or not to extend the ship date!
 

I see both sides here... the teams that have no other choice but to give up the time to snow days, and the fact that it would just give more time to teams that didnt have that problem.

But looking at the threads here, I've seen many photos (and our video!) that indicate teams are finding a way to make it work regardless of the weather. We had a feeling we were going to have an issue so we packed up and made way for Harris, and even let another area team work with us in our facility as all Rochester schools were closed. Other teams set up shop in basements. Usually Rookies may not know better, but veteran teams should learn to plan. From work I take my laptop and any important papers home with me at night. If I get sick or my car doesnt work, I can still work from home. Yes a robot is more difficult, but with good project management, teams can plan for snowstorms. Hurricanes, tornadoes & flooding are much worse... but a little snow never shuts down the northeast :)