Re: Uncrating Wed. night - unload pit stuff?
 

Ultimately all of us do follow the rules, but Gracious Professionalism has nothing to do with blindly/quietly sitting down and swallowing everything FIRST throws at us.

We all care about FIRST; as such when we see decisions that we perceive as not being the best for the program/teams/students, we (as a free and democratic society) have a right to voice our opinions in a constructive manner to help rectify what we see as a wrong.

Problems never just fix themselves because everyone sits passively and patiently waiting; it takes constructive action to fix problems. As such, your [sarcastic] response of calling FIRST and complaining to them is actually the best solution, as long as the complaining is constructive criticism and not whining for the sake of whining.

Re: Uncrating Wed. night - unload pit stuff?
 

I completely agree. This event is already hard to coordinate for the teams and now instead of being able to get part of it done on Wed night we have to cram it in on Thurs morning while tripping over everyone (10,000+ of everyone) trying to get into the event.

I am not happy about this and am also tired of something different every year. I think this is a big mistake from a safety, logistics, and timing perspective. Now we all have to get up earlier and plan to get everything unloaded out front of the hall. We used to have a 3 hour span of time for 333 teams and now everyone is going to be doing it at the same time. VERY BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stomping my feet. Sorry.

Re: Uncrating Wed. night - unload pit stuff?
 

Was there always a Wednesday night uncrating?
Or did that come about in order to get the crates moved out of the area so that load-in could occur on Thursday without having to contend with crates as well?

Do we know the impact of the recent weather damage to the event venue and how that plays into decisions/plans?

I'm glad we are all able to attend the Championship in Atlanta despite the damage that so recently occurred.

Re: Uncrating Wed. night - unload pit stuff?
 

My concern isn't so much regarding what happens INSIDE the building - it's focused on what happens OUTSIDE!

There's only so much room out there for vehicle access, and it does take time for each team vehicle, especially trailers, to unload its cargo. How many vehicles can the unloading area support at once? This wouldn't be nearly as much of a problem if most had the opportunity to bring the vast majority of their material in on Wednesday.

Maybe FIRST could make it optional to have team vehicles unload in the plaza up near Building B (for those teams who don't need to unload anything from their vehicles but people and a few hand-carryables) to reduce unnecessary traffic in the unloading area?

My other concern is the relative bottleneck at the entrance to the pit hall. You know, the rolltop gates of doom. You know how uncaring motorists like to zoom past everyone waiting in line in a construction zone and create a traffic jam right at the constriction instead of getting in line with everyone else well back of the construction bottleneck so the traffic can proceed through the restriction smoothly? Well is there anything we/FIRST can do to prevent such a bottleneck from forming at the pit hall entrance?

Can FIRST rope off the area and form a channel that runs well back of the pit entrance, or is that just going to cause traffic to back up outside into the sidewalk area? Thoughts?

Re: Uncrating Wed. night - unload pit stuff?
 

I think the old system was fine but could use a tweak. Not a complete re-design.
Positive point of the old system:
You have a 3 hour window to get 3 people in & out of your pit. No need to hurry, you can't work in there anyhow.
All of this occurred After Rush-hour in Atlanta so traffic was not as big of an issue.

Problems with old system:
People broke the rules, if you could bring in stuff, teams tried to work on robots.
People abused the 1 load-in system.

Fixes -
have teams police each other, we do have the capacity to tell other teams that "hey we aren't supposed to set up out pit" or "hey you really aren't supposed to work on your robot"

Create a no-mans land for entrance

pass this line & you are in ] no-mans land [ pass this line & you are out.

Positives of the new system.
Little to no gray area.

Problems with the new system.
You have to bring everything in the pit while you have 3,000 people trying to enter so they can get to work on their robots as soon as possible.
Most of this will happen during rush hour in Atlanta on a Friday.

Let's try & remember the mob scene when they open the doors on Thursday in past years. Now add carts, & parts, & pits, & tents, & this & that.

Someone is going to get hurt.

Re: Uncrating Wed. night - unload pit stuff?
 

One thing to remember is that many of the volunteers working in this area, as in all areas, are members of teams. They are volunteering to help the event/teams/FIRST - run smoothly and efficiently. Some of the factors that add to bottlenecks, confusion, and accidents are the emotions involved - tempers, attitudes, frustrations. If each team works to keep those in check and helps each other in that area, just as we've seen time and time again here on CD, it will help.

In a conversation with a couple of FIRSTers a couple of weeks ago, I think we decided that - maybe - 25% of the FIRST teams access/use/read/post on CD. Those of us that do can help this situation by keeping the standard of conduct and respect for the system that is in place, and the volunteers, at a level our grandmothers would appreciate.

Re: Uncrating Wed. night - unload pit stuff?
 

Because they hurt the majority of teams by doing it "their way" much more than having the rules changed where it's slightly more taxing for all the teams, but their kept from being "that jerk".

Creating rules like this is a juggling match between preventing teams from screwing others over and not hurting legit teams.

ANYWAY, I do agree with Travis, there's enough room INSIDE, it's the outside that is a pain in the arse to deal with (which then pertains to Dave's comment, when you have 10x the amount of people outside, you screw up others). I remember back in 2005 getting up at 5am to move things into the dome so there won't be a crunch, so I know the pain.

While I like this idea, if those teams that are breaking the rules are doing it, they obviously don't care what others might think and won't change unless Paul rides up to them on a Segway, holds up their match list and registration, and threatens to rip it into millions of little pieces.

One of the proud things 384 has had was our spirited mentors who volunteer at events, even when their kids aren't going. One of those mentors was verbally abused during loading on Saturday by a team we consider to have good relations with. We had no idea what went on, but had to bascially tell her she did right, and it just takes that one moment when they don't have control of something to flip out.

I'm guilty of this too a lot, when you are out of control of a big, special, expensive, and important situation you thought you had under wraps (you're team's bot is snapped in two, batteries explode, kids get sick, etc) and then that one extra thing just snaps the horse's back. I've seen that too many times in another form at Disney World.

Re: Uncrating Wed. night - unload pit stuff?
 

Early Pit entry started in Atlanta. Before that there were large parking lots adjacent to the venue. This allowed easier unloading without the traffic control needed currently. In 2004 early entry was on Thursday...remember the elevator line?