Weather and Shipping Deadline Extensions
 

Greetings folks,
I need some advice from the CD community. Please advise:

the situation:
Over the past 5 days, I have met with my team for 3 hours due to weather. We have had 12" of snow Saturday and sub freezing temps for the vast majority of time since. (Before the folks up north say, "12 inches of snow?!?!?! that's nothing." remember, this is the south and we don't have the equipment to deal with this like you do.) Those three hours happened today where I got a polite rebuke from my Principal for having students in the school when the school is closed. With more sleet and snow tonight and more on the way this weekend, I do not see schools opening until sometime next week. We are a small team that works out of my classroom at the school. I am concerned that we will miss over 7 days of build time because of school closings. I have put a bug in the ear of my Regional Director about my team's situation, but I would like some data before I make an official request for an extension.

The Questions:
What is the history of weather related shipping extensions for FRC? I've heard it has happened before. Is an extension given to individual teams or is an entire region given a blanket extension?
I have seen threads on CD in the 2005 season complaining about weather, how bad does it have to be to get a bit of relief?

Re: Weather and Shipping Deadline Extensions
 

2003 was the only weather-related extension; all teams got 2 extra days. The teams in the Northeast couldn't even get to their robots, let alone get them to FedEx. This was because the snow was deep at that time.

Suggestion #1: Get to the school, and get everything to somebody's garage, if one is available. Build there. You have full days to make up for missed partial days...

Suggestion #2: Failing #1, see what the weather is like in a couple of weeks. Let FIRST HQ know officially (via the Regional Director) that you may request an extension, and see what their reaction is at this time. If it's a flat "No", you won't get it unless it's so bad that FedEx won't pick up your robot.

Re: Weather and Shipping Deadline Extensions
 

The last time the ship date was extended was 2004, and that was by two days due to errors in shipping the Kit of Parts.

The last time the ship date was extended due to poor weather was 2003, due to the North American Blizzard of 2003, when a storm dumped between two and three feet of snow along the entire eastern seaboard just prior to the ship date. And this extension was due mostly to the fact that FedEx was severely backlogged, and would have been unable to pick up/ship the majority of teams' robots on time.

In both of these cases, the extension was given to every FRC team, whether they were affected by the issues or not.


// That being said, I'm one of those northerners who thinks 12 inches of snow (or pretty much any kind of severe weather) is nothing. We see everything here. ;)

Re: Weather and Shipping Deadline Extensions
 

I believe last year, some teams in the the northeast their shipping delayed by 1 day because FedEx had a scheduling issue with their lift gate trucks. But you certainly couldn't plan on that and teams needed the FedEx documentation to attest that it wasn't their issue.

I know that teams have used off-site resources for building - machine shops, American Legion halls, a team in CT builds in a specialty car shop if I remember right and so on. Could you plan to move to a sponsor's site?

Last year, we received our cRio and driver station parts early. Within days, we had an ice storm and lost power for 12 days. We were on generator power but didn't want to trust the variable output from the generator. As people have said, stuff happens.

I hope your weather and streets clear and you can get back to work as soon possible.

Trying to Help

Re: Weather and Shipping Deadline Extensions
 

30" and counting since last night. This current storm is breathtaking. No one is going anywhere in MD/ (and probably good chunks of DC/VA) for at least the next couple of days. Even if places are open, there is no way to get there.
And another storm on the forecast for Tues.