Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

I think you missed Jane's post. Teams can't just decide to move tools and parts to someone's home. They may belong to the school. They may belong to a sponsor. They may not be able to do anything.

Still, this talk of an extension is silly. The only reason the extension was granted in 2003 was because FedEx was not going to be able to pick up crates on ship day. There's a difference between losing time 2 weeks before ship and an entire region being shut down for 2 days ON ship day.

Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

Excuse my misinterpretation :o


I also agree with other posts on this thread:

that the exclamatory beginning was highly unprofessional.

However it is true that some teams may be unable to do NOTHING at all due to the fact that most of their equipment does not belong to them. It is beyond me on what they can do. (I don't count complaining as an option)

P.S. Then . . . let it snow.

Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

Agreed. I think this plays in the decision not to give an extension. Basically, there is no fair way to do it. If you give a region (like the 'east coast') an extra week, there will be teams in the midwest that missed a couple of days calling foul. Also, there are some teams that will receive the extension that did not miss any days so they will greatly benefit. A blanket extension for all FIRST teams won't really make things 'more fair' as everyone would be better off. So, if there is no good way to make things perfectly fair, why try to make things fair? I would rather have mother nature be the determinant of who wins/loses rather than FIRST.

I also would be wary of setting a precedent if I were FIRST. What happens next year if there is a huge lake effect snow storm that only affects Milwaukee? Or a specific team's build site loses power for a week? Where do you draw the line? I think the answer is never putting the line down in the first place.

Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

If, for some reason, you physically cannot get to your robot to crate it or bag it before the deadline, then talk to FIRST directly. Don't come here to get anything official done; CD is unofficial. You still have over a week to get your paths cleared to get in to the robot work areas. If you can crate it or bag it, and FedEx or your shipper can't get to your shop, then contact FIRST for directions. They can work with you. The extension in 2003 wasn't quite enough time for some teams to dig out their shops, IIRC.

The best teams at the D.C., Chesapeake, and Virginia regionals (and any other regionals affected) will be the ones who got hit hard by the storm and planned and prepared to build a robot in a short amount of time, instead of complaining and trying to start petitions to FIRST to get an extension to the ship that runs clear to the regional. (Note: this does not count if you're from out of the affected region...)

[offtopic]By the way, I hear Vancouver needs more snow. Can't hurt for them to see if they can get some fresh stuff sent over from the mid-Atlantic...:p[/offtopic]

Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

When I was in high school there was a year we lost two weeks of build season due to a massive ice storm. We were sponsored by the local public service company and most of our engineers were linemen. They were out taking care of power lines and other problems. Somehow we still managed to pull it together and ship a working robot on time. It can be done. Rally your team and go.

Also, while I understand your frustration with your current situation there are proper channels for dealing with this. In situations like this it is best to contact FIRST directly. Ranting on Chief Delphi rarely obtains the results you're looking for.

Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

Well good news for teams building two robots, you can scrap the second robot effort and focus on your "practice" robot for competition...

Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

I'll still go ahead and try to post suggestions on what to do if you still can't get to your robot and don't think you will for the rest of the week.

Plan for what you WILL be able to finish on the robot. What changes might you have to make once you do get to the robot? What is worth changing? What is worth finishing? Can you compensate for anything? Can you finish anything during the practice day or even Friday of the competition?

Ok, so you may have missed your chance to plan for the snowdays, but you can plan ahead now for whatever time you have left.

Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

Folks,

[SOAPBOX]
Take some chill pills. :)

1) When I read the OP's post I was a little disappointed with the speeling mistakes, but I was able to discern that he was attempting to strike a comical tone, not an angry tone, and that he was not attempting to create a carefully crafted request. When you see CAPITALIZED letters or lots of !!!!!!!, please remember that not everyone interprets them the way you do. The world is a diverse place.

2) To everyone who suggested that folks in the mid-Atlantic should have planned for something as obvious as snow, well I'm pretty sure most did. However, this is a once in a hundred years event (actually the worst since records have been kept here, but why quibble). How many of you folks tossing rocks have plans that anticipate that sort of extremely unusual disruption?

3) As other folks have implied, when school-based teams with workshops in their schools are forbidden from entering the schools, who among the rock-throwers would like to guarantee to protect the careers and assets of the faculty and mentors if they encouraged students to travel on hazardous roads to reach the school, and then let them into it? Never mind asking who could undo a serious accident should one happen?

So - Let's take a step back, re-read that original post with our senses of humor turned up as high as they will go, and then ask if the Mid-Atlantic teams (or other folks in a bind) need any help we can supply.

I suspect that offering to publish solutions to basic kit-bot level problems (so that any team in a bind can assemble a useful robot before the shipping date), or offering to help design or build/assemble an extra copy of a "standard" mechanism (bumpers?) for a team that won't have time to build their own, will earn a team or person more brownie points than anything I have read so far in this thread."

"No robot [or team] left behind"
[/SOAPBOX]

Find the big picture...
Blake

Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

Please send some snow on over to SE Michigan, our plows could use the work!

As a few others have said, at this point, it's too late to have planned for anything. I also understand the situations of teams who work out of their schools or sponsor's workshops - historically for our team, if the school is closed because of the weather, we couldn't get in. It's also very hard to predict and plan for school closings.

At this point, there's not a lot you can do to the robot if you're cut off for it. However, you should know approximately where you left off. If it's safe to drive in your area, try meeting at someone's house to have a general meeting. Figure out EXACTLY what needs to be done when you get back to your facilities, how it will be done, and who will do it.

Oh, and if you haven't finished your Chairman's, Woodie Flowers, or Website submissions, now would be an excellent time to do that. And if you hadn't even thought about submitting for Chairman's, why not give it a shot now that you've got a ton of time to work on it?

Good luck!

Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

KARA SHUT UP! ;) Come up to Flint, the plows don't need more work, there is no money to run them.

Adding on to Kara's suggestions (that don't involve me cursing more at Kettering for being the only school within a couple counties open) If the roads are still to bad then simply meet electronically via email or conference call. Develop a plan of attack. Based on where you are at and what point you expect to get back to the robot figure out what goals you can do and what ones need to be changed.

Yes, bad things happened, learn from them, adapt, and get better.

Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

We're in Richmond and we've had a total of 2 school days in the past two weeks. BUT we planned ahead and met most snow days at our mentor's house and actually accomplished a great deal. Now, I understand that other teams have different situations (namely more snow in NOVA), but the point is that things CAN get accomplished during non-physical build days. Every snow day we didn't build was spent communicating through email and planning what we would do, CADding, addressing potential problems, working on awards, etc.

The reason I say this is that FIRST isn't going to give an extension and quite frankly, I would feel guilty accepting such an extension because we did get a lot done. I'm sure there are other teams out there who did the same thing, so it's a very hard call for FIRST. Blanket extensions always make someone mad.

Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

You had 6 weeks to build a robot like everyone else. If you cannot meet the deadline, dont compete, simple as that.

Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

little harsh dont you think?:ahh:

Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

I bought a brand new snow blower in preparation for this years snow. Here I sit, waiting for some snow to use it but none comes.

Moral of the story, buy a snowblower and there will be no snow days. :rolleyes:

Re: Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless
 

Hold up. So if my robot isn't ready in 6 weeks, then I shouldn't be competing? I feel like there's something wrong with that statement. Unfortunately, a few years ago, my team showed up at their first event with a box of parts, and the robot was put together at the site. They still competed, and proceeded to advance to the semifinals at the next event.

This year, even a box on wheels can be helpful to an alliance. I would hope that, by the middle of week 5, all teams would have gotten their drivetrain sorted out. If worst comes to worst, a team could ship their half completed robot, and fix it at the site, trying to make the best of a bad situation.