Re: Snow days are killing us
 

We're in the same boat as the OP, and we're right outside of Philadelphia.

The problem we're currently experiencing is that many towns have exhausted their snow removal budgets and aren't too keen on paying the amount of overtime required to clear many storms in a timely fashion, which leads to them waiting to try and save money by having the people responsible for Snow Removal on the Roads, and from Bus Stops do as much of the snow removal as they can during normal working hours.

Usually, 816's HS is very quick about removing snow from the parking lots, and when it is done fast enough we are allowed to go into the school and work. Due to District Policy we are not allowed to "work" elsewhere, and we are not allowed to come in until all of the snow has been cleared. (Work as in, work on the robot or do anything that is technically considered a robotics team meeting - though this doesn't prevent Programmers and Designers from working at home)

Also, our head mentor has a 20-25 minute commute to the school, my drive is anywhere between 25 min and 10 min depending on if I'm coming from Home or work, so it's often too dangerous to risk driving to the school if the roads aren't cleared - not to mention that most of our kids do not live within reasonable walking distance of the school.

I guess if we lived somewhere more accustomed to large snowfalls we wouldn't be in this position, but usually anything above 4"-6" is something that they'll close schools over. Also, we don't have the luxury of being able to use snowmobiles like our friends in Canada - though if we could, it would be awesome.

Re: Snow days are killing us
 

We're not too far from you - same problems but more access to a build space. Not much of a space, but we can get in. Be in touch (steve.compton@westtown.edu) if you want to talk through some ideas about assistance. BTW, first started my work in FRC by way of a Philly Charter (Mastery High Team 1394) robotics team I founded.

Re: Snow days are killing us
 

For the people who keep posting to "meet somewhere else" again, that is not the issue. The team also does not have many dedicated day-to-day members yet, so it is not easy to 'round up some kids and go build in a garage.'

As for politely asking the school board for access to buildings on off days, this is a city school board. A very large city. It doesn't work the same way at all as your local town's district. Personal contact is not very accessible and neither is working your way around the system.

Regardless, JJ, even if we have to end up finishing the robot at the regional, we have a huge line of support behind us. Don't start to worry too much!:)

Re: Snow days are killing us
 

We lost over a week due to snow, and more time due to not being able to get parts. We are nearly 3 weeks in and have not really started assembling the robot. We start assembly tomorrow.

If our robot works and especially if it works well it will because of the design and visualization capabilities of Autodesk Inventor. We are hoping Inventor is saving our hide.

.

Re: Snow days are killing us
 

Let me preface this by stating that I have very little experience with the school system in the United States, beyond that it follows roughly the same age bracketing and grouping as Canada, and they call their high-school years freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior instead of grades 9-12.

In Ontario, the school boards are run as a district level (this is a similar concept to counties in the states, some of ours are even called counties.)

Toronto is a special case. A number of years ago the area known as the Metro Toronto Area, which encompassed the then separate cities of Scarborough, York, North York, East York, Etobicoke, etc was conglomerated into the "Mega City". It all became known simply as Toronto. Those former cities and towns that got swallowed up are all still referred to colloquially by their original names, and even shown that way on maps, but there is no such thing as the Town of North York anymore, for example. This area is all covered by the Toronto District School Board. TDSB actually SPONSORS a number of FRC teams, as there have been many teams (led by 188's original drive more than 10 years ago) that have pushed them to support this fantastic program. TDSB covers a populated area of approaching 3 million people.

The school board that 1075 belongs to is the Durham District School Board. DDSB covers all of Durham Region, which encompasses the cities Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa, Courtice, Bowmanville, and Newcastle along Lake Ontario, and extends northward to Brock Township, which is near Lake Simcoe. This is a huge geographical area, and each of the constituent cities have populations ranging from 80,000-200,000.

Perhaps I'm not understanding something correctly, due to differences in the way things are done south of the 49th parallel, but I don't see size as a good reason that appeals can't be made, and pushed on the school board to make changes that are a good thing for the students. At the very least, you can hope to gain some insight as to why the rules are the way they are, rather than aimlessly complaining about them. Its much easier to work with a set of constraints when you understand why they exist.

Granted, 1075's success at dealing with our school board might also stem from the fact that the board offices, and our school are physically in the same building. Maybe my view is simply skewed.

Re: Snow days are killing us
 

I have a couple issues with the proposal you are making. First would be that for many teams in difficult situations, particularly in the south (Virginia, Georgia, etc.), snow storms are far less frequent. Thus, besides the fact that the cities do not have the budget to handle a large annual snowfall, people just do not anticipate it.

It will be very difficult to get a school board to change their policy in time for it to help any team currently effected by certain snow day rules. Most school boards do no move quickly, and they do so for a reason. They investigate risks, and logistics, budget implications before making what we may interpret as "simple" or "small" choices. On top of all of this, it does not make up for time already lost.

Lastly, it is important to keep in mind that even FIRST robotics must adhere to policies laid out by school boards. If a school's policy is to not allow a club to meet on any day where the school is closed, then the policy has to be respected. Some schools/teams have the ability to work a little more independent of school systems, but most HAVE to comply. We are not above certain rules just because we are a part of FIRST (not that I am implying you said that). Those rules tend to be in place to protect the school district and the people affiliated with that district.


I understand what you are trying to say, but it is simply a different situation because of the location. Every team is in their own unique situation, we need to be careful not to paint with such a broad brush when it comes to handling certain circumstances of the team.

-Brando

Re: Snow days are killing us
 

So far, team 2016 has had 2 snow days and roughly 5-15 people per meeting (out of about 40 members) because of snow and lack of safe roads to drive on.

Help?

Re: Snow days are killing us
 

By no means are we aimlessly complaining (myself and the OP) just hoping that FRC has the allowance again, that was cool last year. I too come from a team used to working around snow days, so I'm not concerned. We also have plenty of help around these parts.

I am not too worried though. Priorities need to be set once access to materials is available.

Re: Snow days are killing us
 

How much insight does it take to see the obvious? When road conditions are such that it is dangerous for students to go to school, school activites are cancelled. Period.

Re: Snow days are killing us
 

For better or worse, the difference here is that people are lawsuit trigger-happy, and often use it to project blame for their own mistakes (or random accidents) onto a third party. So there are a lot of rules made to minimize risk of accidents/lawsuits, which is why there are warnings on coffee cups that say "Warning! Contents may be hot!".

Re: Snow days are killing us
 

We lost another day today due to snow/school closing ....... that makes 12 days lost this season. I'm disappointed that FIRST is not offering any relief and standing firm on the 30 lb holdback allowance. We need help ........ not more pressure. Honestly, It's to the point where we've just about had it. :mad:

Re: Snow days are killing us
 

Its a long shot, but is there anything that you guys are really behind in that perhaps another team could pitch in and help you out with? I have access to a waterjet and would be happy to jet some parts out and FedEx them down if it would help. Assuming its not too much, I can sneak them in with a production run at work so all you would have to cover is cost of material and shipping. If there arent too many, I could probably work something out with material too. PM me if its something you want to pursue.