Re: MILWAUKEE TABLE TOP TOOLS BANNED?
 

A large factor in the issue at hand might possibly be the precision of language used in the communication of rules, questions about the rules, and the responses to such questions. A lot of work and effort on the part of the GDC go into the creation of the rules, and I admire the dedication involved herein. However, the rules are often, and inconsistently, imprecise linguistically, and ultimately a plea for clarification is made. Such requests vary in precision, some many times more meticulously precise than the rules themselves, and others written hurriedly in the chaos that we have come to love known as "build season". Responses, as I see the situation, could be handled in a number of ways, but I shall spare the details. The current responses appear to follow a procedure that starts by assuming the question was posed with immaculate precision. The next step is to respond to the question in terms of exactly what the precisely interpreted question appeared to be asking with rather imprecise language, often defaulting to restating the rule and clarifying nothing.

I do not know whether the GDC falsely believes that it is maintaining an intimidating atmosphere of mystery or otherwise, but it is incredibly inefficient. In the future, I hope that the GDC realizes that requests for clarification are indicators of genuine misunderstanding or concern and that simply restating the rules is not always sufficient. Sometimes the person asking for clarification needs to be directed to something they were overlooking (in this case, what a "mobile machine shop" is NOT would have possibly helped). Other times, especially when multiple people ask for clarification, the rule is broken, not simply misread, and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up to more precisely communicate the rule (I'm looking at you bumper perimeter definition, <G31>, and <G32> [the last two have simply become too cumbersome and complex])
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I'm too tired, and merciful, to continue rambling now, but I hope to return later to write my point in a more coherent manner.

Re: MILWAUKEE TABLE TOP TOOLS BANNED?
 

Ha ha - you guys are so lucky. Try having to FLY to get to ANY regional. Even the boxes of small hand tools and spare parts put the TSA folks into a tizzy. One of our tool tubs (we use those large rubbermaid containers) was singled out for "special inspection" when we went to our local VEX regional (one island away), and didn't make it onto the plane with us.

We want to bring a cart for our robot to the Hawaii regional on Oahu, it weighs 80 lbs. (it's a really nice cart...), so we have to make special arrangements for air cargo to ship it and then pick it up when we get there.

Bring a table-top drill press? Wow. It would be so cool to have a regional competition on our island.

Re: MILWAUKEE TABLE TOP TOOLS BANNED?
 

Imagine all the international teams have to go through customs!

Re: MILWAUKEE TABLE TOP TOOLS BANNED?
 

Okay, it's been a week and I have had a chance to calm down.......
I am the Chairman of the Wisconsin Regional Planning Committee and was involved in the table top tools and ladder usage issue. The decisions made were not made by committee members. They were made by the Event Manager (who told us he got the edict from FIRST). We had the rule book with us and argued our (your) case. We were told to tell the teams NO to both the table top tools and the ladders. We (the committee members involved) were certain this was the wrong decision but there was nothing we could do. Please remember we too have teams competing. This decision affected our teams as well. None of us were happy and I apologize for any inconvenience it caused. As Al stated, FIRST has been apprised of the issue and will hopefully address it so that it isn't a problem at other regionals.