Bag & Tag
 

I thought I'd post this in a new thread since the question has come up on several different threads.

I just got off of the phone with one of the Regional Directors. He said that the decision was just made (~1.5 hrs ago) that all events except the Championship will be Bag & Tag events.

Hope this info helps people with their decision making...

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

Re: Bag & Tag
 

For those new to BAT, NEMO has a white paper developed last year with hints to help.
http://www.firstnemo.org/PDF/bag_and...ps_nov2010.pdf

Re: Bag & Tag
 

I can confirm from our planning meeting today.

Re: Bag & Tag
 

This will be very interesting for teams that go far away regionals or out of the country.

Re: Bag & Tag
 

One year we got shipping for a crate donated by a local company. Cost them about $400 each way, by LTL truck. We had a company near the destination donate 16 square feet of their loading dock to accept the delivery, and rented a van to haul everything to the venue.

Teams CAN ship things if necessary - even robots.

On the other hand, renting a large van (like a Sprinter) worked really well for us in Virginia last year. Almost 30 MPG, and enough room to fit everything, with room to spare for 2 more teams easily. Less than $800, round trip including fuel.

Re: Bag & Tag
 

Cutting Shepard out of the equation is fantastic for us. If we ever have a need to ship to a regional we can take advantage of drastically cheaper shipping options and ship to a local team we're friends with.

This might be more stress for other teams who do not regularly ship things, but overall is probably a net plus.

Re: Bag & Tag
 

EVERY regional is B&T?

Re: Bag & Tag
 

Yes.

Re: Bag & Tag
 

So does that mean we dont get shipping at all anymore? Because like our team, our crate becomes our pit at the regional and we ship alot of our tools and spirit stuff with the robot.

Re: Bag & Tag
 

Everything you bring has gotta come with you through the doors, unless you qualify for an exemption

Re: Bag & Tag
 

I knew about this last Saturday, and apparently others did before me. It would have been nice if they at least alluded to it at the conclusion of last season. We just built a new fancy crate...

Re: Bag & Tag
 

Well, given how much shipping costs, it's not that big of a surprise. 10 years ago, it wasn't so bad to get all the shipping donated. With the huge growth of the program, though, it starts to become a problem. This way, FIRST can direct the shipping donation towards teams that really need it (have to travel a long way for competition, travel to champs, etc), while everyone else can handle things themselves. Honestly, I was happy last year when Minneapolis went to bag and tag - It seemed ridiculous to cost FIRST so much in shipping the previous years when we could load the robot in the back of a truck and drive it 20 mins to the venue.

Re: Bag & Tag
 

I fully agree on the Minneapolis stand point, I was really happy that we werent having to ship a 150-200 lb crate 10 miles... Granted storage can be a pain in some situations but the actual loading process was not bad at all.

Re: Bag & Tag
 

This is the case with us as well.
We dont drive to regionals for obvious reasons.

Our crate becomes our pit...................well, at least it used to.

Re: Bag & Tag
 

You may have known that they were talking about it but according to our RD who we met with yesterday, the final decision was not made until about 3:00pm yesterday during a telecoference call with all the RD's. Until then it could have still been mixed like last year.

I agree, they should have let us all know sooner.

Re: Bag & Tag
 

Teams can submit for exemptions, I'm sure in your case your would qualify.

Re: Bag & Tag
 

Incentive to now qualify for championships and use it?

Our team has always had to rent a uhaul like truck to when traveling to a regional to carry our pit stuff and luggage. Sticking a robot in wouldn't cost a dime more. Now that we have a regional in our town Sheppard has to drive past our school to move the bot from drainage to competition. The most inconvenienced teams I could think of are not the teams who travel huge distances(because they could still ship their bot), but those teams who travel reasonable distances in a rented bus. Luggage compartments fit pit supplies nicely, but not a 4 foot tall robot.

Re: Bag & Tag
 

We have traveled by a rented bus to bag and tag regionals for the past two years (DC and Pittsburgh) and we have never had any trouble fitting robots in the underside compartments. In fact when we traveled to Pittsburgh in 2010, we were able to fit our bagged comp bot and pit, as well as two demo robots and our robotics 101 interactive display panels, plus luggage. If a team knows the demensions of their robot before they book they should have no problem finding a bus that can accomadate their robot.

~Hannah

Re: Bag & Tag
 

Well being an Michigan team we have been doing Bag & Tag for 2-3 years now I think. We have time periods where we can access the robot after "The Ship Date" (a total of 6 hours I believe, 2 hours a day for 3 days or something like that)

Re: Bag & Tag
 

Yes, but the rest of the FRC world does not. We have a practice day at the event instead. Something like 8-12 hours in one day.

Re: Bag & Tag
 

Everything going bag and tag just made it a lot easier to increase the priority of obtaining a box trailer for the team as I'd rather not have to put a robot in a Suburban again.

We are within school bus distance of one of three Regionals so no reason for us to get a charter bus due to cost.