Quote:
Originally Posted by 1075guy
I don't understand why this is such an issue every year. 1075 is based in Whitby, ON (Golden Horseshoe, just outside of Toronto). In the now 8 seasons I've been involved in FRC, I can remember I think 2 snow days. Our area can often receive anywhere from 4-12" in a given night.
Now, I can understand when a freak storm hits an unprepared southern state like Texas, or Florida. They don't normally see snow and so obviously people dont have snow tires on their vehicles, the city and state don't have the snowplows to clear the roads, or the salt trucks to make them safe to traverse.
When northeastern states like Maine and Pennsylvania are closing schools over less than 12" of snow? Its ridiculous. These are areas that get LOTS of snow, EVERY winter, and they're still woefully underprepared. Why does this KEEP happening? Maybe FRC teams should be appealing to their state officials to change the culture, and improve the snow removal programs, because it is ADVERSELY AFFECTING THEIR EDUCATION. The future of our youth depends on their education today, and its suffering because of their poor snow removal practices.
That being said, even when our school board DID call a snow day, we were in the shop, at the school working. I understand that some school boards won't allow their teams to do this (which I think is silly, however, I understand that sometimes school boards make rules which are inconvenient to their FRC teams, we've had a few issues ourselves). However, what is to stop these teams for whom this is a perennial issue from getting a sponsor to support them with a build space which won't close due to snow (when was the last time you heard of major industrial companies shutting their factory for a snowstorm?), or even go so far as to build at a mentor or student's home.
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I think that you are underestimating the logistical differences in clearing a city like Philly and an area like you are in. First Philly only gets half as much snow a year as you guys do, so they have not spent the money to develop the infrastructure to clear the snow. In a year like this with unusually heavy snow fall it is extremely hard to stay ahead of the weather. Most of the North East has already hit their yearly averages for snow fall (in many cases causing them to exhaust their budget for snow removal) and it is not even February yet.
I recently moved from Upstate NY to Western VA. Their attitude towards snow is completely different. We got 3 inches in VA the other day and the Area colleges got a day off. In upstate NY we got 12 inches one night and classes were only delayed by an hour so they could clear the walkways. Having the investment in infrastructure to handle snow is key. I thought it was crazy that places here closed with so little snow but then on my drive to work it became apparent why, there were cars off the road everywhere.
Cars off the road in western VA does not have a huge effect on traffic. However a similar problem in a city like Philly (with ~5x the population density of Toronto) would be devastating). The obvious solution to this is to buy more snow/ice removal equipment. That just isn’t possible for most of these cities. They are already having trouble with finances, cutting sports and other school programs, taking more money away from other programs to help pay for snow removal is just not an option.
As far as missing build time because school is closed goes, all of the schools I have worked with (6 schools in 3 states inculding public and private) prohibit any meetings of school groups, even off school grounds during snow days. It is a lot to ask a teacher who mentors a team to permit the students to meet when if word got back to the school about it that teacher could face disciplinary measures.