[JaneYoung]

The fact of the matter is that yelling should be the exception rather than the rule.

People in charge of getting the robot to and from the field should be responsible for being alert, attentive, aware. The people in the pits should be responsible for being alert, attentive, aware - and keeping their area clear. How much effort is really given to using common sense and keeping your area clear? In areas where teams gather in the pits, in large clumps - who is responsible for breaking that up? The individual teams in the area get rid of/eliminate their share of the large clump and, presto, it disappears.

As the weekend progresses, more people are yelling: people are yelling, "SAFETY GLASSES", "NO RUNNING", and "ROBOTS COMING THROUGH". Some of this is just silly. If teams are becoming flippant and walking backwards, yelling jokes, not staying alert, not wearing their safety glasses, or running, then they are well on their way to creating problems. Why do this?

If you pay attention to the teams who are consistently on the field on Saturday afternoons, they don't have a lot of time for horseplay or goofing around in the pits and neither do their supporters. They all have a job to do. If you wonder why you don't make it to eliminations consistently, you can look at the little things like how you manage your robot/time as a team, on the field and in the pits. You would be surprised at what you would discover if you took the time to look. Little things add up and become a general attitude.

The volunteers are awesome. The venues go out of their way to have as good a flow of traffic as they can to help in pulling off an event that starts and ends on time. A lot of planning goes into the pit area but, once the teams enter, they are the ones who have to take on the responsibility of keeping things going smoothly and efficiently. Unnecessary yelling and careless handling of the robot/cart and pit are not part of that.

Jane