[Al Skierkiewicz]

Catlin,
I would be interested to know what you found disturbing. No names please. Please PM me so that I can add it to my list of things to work on for next year.

Please be advised that as hard as we try, every inspector will not catch everything, every time. When you do come to a questionable ruling by an inspector, you do have the ability to ask for the Lead Robot Inspector to become involved. If there is some confusion on a ruling or an interpretation, then he can check with the Head Ref, FTA, myself, or Bill Miller as needed.

There is a reason that we inspect at every event, including Champs. Our inspectors are learning just like you. by Champs we expect to have the best available to you. And as you have experienced, teams do show up at Champs with things that do not pass inspection.

As for the BOM, the rules require you to submit it electronically, but it must be available to the inspector during inspections. You can do that by displaying the BOM in your pit on a laptop, the Classmate or via hard copy. We prefer a hard copy to the Classmate for obvious reasons. There are two reasons the BOM is needed. One is to satisfy Section 4.3.4. The other is so that First can examine what teams are using on the robot. If enough people are using the same item, First Engineering starts to think of how to include it in the KOP. This also may give them an idea of what items may be region specific. the reason you are required to use the First template is because they can extract the needed data from the electronic copy.