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Unread 28-03-2011, 22:26
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Bob Steele Bob Steele is offline
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AKA: Bob Steele
FRC #1983 (Skunk Works Robotics)
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Join Date: Jan 2003
Rookie Year: 2002
Location: Seattle, Washington
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Re: SBPLI Long Island Regional Disqualification

It is unfortunate that the error in your inspection wasn't caught until the Quarterfinals but nonetheless your bumpers were illegal.
We had a similar incident in the Seattle Cascade regional when a team came to the weighing station with a concave bumper and the inspector didn't know the rule. I was working the BOM entry table as an inspector and I asked the inspector to talk to the Head Inspector for Cascade.
Thus began an argument with one of the mentors on the team and several of us tried to show this mentor that his bumpers were illegal.
No matter what we said... he didn't agree... we quoted from the rules... and then from Q and A... where the question was explicitly answered back in January

see http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=16259

He claimed he didn't have time to read Q and A ....

The real point here is that a mistake could have been made which would have given a team a real illegal advantage on the field.
These types of inspection errors have to be addressed... lesser ones that really don't give a distinct advantage are not as important but sometimes seem to slide.

I wish your inspectors had caught the problem but they didn't (Judges NEVER get involved in inspections by the way... most of them don't even know much about the game at all ...let alone the robot rules.

In our situation we were lucky enough to catch it early and our team pitched in with materials to help them rebuild their robot to make it field eligible.

In the end I am afraid the fault must lie with your team. This particular rule was well questioned in Q and A and there was absolutely no question about its proper administration.

I know that in the heat of "battle" your team felt wronged. I am happy that you have apologized to the person you put on the firing line.... he was only doing his job...

In cases like this... put yourself in the shoes of other teams...If you saw a team taking illegal advantage of a rule what would YOU do?
How would you feel if some team beat you with an arm that was way too long? Or a team that had extra motors that you could not use...??
Would you complain? Some teams would... some teams wouldn't.... I don't think you can fault them either way.

I also don't think you can really fault the timing.

The fault must lie with your team... I only hope that you can reconcile to that and not blame others for your mistake.

I am not trying to be hard on you... you may take this situation and use it and learn from it... or you may blame others and not learn from it... it is your choice...

I wish things had been different for you... but what happened to you is precisely why I, as an inspector, take my job very seriously.

Inspectors are not there to not allow you to play... they are there to help you play within the rules...

thanks for posting this...
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Raisbeck Aviation High School TEAM 1983 - Seattle, Washington
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