[Chris is me]

Team 2791 was at the CT Regional this weekend, and coming into Saturday we were in a picking position. We decided to use an iPad as a scouting aide in order to make our list and consolidate notes on teams in something compact and readable. I'd seen this done on a webcast and thought it was a really novel idea.

Late Saturday morning, it was announced that "electronic devices are strictly prohibited during alliance selection". Our team calmly went to the Pit Admin table to talk to someone about this. After pointing out that several regionals had allowed exactly what we were doing before and showing in the rules that there was no prohibition on cell phones or anything of the sort for alliance selection we were told "Well, they don't specifically allow it either so we can make the rules however we want.". Disappointed, we copied our list onto paper and proceeded to miss eliminations anyway.

We were told the intent of the rule is that only the alliance captain can be making the picks, with no outside information. Yet I've seen this happen time and time again with text messages, whiteboards, even shouting from the stands. We've done it before and no one minds. I've seen teams like 1114 use whiteboards. I honestly thought it was common practice.

So:
1. Does this rule exist?
2. Is this a rule decided event by event?