Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregor
As easy as that sounds, it isn't so simple. - Who would supervise us?
- Where can we get access to a shop?
- Who would supervise us(again)?
- How would we miss school for competition, as parents don't like unexcused absences.
- What if someone gets hurt?
- What about insurance?
- What about storage?
Another huge problem would be figuring out who "owns" the current robot and material? The school does (in most cases), so we would be starting from scratch. We would need new everything, from a cRIO to plywood to aluminum to wheels.
And to make matters even worse, we have less than 4 months to kickoff to sort this out, and I'm sure there are many other problems that I have missed.
So yes, there are multiple reasons as to why teams can't run without school support. |
I guess I still don't understand completely but that might be a difference in Canadian versus US schools.
Whether the teachers refuse to participate in extra-curricular activities or not, the team's money is the team's money and can't be held hostage. Unless the team's money is primarily coming from the school. Even in that case, here in the states many school administrations (upper management) don't fall under the union umbrella: as a result if you were here in the states you should still be able to get your funding.
Not having a full machine shop hurts, but I'd wager dollars to donuts in the 3 months prior to the start of the season you could find someone to donate machining time. Build in someone's pole barn or garage is pretty do-able to.
Frankly, school absences are no big deal. It all comes down to a balance: is a handful of days at school (of which you'll spend thousands in your life) more important than FIRST?
Again, maybe I'm not seeing the forest through the trees, or maybe circumstances differ in Canadian schools. I think you guys can pull yourselves together, show some good old FIRST initiative and get 'er done.
Edit: It sounds like the threatened extracurricular strike is only elementary teachers and only one day, that's good news.