[pfreivald]

As things have moved in the direction of "what would *your* team do", I'd like to state for the record the school rules require that any time any part of the team meets, the coach (that would be me) is required to be there... So it doesn't matter if it's the programming team only and I know nothing about programming, or if other students and mentors want to work with their groups in shifts, or a group wants to get together and make buttons when I'd rather be writing or reading or resting or doing yard work; if they're there, I have to be there. Every. Single. Minute. First in the door, last to leave.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I look at the blessing of the withholding allowance (without which our robot would not have done nearly as well as it did this year) with a certain amount of seething, maniacal hatred, whereas others see it as nothing more than increased opportunity...

------------------

So, that's a side note. What I meant to post was this:

What this discussion comes down to is, "what is the purpose of extending the build season?" And follow-up questions should be, "are there other ways to fulfill those purposes?" Pros and cons, priority charts, etc, etc could be made, storms could be brained, data could be collected, and multiple solutions to perceived problems could be presented.

I'm not naive enough to presume that any group of this size will come to full agreement, but if we all got to thinking about what the perceived problems are, and what the possible solutions to those problems are, then we wouldn't be going round and round about extending build -- because I don't think we're even to the point where many agree on what the build extension is meant to accomplish, much less the negative side effects such as mentor burnout.

For example, when it comes to those teams that build nothing of use, I think there are a lot of things that can be done to help them become better... The bot in a box, where teams leave kickoff with a functioning drive train, is a fantastic resource, and any kickoff areas that are not currently doing this should absolutely be doing so, starting next year. If you start with a drive train wired up with a control system on day one, that gives you six full weeks to make some kind of useful manipulator... and if that's not enough time, then I don't see how eight or ten or twelve weeks will be, because whatever your problems are, they're much bigger and more critical than time. And thus, extending the build season is not a viable solution to this problem--and that means that arguments about do-nothing robots aren't good arguments for extending the build season.

On the other hand, when it comes to elite teams spending unnecessary money on practice robots and expedited shipping, I think extending the build season is a much more viable solution to these problems -- and indeed, I don't see any other way to make practice robots and expedited shipping unnecessary (though I'm opposed to doing it anyway).

...but if we can't agree on what the intended pros are, we aren't even at the place where we can discuss whether the cons are worth it.