Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Van
Hello Again -
First, thank you to everyone for sharing their opinions. This is a very good discussion!
So, once again, I'm hearing that extending the build season will have the some positive effects:
1. Reduce mentor burnout by allowing mentors to schedule less frequent meetings - spreading out the same amount of work over a longer period of time. If you are calling for an extended build season so that you can reduce the number of hours you are working during the 6.5 week build, why not simply reduce those hours anyway? There is nothing stopping you - it is your choice - you can set your own schedule. If the 6.5 week schedule is too intense, make it less so.
2. An extended build season will reduce costs. No more overnight shipping, no having to build a practice robot. I can understand this argument, but it leads to more questions: Why not limit your materials to what you can obtain locally? Why do you have to build a practice robot? You are not required to build a practice robot, so you don't need to incur those added expenses.
The answer to these questions is "to remain competitive". That's not going to change.
While extending the season to reduce burnout and costs might make sense "on paper" I don't believe that in application it will come out that way. The drive to be competitive will push teams to meet with the same intensity for a longer period of time.
There is already a stop work day, and yet hundreds of teams have found ways to work around it - at great expense, but they feel it is worth it. Many have already admitted that they are in a 4-month build season as it is.
So, I ask the mentors of those teams: Have you found that you are less stressed, have more free time, are able to commit to the other elements in your life more now that you have already extended the build season?
- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox
PS - I miss the days of whatever came in the kit, extruded aluminum, 1 sheet of plywood, wire and Small Parts...
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Not to keep beating a dead horse, but with no end build day we wouldn't have to make a practice robot, which would save alot of money and time when it comes to our sheet metal sponsor. It would save the team alot of time and money when it came to buying spare motors, gears, wire, etc. Then having to put together 2 robots, then having to program and teak 2 robots(1 we have unlimited access to and can prefect and another that we have about 8 hours on practice day of competitions or 4 hours if at Championships to perfect). The overall quality of robots *should/would* increase if build season didn't have a solid end date. Want examples see VRC, FTC, and FLL.
Speaking on just 2826 if we had unlimited access to our robot this year would have been, I believe, much different for us. I believe that we would have won both regionals we went to instead of being finalist(I believe this because our auto mode would have been "perfect" and led to us being 1st after qualifications at both competitions) Our championship experience robot wise would have been different as well, not saying we would have done better in the elims, but I believe we would have seeded better in quals(again due to getting auto down on our comp bot like we had it perfect on our practice bot).
The fact of the matter is, is that no matter what the "schedule" teams are given from FIRST there will always be those people/teams who work harder and longer hours than others. Increasing the length of build season will just allow those who don't work non stop to have more time with their robots to perfect them, or those who do work non stop a chance to have a day or two off a week during build and see their family and friends or relax.