[Allison K]

Thanks for the replies everybody! It's good for beta testing of sorts. I'll have to make some edits and clarify wording for the final version, and then I'll post it as a whitepaper (if you run across this in a few weeks or more and would like a final version that I still haven't posted, feel free to pester me for it, extra motivation wouldn't be amiss).

On the issue of the water/laser jet cutter I had actually intended to say capabilities but it is what it is at the moment. Part of these types of exercises is to generate discussion so it hasn't turned out so bad the way it is. For those with the idea to sell it, don't forget that finding a buyer for big ticket items can take a significant amount of time and that attempting to rush the sale will result in lower revenue from the sale. I'll probably change it back to "capabilities" for the final but we'll see where this goes. Maybe I'll switch it with welding so that you can have a welding machine outright and capabilities for water/laser jet cutting? Perhaps I'll clarify in the final that if you have the machine outright you have to rely on your mechanical engineering mentor to teach the students to use it effectively (or add a line item for "A mentor with expertise in fabrication and machining") and if you have capabilities an expert will take your CAD drawings and do the work for your team (such as sending it out for fabrication).

On the issue of practice field vs. meeting space, I had generally assumed that the practice field was not an acceptable meeting/storage/work location (perhaps because it's a shared practice field?). Maybe I'll reword that such that the open area is included in "meeting space" and "practice field" adds the carpet, driver stations, and game elements.

I feel like in general there's a point of diminishing returns with these types of activities wherein it becomes overly complicated and takes away from the experience, so I'm attempting to find that balance where the scenario reasonably achieves the goals and hidden freedoms generate discussion without making it ridiculous. Additionally, I'm trying to write it to be fairly broadly applicable to the wide variety of FRC team management styles.

As is, there's inherent "unfairness" in FRC and I do want the scenario to reflect that such that individual teams can frame the exercise as it relates to their particular socio-economic situation. As Andrew Schreiber noted, teams from more affluent areas are more likely to be able to depend on the personal assets of their students. In the same vein some teams may reasonably be able to assume that individual families will be able to cover travel expenses for their children, purchase team uniforms, etc.

Pault - Good suggestion. I'll integrate that into the final version for the sake of simplicity to limit the scope of the discussion.

Allison