[Al Skierkiewicz]

Rich,
I am sorry you misunderstood the message. It is our intention that everyone that shows up (and some that we have to drag to events), play with the same considerations and standards. Every LRI that I have trained understands that teams sometimes get the rules wrong. This is true for rookies but there are teams that build a robot without any help, little engineering mentorship and no money. Every LRI knows this and adjusts as needed to allow the team to participate, learn and get the help they need to have a great weekend. If we don't make this effort, the team will not return next year. That would be our greatest failure.
As to the team you keep bringing up as an example, (please do not use their location or team number) you need to understand a few things to get a feel for where inspectors make the difference.
This team is a few students at a vocational school with no funds, whose sponsor gave them enough money to register and who has a benefactor who paid for their travel to Chicago. (Thanks to all for that) The team analyzed the game and using only what came in the KOP and what they could put together from the junk drawers at their school, built a robot. They had one Jaguar for the left side drive and one Victor for the right side drive. They hand wound a solenoid that acted as a clutch for a shooter they put together with springs and a belt. Their ball pickup was made of hardwood covered in heatshrink. To slow a motor down, they made a diode string to reduce the voltage supplied because they had no access to other parts. They did other things too, because it was the only option for them.
So here we stand, in front of a rookie team who has gone through their first season by themselves, without the benefit of an FRC mentor and not knowing that Chief Delphi exists and likely not having internet access at their school. What do you do? Well this is what I did, and what I expect all of my inspectors to do. You roll up your sleeves and you come up with solutions as they are needed. You grab people walking by the pit, you shout across the aisle to the team who seems to have a few extra students standing around and you go to work. First things first is to get them weighed and sized. It doesn't matter if they are slightly out of the frame perimeter if they aren't driving. So we work on that first. It doesn't matter if they are using a diode string if the mechanism can't be used. We get them to the point they can drive and we keep the students happy and working and knowing that all around them, the LRI especially, wants them to compete. They play a match and the alliance wins. They know they have a lot of work to do so they go back to the pit and the other six people start working on the next thing. The LRI (me) continues to speak to their adults and direct the work and gets them to their next match. And so goes the weekend. I keep the Head Ref and the FTA constantly updated so they can expect a different robot to appear throughout the weekend while we are working on it. Now here is the best part, the team never gave up. They watched at least six teams come and give assistance with everything from bumpers to software to parts. They watched as caring FRC team members who didn't know them, insure that they played. They never gave up because we never gave up. And even though they didn't win, we helped them have a great time and a promise that they will return next year.
So here is the only equation that works in First. First inspires students only if they are here. A student can't be inspired if they are not part of the competition. So we have to get them to that point. They won't continue to be inspired if they are not having a good time, so we get them to that point. We can't continue to inspire if they don't come back so we get them to that point. It is our responsibility to insure that students (and mentors) are inspired. I hope that my LRIs understand that and get the job done in whatever manner it takes. Building robots that compete=the opportunity to inspire.
So how do inspectors help with this process? I want them to believe they are a member of every team on the floor. They need to inspect for compliance but also help teams in need as if they were a mentor on the team. If they can't come up with a solution, then they turn to the LRI. If the LRI can't come up with a solution, they can turn to me and so on up the chain.