I appreciate all of your thoughts about the competition including the referees. OGRE has already responded to several posts about our calls throughout the day but I thought I'd take a quick moment to let you know what we did in Philadelphia to prepare for this past weekend. I have never posted before and registered today for this opportunity to share with you.
It is true that we are all volunteers. Some of us gave up time from work to be there, others took time away from their spring breaks or schoolwork and others had to arrange for their children to be cared for. Just like you, we have busy lives but believe that FIRST is an organization that is worth it. We did all have one thing in common. Each of us has been involved with FIRST in some capacity for more than one season. No one that came to Philadelphia to referee was new to the whole idea of FIRST. We had volunteered in various capacities before, been on teams, etc.
We met each other officially on Wednesday night and immediately began discussing the game. Most of us also spent the entire day on Thursday, watching the practice matches, going through the rule book, reading all of the updates and highlighting potential "hot buttons". We set up practice scenarios and discussed among ourselves how we interpreted the rules. We didn't end the discussion until we all agreed on a consistent way in which to rule. That included but wasn't limited to the type of paper we would use to measure whether a robot was on or off of the ramp!
We felt that it was most important that we have concensus among ourselves to provide consistent rulings. There is no official training course that we could take so we did the very best that we could and know that many of you realize that.
OGRE kept a duplicate set of scoring sheets throughout the competition which came in very handy for that scoring error that was detected. It was simply a human error that was quickly and professionally corrected.
There are few if any sporting events in which everyone agrees with a referee's call. This past weekend's competition was a true testimony to the fact that you all understand the meaning of the words gracious professionalism. However, that doesn't mean that you cannot come and question a call or ask for clarification about a ruling. It's HOW you do it that's important. The referees would have been more than happy to explain how/why we made a call.
As FIRST continues to grow, it will experience growing pains and all of you share in its success or failure by the way in which you support the organization and offer it constructive feedback or destroy it by tearing it down. You can be part of the problem or be part of the solution.
My congratulations to all that participated in Philadelphia. I had a wonderful time watching the competition and cannot wait for next year's season.
Good luck to everyone that is participating in Houston!