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Originally Posted by jman4747
Okay lets see how eliminating bag day can help with what you listed...
1. Money - Reduced shipping costs
- Greater ability to get parts made as opposed to purchasing them
- More time during the season to worry about other things like fundraising
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Second and third bullet points, I'll have a harder time arguing, so I'll leave it at: for the third, you need to be doing that all year long, and for the second, "You mean we can purchase more parts that might actually get here in time?".
The first one, though,
you really didn't think through. Teams already bring their robots to competition. Shipping cost is minimal already for most teams*. So eliminating bag day saves exactly what again? You still need to bring the robot with you to competition.
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These aren't the only things that can be improved by this (anyone who can add to it please do). This isn't the only way to accomplish this and obviously technical tutorials need to improve and time management training has to come along with it. But now with more time overall you can spend more of it learning without sacrificing the draw of the program.
Finally I totally agree that FIRST needs to make an effort with engineering associations and organizations to improve mentor recruitment (add WIT and SWE to that list). I would also like to see that sort of effort in universities.
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I'll agree on the engineering groups to get better mentor recruitment, and I think technical/time management can improve. But the whole "people will be able to spread out the time" is hogwash.
If you can't manage your time effectively now, you'll be just as unable to effectively spread out your extra X weeks and still get your work done. Meanwhile, the teams that are being very effective already will see that they've got extra time to make better iterations, and manage their time well to get that done. And then there's Parkinson's Law...
Personally... I'd eliminate Withholding Allowance entirely. You get raw materials (unlimited) and COTS (unlimited), and have to finish your work in the pit/onsite machine shop. If it isn't in the bag, and it's fabricated, back to the shop it goes... I realize that that's an unpopular opinion, but that's pretty much how we used to play back when any given regional had something like 40-50 crates to move around.
*The exceptions here are the long-haul teams: HI, South America, China, UK, and just about any other non-North American team that's traveling to North America to compete. Everybody else can drive their robot, meaning that "shipping cost" really means "gas cost", which can be split with the humans also in the transport vehicle that needed to get there anyways. Now, just so you're aware, these teams tend to get their KOPs late, and they
need to ship their robots by a designated date just to make the tournament. So they're already at a significant handicap. Eliminating bag day makes that disadvantage worse--might even eliminate some of those teams, many of whom have a hard time on the field already. Just something to chew on here.