[tjwolter]

As a low resource team that is stepping up to be a mid resource team I say don't change the current system. We actually appreciated having a task we could set our kids to while the robot design was being pondered. We turned out to have some pretty good carpenters on the team. It's not as if you must have everything available right away. You made the decision to be low bar capable and built that first. Then take on what you think will be the hardest defense (we went with rock wall). Other elements came along in time but it is not as if the lack of a complete mock up field in the first week or two made a difference to us. And totally agree with not messing with late December/early January. We demand so much of kids and families once the build season starts.

Should kick off teams be asked to hand over their Field Elements? They still get the advantange of having done it once but would not get the immediate option to start testing with them. The local Week Zero events would probably be very happy to have them.....

Bag and Tag 'em?

T. Wolter