[Bill Gold]

Um. Am I the only person who advocates opening the kit immediately to inventory everything? You wouldn't want to strategize for a few days, and then open the kits, and realize that you're missing your robot controller, drill motors, a CIM, your light, and/or any other important pieces.

Ever since I took the reins of Team #258 in 2002 I’ve had our kids inventory the kit of parts as soon as we get back to our school. I think most people would agree that it’s a good thing to let FIRST know what you’re missing (if you’re missing anything) as soon as possible, rather than towards the end of the first week or later. Maybe I’m a little paranoid about getting parts because of some SPI issues in 2000 and 2001, but I would still rather err on the side of immediately disclosing to FIRST what, if anything is missing from our kit.

As for opening the kit corrupting peoples’ designing abilities… I happen to disagree with this. Just because you have opened your kit, doesn’t mean that your every thought is tantamount to “what am I going to do with this motor?” or “motor A is useful for x mechanisms, therefore it must only be used for x mechanisms.” Besides, usually when something in the kit changes, you’ll hear it during the kickoff, or someone will immediately post it on these message boards. I agree that strategy is best done without pegging a specific motor or actuator to a mechanism, but I don’t think that this necessarily follows when you open your kit before you begin to strategize. I think that you can open your kit, play with the pieces, and strategize all at the same time. It makes no sense to me to deprive your team from seeing the kit for any non-necessary (transportation) amount of time.