Regardless of previous team shops that have been in "on site" it's possible that other teams shops are not. I know that my team's shop is a good 15-20 minutes from the Houston regional. If we offer to let teams take advantage of it, it's still a "team shop". It could theoretically be just a room at a school somewhere and still count, really. I realize here that I'm wandering from the original question, but I'm attempting to point out how this can be misinterpreted as written, as I see these discussions as opportunities for clarifying rules that can be vague.
As for making it available, what counts? Does it count if you have Pit Admin make an announcement? Do you have to put up flyers? Do you have to personally tell every team at the site and get a signature verifying such? These standards would apply to any other team provided machine shop, so I don't think it should be too restrictive. A good faith attempt to let other teams know about a site should be enough, really.
Quote:
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Specific hours are necessary to provide teams with equal work time. Please be aware of the opening and closing hours of the Pit and Machine Shop posted on the agenda you receive in your Registration Packet. The Pit Administration staff will advise you of corrected hours.
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I'll agree that this casts much more doubt on things, but it's not really a rule. This is a statement of policy that still doesn't really address when you can and can't work on the robot. It's a single paragraph in a section that doesn't deal with building the robot. Also, teams would still have equal time if the "team shop" was open to everyone and had its own specific hours. I don't think pit hours necessarily identical from regional to regional, so it wouldn't matter that this wasn't the case elsewhere.
At any rate, I suppose I'm trying to point out that the rule as written is somewhat lacking. I fail to see why it couldn't state that robots may only be worked on during the six weeks and during the official Pit times designated at each regional your team is attending, no matter where the work is being done. It's just as simple and is crystal clear as to meaning and intent.