[meaubry]

I also want to point out that over the past 11 years of doing FIRST - I have had some of the very best experiences while helping teams that were 75% or less completed and far from "ready to rock out of the crate".

I seriously do not think that this "fix it window" rule is to assure everyone finishes their robot during the build, but then again, I have been known to be wrong before.

My point was that robots that don't move are boring to watch - almost painful and if the team cannot schedule 2 - 5 hour long work sessions to make/repair replacement parts or debug programs - the overall level of FIRST participation doesn't get any better. If a team can only schedule the group for 2 - 4 hour sessions, 20% of the opportunity to improve things is wasted.

With Engineers and Mentors working during the day, 2 full evenings (5:30 to 10:30pm) now need to be scheduled instead of being able to spread that 10 hours out and find a balance between, work, FIRST, and seeing the family. This puts me in a tough spot -
a) Honey, I know we finished the build, but theres alot of things that still need to get done and we can ONLY get them done in these 2 - 5 hour windows
b) Team, I can't make this schedule so we'll just do what we can and we'll get done what we can get done, let me see when the other coaches can be here and if the school is open that late
c) What fixit window(s)? - if on one knows, no one gets upset

If they wanted the project completed in 6 weeks - than JUST SAY IT - the fix it window rule allows teams to extend the build cycle for repair and replacement parts - as well as, and more importantly - for programming/debugging. Giving control to the teams for when the 10 hours is to be scheduled, isn't gonna hurt anyone.