[sanddrag]

I was an inspector today. What an experience. The biggest problem we had was the Bill of Materials. Teams, please make your Bill of Materials if you haven't already, and bring it with you to each event. Even if you have passed inspection at a previous event, you need to present your BOM at every event. I got teams who forgot it. I got teams who never even made one. Please do your inspectors a favor and bring it with you to your event Thursday morning, and that does not mean scribbled on a napkin. An Excel spreadsheet with part description, quantity, price, and supplier is preferable. I wish FIRST would rule a little more specifically on this. Some teams spend hours making elaborate Excel spreadsheets and it is a disservice to them for the inspectors to accept BOMs that have been hastily written and are not complete and detailed. It is just as important of an inspection item as something like meeting the weight limit. But some time and care into your BOMs please. You will get out of this program what you put into it. If you scribble down your BOM real quick during inspection, you are not only barely meeting the rules, you are cheating yourself out of the quite useful experience of making one.

That is all, thanks.