[Kims Robot]

1. WFA... I have to agree with all of the people that mentioned the WFA award. I dont think many people knew it was going to be then, and it just seemed sad that our team was sitting there scouting and cheering for our field while the WFA was being awarded... It would be nice to at least wait until the matches were over. Plus another addition that would be cool would be if they could take a picture from every WFA mentor and put it up on the screen when they run the names. They have them from the FIRST Awards page submissions, so it shouldnt be too hard to make that addition.

2. Organization... for some reason this year just seemed a lot more chaotic than last year... we didnt know when our awards students had to be out, the alliance selection the same, the classes changed rooms and times/got cancelled throwing off our team schedule (yes we matrixed everyone into scouting and other jobs!), and our driveteam constantly felt more rushed than last year (though thursday & friday actually happening on time was nice!). Maybe give teams a solid schedule at the beginning, and hand out all 350+ copies if there are any changes.

3. Pit announcements... we couldnt really hear them. I was thinking maybe they could have a board or monitor in each divisions pits to place the announcements that were just made so teams can recheck.

4. Pit height... the rule FIRST gave out was that pits "SHOULD" not be taller than 10 feet. Should is not a binding agreement. We got yelled at several times by FIRST staff to change it... when we were really 10'6" (plus there were additional loopholes if you had signs supported by the structure but I will leave it at this). I saw many displays that were MUCH taller, and MUCH more unsafe than ours. There should either be a change to the rule to say "shall" or "must" or be a better way to check the safety of it (we verified that ours was incredibly safe when we first built it). We couldnt find another stepladder to safely change/modify it, and since our pit is the first thing we put up, it was impossibly for us to safely change it without hurting someone, or destroying our workspace.

5. Wrap party food... I still love that FIRST has a wrap party where teams go to hang out with eachother, but the quality has declined. I like the suggestion of just having a ton of different carnival type vendors set up and sell their own foods. They make profit and FIRST doesnt have to pay for it, and it is MUCH less likely to get cold!!

6. Alliance Selections... This goes for all the regionals and every event as well. It would be WONDERFUL if FIRST would do it after lunch... it would allow the scouters to finalize their data and actually get it to the person going on the field. We had to pass a piece of paper over the large concrete barrier to one of our driveteam since they were on the field right before selections. I think teams have the fast strategizing down, because you have to do it in between matches... it would be nice to give less strategy time and more alliance selection time IMO.

7. Food in the pits... I get the no food in the pits, but they do at least need to allow water bottles. Our students and mentors were constantly dehydtrated because of course the robot & team come before getting food or water. We finally stashed a bunch in the back of the pit but felt like hoodlems for "breaking" the rule.