[santosh]

Sorry for the essay.

I too got that error too on the site...

Okay, I understand that what I say here probably will not amount to as much as these amazing mentors and engineers and followers have already said.

Okay, I am in no fashion tooting 1002's horn. At competitions, EVREYONE knows about 1002's trailer. One of these reasons is becuase QUITE A FEW TEAMS USE IT. Trust me, I believe all we used our own trailer for was to lose some weight by drilling a couple holes. The rest of the time it was being used to help fix parts of other teams. Why do we bring this trailer? It helps us extend a helping hand to ALL other teams.

Also, it is the CircuitRunners, who are insured on our trailer, that are doing the work, not other teams. Yes, we know we aren't machinists by any means, but we are pretty confident that we know machine shop safety pretty well. I would much rather pay for insurance and would be more than happy to pay for insurance of teams with financial difficulties than to outlaw machining.

And again, what is the point in having a pits if this is going to occur. I think we looked at all of our powred pit tools and all we have is two drills that will fit under these guielines if they are set to power level 1.

How is FIRST to inspire struggling rookies and other teams when they're robots aren't working becuase they couldn't work on it during competition. It is a little disheartening. I know it is all about the process, but trust me, it is a little disheartening.

I believe the role of the Safety Judges should be expanded into Safety controllers. Something along the lines where their jobs are to make sure everyone is using these power tools safely. Not to just award teams from being safe. Maybe 1002 is part of the new gaurd of teams that doesn't fully understand what older teams are talking about in the shift in FIRST.
Someone please explain by either posting emailing me or pming me. I am curious.

Also, if FIRST wants to make this competition more like a sport, it is going to have to have functioning robots. No functioning robots = no exciting competition. Extensions of the build season to eliminate the tools in the pits would not work for two reasons. A. Stuff breaks. B. For many teams including ours for sure, the work left to do expands to the time frame given.

I am not sure why this occured so recently. We were asked to bring our Machine Shop Trailer to VCU this year (we did) and we were asked about bringing it to Peachtree also by people FROM FIRST and have brought it to every event that we have ever been to in the past four years and have not had a single accident or injury.
This leaves me greatly confused.

Also Mr. Copioli you leaving would not just impact your team, but many others. Trust me, when our mentors talk about the great mentors of FIRST, your name is always up there. In fact, our main mentor pulled me out of class to read your post. That is how large of an influence that you and your team have had on teams as far away as us. I respect your decision and fully understand that I have had absolutely no say in your decision, but I thought I would just throw that out there.

THIS IS IN NO WAY BASHING FIRST. It has provided an outlet for thousands of students to embrace their hidden talents, learn about engineering, and has pointed many at risk students in the right direction.