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Unread 09-04-2008, 19:01
Anne Shade Anne Shade is offline
Maryland Regional Director
AKA: Formely Anne Bergeron
no team (FIRST Chesapeake)
Team Role: Engineer
 
Join Date: May 2001
Rookie Year: 1998
Location: Pasadena, MD
Posts: 254
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Re: Uncrating Wed. night - unload pit stuff?

Quote:
Originally Posted by dlavery View Post
We have to have this discussion every year, because every year teams push violently against the rules until they break. For example, last year the rules were pretty darn clear: "three people can enter through the gates one time, and bring in one load of material to leave in their pit. They can uncrate the robot and plug in battery chargers, and leave their materials to be assembled in the morning." Pretty simple and straightforward.

So what did multiple teams do? They "engineered loopholes" to circumvent the rules. They had three people enter the pits. Then they had multiple team members line up outside the entrance, and passed load after load after load of carts, batteries, tool chests, pits construction materials, their kitchen sinks, and their mother's kitchen sinks through the entrance to the three anxious team members on the other side. They created havoc for the traffic flow, endangered themselves and others as they ran back and forth with heavy loads in their arms, and effectively blocked the way when the Sheppard Services folks were trying to remove crates from the pits. They did what was clearly against the intent of the access rules, and then used the classic "well, the rules didn't say we couldn't do that" as the justification

The rule this year is pretty clear. And I am willing to bet that it won't be changed. Is it going to be a little more difficult? Perhaps. But all the teams that "engineered loopholes" in last year's rules have no one but themselves to blame.

-dave
Dave,

I understand that a few teams have broken the rules the last few years but those teams were in the minority. Why is it that the rest of us have to pay for the unprofessionalism of a few? No matter how restrictive the rules are, there will always be the few who find a way to get around them. The issue is more about the ability of FIRST to enforce the rules they set.

My other issue with all this is the fact that teams are finding out a week before the Championship that this major change has occured. Teams have been planning for weeks (if not months) based on the documentation that has been available since January and was used during all the regionals which allowed teams to bring in their pit materials during early load in. Why is this "rule" change being done just for Champs? Many teams violated the rules during week 1 of Regionals but the rule wasn't changed during the season... Why was this not published earlier to allow teams to prepare accordingly?
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Anne Shade
Past Teams: 132, 408, 608, 832, 1002, and 2377