Quote:
Originally Posted by Amanda Morrison
After a day or two to take a deep breath and think back to this weekend, Yes, I do believe there were many issues at the event. But knowing that I could have done something about these issues, and did not, is weighing heavily on my conscience.
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Amanda, thanks for posting this. I'm relatively new to FIRST and definitely new to Chief Delphi. This year was my second year at BAE and last year was a blur as I was getting over the flu.
I certainly knew that there were issues with the game. It wasn't until closing ceremonies that I began to understand what was causing the field problems. And one of our mentors, who has been with FIRST for 4 years, was probably one of the people who others saw messing up. But a team member (along with another mentor and a judge!) helped him rectify his mistake. Thankfully, I never saw Verizon employees behaving badly though I did get great help from two of the Shepard folks.
This is a long-winded way of saying that perhaps because I didn't know that the events were supposed to work seamlessly, I still had a great time. I was on the new FIRST-er rollercoaster of despair and joy. Our robot didn't work, then it did. Then it crashed into the wall during autonomous mode. It worked again, and then a roller bar fell off in game play. In the end, we did as well as I could have hoped.
I know lots of people were/are upset that it didn't go the way it should. On the other hand, I'm grateful that BAE chose to fund us and the regional. Without their funding, we wouldn't have had enough cash to enter. Really. And to go to Boston or Hartford would have been financial distress for a lot of team members. I'm glad that we had so many teams come to New Hampshire -we got a lot great ideas and photos to examine for next year.
Is there any way that the FIRST community can work to make sure that everyone knows the rules? Obviously we can't predict problems like static build-up. What is possible to improve for next year? I'm willing to try to help beforehand. I know build season will be crazy once again.