Every year there are teams who struggle to meet the deadlines for one reason or another. It is built into challenge. Even if every single person involved in FRC could completely clear their calendars from Kick Off through Ship Date, and focus on nothing but the competition - challenges within the challenge would arise, of that I am certain. They are simply built in as part of what teams must grapple with, face, and overcome. I also think that those folks at FIRST who set the wheels in motion each year, monitor and keep a watch out for problem areas and issues. We see that reflected in our updates. We also see that in decisions that are made during the build season. It's not something we should take for granted.
When pressures mount, patience wanes, and stress is strong - CD is a great place to turn to for inspiration. The current threads are awesome and hold lots of humor, thought, advice, and inspiration. (118's latest video comes to mind.) The older threads also hold wisdom, thought, advice, and inspiration. One of the threads that I always look for sometime during build season that always makes me smile and realize the measure of a team, is a good one that provokes thoughts and soothes the soul.
This post in the thread is one of my very favorites and I'm grateful to Heidi for the beginning of the story and to Dave for the rest of the story. (Heidi's post is included as a quote in Dave's post.)While searching for this post, I came across some threads that were concerned with schools closing, snow, shipping problems, etc. Those challenges are part of our history in FRC.
Try not to waste your energy and time thinking of alternative solutions to avoid the deadline. Instead, dig deep and meet it. You can do it.
Jane