[SteveGPage]

After this ruling came out, I took a look at our design and pointed out where we were in compliance and where we were not. The lead mentor looked at me like I had two heads. I told him "We either change it now, or change it on the first day of the competition. Your choice." We changed it then and there, while we still had the luxury of making the change in the shop, and not the pressure of a competition starting in a couple of hours. I agree that the perhaps the ruling could have been handled better, but teams were given the chance to respond to the ruling and make the needed design changes. So file this under "life isn't fair" and move on.

Adding to what Daniel said, so now we have a different issue, and one that has some degree of urgency. The week one competitions start in 60 hours from now. We have recognized that this year, more than most years (in our case, due to Snowmeggeddon primarily), we will need to be organized and ready to assist other teams to help get them ready to compete. We have communicated with the other teams at the Chesapeake regional to see who has the ability to help, and who needs help. My suggestion would be - get a bunch of pre-cut plywood strips and bring it to the competition and be organized and ready to assist as soon as you can. Maybe next year things can be done differently, but doubt we will see much movement on the change to this rule this year. Think of this as a major glitch, barrier, crisis, etc... and find a way around it/fix it/solve it. Who knows, maybe the GDC wanted to introduce some crisis and see how everyone responded? I know half the major projects I manage, that usually happens too!