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Unread 11-07-2010, 18:20
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EricH EricH is offline
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FRC #1197 (Torbots)
Team Role: Engineer
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Rookie Year: 2003
Location: SoCal
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Re: To go to Championships...or not....

Actual debate on one of my college teams: For competition, do we go to Texas for finals, or California for spring break (lots of profs like to give tests right before spring break, especially during our 2-day travel window)?

Knowing that there is a conflict coming up, or a potential conflict coming up, means that plans can be made to mitigate the damage, if any, that that would cause. Even if your team is one of those teams that will only go to the Championship if they qualify, you should discuss this now.

Why now and not when (if) you qualify? Let's assume that you do not qualify first. You've had a discussion about what you want to do in the case of qualifying, which covers topics like time management and studying ahead--not a bad discussion to have anyway. Now, let's assume that you do qualify. Instead of trying to figure out who can and can't go due to tests and what-have-you in the 3 days you get, you know that, say, 5 students won't be able to go, 10 students will definitely be able to go, and 4 students are questionable right from the get-go, and can plan accordingly.

My personal opinion is that if you think it's not a good idea for your team for whatever reason, don't do it. Lack of studying for finals and APs would probably qualify as a good reason not to go to the Championship.

Bonus idea: Don't go to a third competition at all, and save the money for a) a second robot to practice with, b) postseason events, c) next year's registration, d) next year's championship, e) seed money for a big fundraiser (assuming that the school district or sponsoring organization will allow you to save the money, of course).

Now, about that dilemma I opened with: The decision the Aero Design team (who had that question) reached was CA for spring break, partly because we didn't want to have to make up finals, and partly because the weather would probably be better (and partly because we'd be on spring break as soon as we got done with the competition). Note that mid-semester tests are a little bit easier to make up than finals at SDSM&T, so that played a little bit of a role.
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Past teams:
2003-2007: FRC0330 BeachBots
2008: FRC1135 Shmoebotics
2012: FRC4046 Schroedinger's Dragons

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