[FRC Blog] Frank Answers Fridays: May 31, 2013

[ehochstein]

Source - http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...idays-05312013

From the response we received to this new feature – 25 emails and counting – I think we’re going to have plenty of material to keep us busy over the summer. Several folks sent in multiple questions on the same email, even though that wasn’t necessarily the intent (I’m looking in your direction, Jon Stratis, and several others o\~/o ), but that’s OK.

As I said, I may not be able to answer a question every Friday, but I’m going to try.


The first question I’ll be answering is from Martin Regimbald, from Quebec, Canada:

Hi,

This is my first 'good' question to FIRST, and I'll try my best that it shouldn't be the last...Thanks for this opportunity.

Will the FRC kickoff really be on January 4th next year? This date, so close to the holidays, puts a large load on our volunteers and teams.

Students, mentors and volunteers are usually away (across the country, or even overseas) to visit family during the 2 week winter break and it is frankly difficult to mobilize most of everyone. Teams will travel to the Montreal kickoff as far as 500km, so they must leave their family the day before. Here in Quebec, school are not yet open and teachers are not yet back with their students before January 7th. Not to mention volunteers are not so incline to help so soon as the day after New Year...

Please, don't refer to lack of passion, devotion or eagerness...

We hope you realise that we are solely concerned by the respect we owe to the participants, young and adults, who deserve to rest and gather with their respective family during the due winter break.

Thanks for your usual consideration.


Answer:

Yes, FRC Kickoff is going to be on January 4th next year.

In no way do I take your question to mean you and others with similar concerns aren’t devoted to FIRST! I’m certain you are. This is an absolutely reasonable and fair question to ask, and a good one for me to answer.

FRC demands a great deal from its team members and volunteers. I personally believe this is a big part of what makes it effective – for individuals to grow significantly, they need something big to push against, and FRC presents challenge aplenty to serve that need. These same requirements, though, make it hard to fit in to our personal lives. There’s simply lots of FRC activity that needs to occur between the winter holidays on one side of the calendar and testing and summer vacations on the other, and our non-FRC lives continue during that period – at least they try to!

In FRC, we take the need for team members and volunteers to be able to have down time and make meaningful connections with their families and friends very seriously. The FRC staff has those needs as well, and many of us have been mentors and students on FRC teams ourselves, so we know firsthand how stressful and all-consuming the season can be. We try to make the best decisions we can regarding season schedules, given the constraints we are under. As a practical matter, if we were to push off Kickoff to January 11th, this would mean a shorter build season, because it would be a challenge for us to move the Stop Build Day one week closer to the Week 1 events.


Thanks for your good question.

Frank



Frank Answers Fridays is a new weekly-ish blog feature where I’ll be answering ‘good questions’ from the FRC community. You can e-mail your questions to goodfrcquestion@usfirst.org. Please include your name, team number and where you’re from, which will be shared, if selected.

Looks like we are going to be stuck with kickoff on Janurary 4th, unless we went down to a 5-week build season. I personally prefer the Janurary 4th start, what about you?

[EricLeifermann]

No offense to the person who asked this question but I have to say that based on who posted in the thread calling for questions, saying they posted questions, this question seems like one of the weakest and least helpful/insightful questions Frank got that he could have answered.

I hope he answers some tougher questions in the following weeks, I know I asked a really tough question, and I'm sure others did as well. But the tough questions are the ones that should be answered and not ignored.


TLDR: Could have done with a different question being answered. This one seems like a useless/Frank phoning it in.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

No offense to the person who asked this question but I have to say that based on who posted in the thread calling for questions, saying they posted questions, this question seems like one of the weakest and least helpful/insightful questions Frank got that he could have answered.

I hope he answers some tougher questions in the following weeks, I know I asked a really tough question, and I'm sure others did as well. But the tough questions are the ones that should be answered and not ignored.


TLDR: Could have done with a different question being answered. This one seems like a useless/Frank phoning it in.

Given the time he had to answer his first question, this one was the easiest to start with.

[Jon Stratis]

Consider two things with the questions he answers:
- Some of the questions are undoubtedly related to information that FIRST isn't prepared to release yet
- Some questions definitely require a bit of thought and effort to give a satisfactory answer


When you look at this answer, it's easy to see a simple "No, we won't move the kick off date". However, looking at the response, it actually gives much more insight into how FIRST works than that simple takeaway. Something as simple as moving the kickoff date has huge repercussions down the line. If you look at the arena's we play in, many of them are already contracted, and FIRST has to work hard to get everything to work out each week. Moving kickoff means either a shorter build season (which I don't think anyone wants!) or moving those event dates, which may not be possible, or eliminating time between build and week 1, which also may not be very good for teams that have to travel or ship their robot to a week one event.

[Tetraman]

Originally Posted by Wiifi

Source - http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...idays-05312013

Good question, interesting answer. It's a good thing to understand that one change, no matter how simple, has huge consequences to the current system FIRST functions in.

[JB987]

So...did anyone ask Frank about possible modifications to the build season/bag and tag access (per discussions in earlier thread about mentor burnout)?

[DampRobot]

Originally Posted by JB987

So...did anyone ask Frank about possible modifications to the build season/bag and tag access (per discussions in earlier thread about mentor burnout)?

Yes.

[MikeE]

Is it just me or did anyone else read into Frank's answer an acknowledgment of the recent Mentor Burnout thread?

[JB987]

Originally Posted by MikeE

Is it just me or did anyone else read into Frank's answer an acknowledgment of the recent Mentor Burnout thread?

An oblique reference of sorts. A specific reply would be more helpful...

[Racer26]

I don't even really understand why this question is being asked. Since I joined FIRST in 2003, kickoff has been the Saturday before the return to school from winter holidays. Its always been the first Saturday in January. Why expect it might change from that spot?

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Racer26

I don't even really understand why this question is being asked. Since I joined FIRST in 2003, kickoff has been the Saturday before the return to school from winter holidays. Its always been the first Saturday in January. Why expect it might change from that spot?

It's not always the first Saturday, as it's never been on the 1st or 2nd. It has been on the 3rd, but has also been on the 10th. Unsure if it's ever been on the 11th.

[KrazyCarl92]

Originally Posted by JB987

So...did anyone ask Frank about possible modifications to the build season/bag and tag access (per discussions in earlier thread about mentor burnout)?

Submitted.