Rochester Teams and Minibots

[jamie_1930]

Hey guy's I'm involved in FRC and FTC and am very excited about this years challenge. As the team captain of one of rochester's two FTC teams I have a question for the local teams. If 3750 (Rush-Henrietta FTC Team) was to design and build Minibots for use by FRC teams would you be interested in buying one?

[GCentola]

It sounds like a good idea, but is it legal?

[Waffles]

As good of an idea as it is, it may be a little pushy in terms of the cash.

You could offer up to help build minibots and accept a donation as well.

Our team has discussed possibly connecting with all the Rochester teams to create an army of compatible minibots, such that we can all share really great minibots for say, the FLR regional.

The strategy with this not only benefits the COOPERITION bonus, but it's a great extra conenction point for our FIRST community.

It's also a nice mention that you guys may be one of the most experienced teams with FTC in the area....

[Alex Cormier]

There needs to be a lot of clarification about the bonus.

I find it ridiculous if teams are able to hand out a mini bot to each team at a regional and gain points that way.

It needs to be allowed in the match you are playing. only.

[jamie_1930]

Originally Posted by Alex Cormier

There needs to be a lot of clarification about the bonus.

I find it ridiculous if teams are able to hand out a mini bot to each team at a regional and gain points that way.

It needs to be allowed in the match you are playing. only.

From what I've read handing out minibots only awards coopertition points and the only purpose of coopertition points is to win the coopertition award. It doesn't have any effect on the actual competition, right?

[Waffles]

I think that the only way you can work with this in terms of collecting actual cash, is that you'd have to do it out of the Competition site, because no teams should be selling ANYTHING at the venues.

[jamie_1930]

Originally Posted by Waffles

I think that the only way you can work with this in terms of collecting actual cash, is that you'd have to do it out of the Competition site, because no teams should be selling ANYTHING at the venues.

That would be the plan, because we would have to have additional collaboration on deployment mechanisms.

[Tetraman]

You had me as this being a really good idea until you said "buy" and "on the day of competition"

What would be so much better for your team is that if you called up each of the rochester area teams that are going to FLR and arrange a deal with them. Work WITH teams to design Mini-Bots that would work well, and treat it as a Fundraising opportunity for your FTC team. Promote your ability as a FTC team and see if any teams want to work some cooperation deal.

Maybe call up those at FLR and see if you can set up a booth for fixing and repairing FTC components in Mini-Bots, for free. It will GREATLY increase your reputation as a team among FIRST.

Don't just use CD, they all have websites with phone numbers, call them up! Get out there!

[jamie_1930]

Originally Posted by Tetraman

You had me as this being a really good idea until you said "buy" and "on the day of competition"

What would be so much better for your team is that if you called up each of the rochester area teams that are going to FLR and arrange a deal with them. Work WITH teams to design Mini-Bots that would work well, and treat it as a Fundraising opportunity for your FTC team. Promote your ability as a FTC team and see if any teams want to work some cooperation deal.

Maybe call up those at FLR and see if you can set up a booth for fixing and repairing FTC components in Mini-Bots, for free. It will GREATLY increase your reputation as a team among FIRST.

Don't just use CD, they all have websites with phone numbers, call them up! Get out there!

I didn't say at competition and the purpose of this thread is so that I can get an idea of whether or not there is a general interest among other teams. Although thanks for the advice.

[Grim Tuesday]

We will be attending FLR, and although not interested in buying minibots, we would be interested in helping develop some sort of "international hanger bay" standard for minibot delivery. Having a robot with such a device couldnt hurt it, and is a true definition of Coopertition.

[jamie_1930]

Originally Posted by Waffles

As good of an idea as it is, it may be a little pushy in terms of the cash.

You could offer up to help build minibots and accept a donation as well.

Our team has discussed possibly connecting with all the Rochester teams to create an army of compatible minibots, such that we can all share really great minibots for say, the FLR regional.

The strategy with this not only benefits the COOPERITION bonus, but it's a great extra conenction point for our FIRST community.

It's also a nice mention that you guys may be one of the most experienced teams with FTC in the area....

The harley school of music actually is the more experienced team in the area, but we just finished our second year and have a pretty good handle on things. Also many of the people on our teams participate in FRC as well, so communication between teams should be easy. I'm sorry if the cash thing seems pushy, it's just that we don't have any sponsors, and in fact have always raised our money by selling niagra chocolate bars. There's the normal cost of competition and parts, but our school won't loan us a school bus to take us to Clarkson to compete so we have always had to shell out 1,000 dollars in order to compete (We can't carpool up because of school policy on parents driving for school trips). And I mean it's not like we're going to take the money and give every student on the team 100 bucks it's so that our team can continue to compete in our competitions.

It sounds like a good idea, but is it legal?

I didn't think about this and now that you mention it, it is illegal. Because we are not a VENDOR as defined by FIRST any parts we sell for robot use wouldn't be COTS so we wouldn't be allowed to sell them. However we may be able to write it off as selling our services, like a company that does powder coating or laser cutting or possibly just give them in exchange for a donation? Does anyone have any idea how we could get around this?