[BB] San Diego Disruption

[Mr. Van]

Originally Posted by Ricksta

I sincerely hope that all the San Diego Regional teams have been personally contacted via email or phone regarding this, not just a post on a blog. The amount of "official" FIRST information being released via a blog is alarming. An email should be sent to each team's main and alternate contact every time a new blog post is released.

While Jon may have received an email, I DID NOT until just a few minutes ago.

I agree with Ricksta - Bill's Blog is NOT an appropriate way to communicate official information to teams. Bill's Blog should be fine for passing on general insights into the "behind the scenes" in New Hampshire, but using it for official announcements is completely frustrating. Any official FIRST communication should come in the form of an email blast.

As for the San Diego Regional, as a registered team, I find the fact that the days of the week have changed to Friday through Sunday to be a bit more problematic than the change of the week.

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Mr. Van

While Jon may have received an email, I DID NOT until just a few minutes ago.

I agree with Ricksta - Bill's Blog is NOT an appropriate way to communicate official information to teams. Bill's Blog should be fine for passing on general insights into the "behind the scenes" in New Hampshire, but using it for official announcements is completely frustrating. Any official FIRST communication should come in the form of an email blast.

As for the San Diego Regional, as a registered team, I find the fact that the days of the week have changed to Friday through Sunday to be a bit more problematic than the change of the week.

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

You still got the e-mail, and that less than an hour after Bill posted on the blog, didn't you? Complaining that it didn't arrive the second it was posted on Bill's Blog isn't going to get you anywhere... I've seen e-mails I've sent to people take well over an hour to arrive before, due to circumstances completely out of my control.

I think people need to chill a little here... FIRST is trying to use multiple avenues to communicate with teams - they aren't just throwing everything up on Bill's Blog. Something like this doesn't really deserve an e-mail blast to all FRC teams - there are around 2k teams, and this change affects what, maybe 50 of them? By posting about it on Bill's Blog AND e-mailing those teams directly affected, FIRST knows those teams signed up for the event are aware of the issue, and they get a broader audience to be aware of it in case other teams want to change their plans. It wouldn't surprise me if there were e-mail blasts sent out by state/region coordinators to all those in driving distance as well.

Thus far, I haven't seen anything important/directly relevant to my team posted in Bill's Blog that wasn't also included in an e-mail blast.

[Bob Steele]

I can only applaud FIRST for giving us a reason and fixing the problem in the only way they could.

[Mr. Van]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

I can only applaud FIRST for giving us a reason and fixing the problem in the only way they could.

I completely agree. I was simply taking the opportunity to also agree with the post that pointed out that Bill's Blog is not a very good "official" communication tool.

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

[Alan Anderson]

It's nice to see a quick mention of the reason for the date change (though it left open plenty of room for speculation about the details). I especially appreciate the way the problem isn't presented as an "opportunity". The blog entry explicitly acknowledges that it's bad news for many people.

(The email blast just uses the cliche "Due to circumstances beyond our control", which is a bit of a let-down.)

[waialua359]

The only real issue I can see, is teams coming from out of state already booking their airfares to attend the event,and possibly not being able to get a full refund to switch the dates.
Hopefully, it hasnt happened to any teams who originally registered.