IRI Rule Changes - 2012

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by BJC

I love quotes. I’m going to toss some famous quotes at you that I believe apply to the situation.

“The great thing about working hard is that you can always work harder, the great thing about being good is that you can always be better.” -- unknown

“I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it” – Thomas Jefferson

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” -- Beverly Sills

There is another in my signature. The point is that if these “stable” teams do not have the drive to find the money and/or shop space elsewhere to work during the summer, then you’re right. They won’t have a chance at IRI -- because IRI is filled with teams that have already taken that step. Ok, one more quote: “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” What I’m talking about doing does take more than a month. It may take more than a year. But it is a step that every “powerhouse” team has taken. Over the last couple years I have watch my team go from one that is all but inactive during the summer to one that participates in VRC, OCCRA, three offseason FRC competitions, is working on a drivetrain gearing optimization project, is further developing our 2011 drivetrain, and is improving our 2012 robot for IRI. There is no secret, there is only hard work.

Regards, Bryan

That's wonderful for you. Over the past few years, we've begun to transition in much the same way. This year, we are attending MARC and IRI and Rochester in the fall. We've already attended more demos in May/June than I care to recall. We are going to have team-building activities in August as well as continue work on the t-shirt cannon robot we developed LAST summer.

As I said, we are satisfied with the robot, heading into IRI. If I cared to do so, I could exfiltrate the robot and tools and visit one of our NEOFRA neighbors' facilities to work on it further. In fact, before we arranged for any summer access at the new school building last year, we worked on the bot at 379's facility. But I kinda like the notion of a break. And July is a good time to do it, since our school team leader will be away, and we already proved the bot/drive team out at MARC. We will practice a bit shortly before leaving, but that is all. I also kinda like the notion of not spending money we do not have on projects we don't need. Perhaps the United States government will someday have the same notion, but I digress.

And now I am going to shift gears a bit - there is a fine line you have to draw between offering constructive advice and encouragement to other teams from a position of an active, well-resourced program and entering the realm of the mildly condescending.

The manner in which you deliver advice can be a turnoff to your intended audience, if it is done in a relentless, in your face fashion. I personally have had to learn this more times than I care to count, and I'm still learning. Less is sometimes more.