2013 Buckeye Regional

[BoilerMentor]

First, congratulations to team 2016 on their chairman's award. I was glad to see it go to such a deserving team. Congratulations to to 1629 on their engineering inspiration award, another great selection and a very deserving team. Congratulations to the winning alliance. We hope to see all of you at Championships.

Unfortunately, we will not be attending Buckeye again until the event is officiated by a different head referee. This is not because of the obvious liberties taken with the rules (which so many teams complained about), but because I have never seen an FIRST volunteer behave so inappropriately in their interaction with students. He ignored the drive team member standing in the question box for at minimum a single match. He would not allow them to show him the rule in question. He was standing uncomfortably close to our driver, speaking loudly, with an angry tone (I won't say yelling). When another student team member tried to diffuse the situation politely he was told to, "Step back". I observed the interaction and I'm proud of the way that my students handled themselves. They were polite, professional, and did not escalate the situation. The bottom line is that I will not allow my students to be treated in this manner.

The volunteer staff was very polite and professional, but I would have liked to have seen them better informed. All throughout Thursday, our Chairman's presenters were told that they were "accepting no Chairman's awards until Saturday." The sign-up sheet was eventually placed out near the end of the day Thursday, however. Then, when it was nearing time to present, the volunteers had no idea where the presentation room was. Our presenters were also told by multiple volunteers that presentations were not until Saturday. We did, eventually, get to the correct place. That aside, the volunteers were great.

All of that said. The other teams at the competition were great. We'd love to play with you in the future, but it will not be in Cleveland.