FrankAnswersFridays: October 25, 2013: Safety at Championships

[Jim Giacchi]

I agree with everyone who mentioned crowd control barriers. If you have a line that zig zags and is cordoned off, it will preventi people from pushing through the doors because they will be funneled into the line. No one will be able to cut in either because barriers would prevent it. It would go a long way towards relieving a lot of the problem. I also cannot stress enough the fact that people just don't listen. I was verbally abused two years ago by a woman when my team and I "stole" empty seats. She accused me of not understanding the spirit of FIRST despite clearly not ever reading the rules herself. You can't prevent stupidity nor ignorance, but what I would suggest is that you can prevent teams that are clearly saving seats, by having volunteers explain the rules to them when they see a team using signs and tape to block sections off.
Also more doors should be open. We are filling the lower portion of the stadium to capacity. They size the arena and the doors to handle it, but when you close doors, you are not using the building as designed and are most definitely asking for a problem. Even if you only open the doors during the first hour, it would go a long way to making the event safer.

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by Jim Giacchi

I was verbally abused two years ago by a woman when my team and I "stole" empty seats. She accused me of not understanding the spirit of FIRST despite clearly not ever reading the rules herself. You can't prevent stupidity nor ignorance, but what I would suggest is that you can prevent teams that are clearly saving seats, by having volunteers explain the rules to them when they see a team using signs and tape to block sections off.

Jim,
I wonder if you had a run-in with the same woman who did that to me and 2 of my students when we found some empty seats right before opening ceremonies in 2011. Another mentor from her team did come stop her because she was making a scene yelling at the several groups who sat in the seats, and her entire team ended up using about 2/5 of the "saved" seats.

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More doors, please. Separate pit entrance, please. More humorous rhymes from the safety glasses attendant, please.