Power in the stands

[sanddrag]

Can we start rallying for FIRST to include power in the stands as a part of their standard event setup? In nearly every opening ceremonies, there is some CEO or dignitary who comments about the importance of data analysis and gathering and "doing the math", yet FIRST is unable to support modern methods of scouting with a simple power drop for laptops.

Scouting is such an integral and important part of the FIRST experience. I have known students who have taken ownership of this area of a team, and have gone on to get jobs right out of high school as computer programmers at big corporations.

Most venues have only one duplex outlet anywhere in the field side of the venue, and it seems that recently, the UL safety advisors are having an issue with cords being a tripping hazard in the stands. At the Central Valley regional, teams were asked to remove their cords, because they were a tripping hazard. I could agree on the last point. Our students were in a hurry and did a poor job of taping it down to eliminate the hazard. But, the request to remove the cords was an over-zealous blanket policy without allowing teams a chance to remedy the hazard by running the cord through a less-intrusive path.

I'm willing to address safety hazards. What I'm not willing to do is give up something we've been doing for years, that is not unsafe, with no logical reason or explanation other than, "Well that's what 'they' are asking us to tell all the teams." Who are "they" ? Can I meet with "them" ?

We invest thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in our data gathering and analysis, through a system that requires electricity to operate. We have several students who's only role on our team is scouting. To be told they can't do it is disheartening.

Power in the stands is a growing need of teams that is not being met with the current setup. I can't imagine it would add much significant cost to the event bill. It's not like we're running shop vacs or miter saws on that side...