FRC Blog - My Bad Call

[rsisk]

There may be another issue here that wasn't addressed by Frank's post...

How did he end up in a position to make a decision without adequate information?

Should this have been handled by a call between the head ref and Aiden (not sure of his title, but let's call him the head head ref) and not escalated to Frank?

I was trying to look at the manual for guidance and this was the best I could find.

5.5.3 Referee Interaction
The Head Referee has the ultimate authority in the ARENA during the event, but may receive input from additional sources, e.g. Game Designers, FIRST personnel, and technical staff. The Head Referee rulings are final. The Head Referee will not review recorded replays under any circumstances.

T13
If a TEAM needs clarification on a ruling or score, one (1) pre-college student from that TEAM should address the Head Referee after the ARENA reset signal (i.e. PLAYER STATION LED strings turn green). A TEAM member signals their desire to speak with the Head Referee by standing in a Red or Blue Question Box, which are located on the floor near each end of the scoring table. Depending on timing, the Head Referee may postpone any requested discussion until the end of the subsequent MATCH.

[Boe]

Originally Posted by rsisk

There may be another issue here that wasn't addressed by Frank's post...

How did he end up in a position to make a decision without adequate information?

Should this have been handled by a call between the head ref and Aiden (not sure of his title, but let's call him the head head ref) and not escalated to Frank?

I was trying to look at the manual for guidance and this was the best I could find.

I wondered the same thing, as to why frank was the one making the call. I also wondered if the head ref at svr would have been able to overrule what frank if he didnt agree with frank since the ref has ultimate authority in the arena.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by rsisk

There may be another issue here that wasn't addressed by Frank's post...

How did he end up in a position to make a decision without adequate information?

Should this have been handled by a call between the head ref and Aiden (not sure of his title, but let's call him the head head ref) and not escalated to Frank?

I was trying to look at the manual for guidance and this was the best I could find.

I believe it is because the FTA is the one who contacts FIRST and their interface is Frank.

[Libby K]

I am so, so proud of Frank for this post.

Yes, the wrong call was made, and he apologized for it and explained how he was going to fix it. Frank's really good at this transparency thing we're all begging for.

However, it doesn't fix the issue that anyone thought it was at any point okay to penalize a team for an honest mistake, nor does it excuse the alleged statement made re: 'pulling the team out of championships'. Things need to change somewhere in the chain of command to avoid the overpowered-entitled-volunteer behavior that's become unfortunately all too common in the FIRST community.

A big step in the right direction. All in all, the right thing to do for now. Good Guy Frank strikes again!

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

What am I going to do with all of these torches and pitchforks now?

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to PayneTrain again

Drat!


.

[Bryan Herbst]

Originally Posted by rsisk

There may be another issue here that wasn't addressed by Frank's post...

How did he end up in a position to make a decision without adequate information?

Should this have been handled by a call between the head ref and Aiden (not sure of his title, but let's call him the head head ref) and not escalated to Frank?

I was trying to look at the manual for guidance and this was the best I could find.

The FTAs have a decision making flow chart that dictates who makes decisions and where it escalates from there. I haven't seen it myself, so I can't tell you where this falls, though I'm guessing they followed the appropriate protocol.

Additionally, although backup and timeout coupons are passed through the head ref, most decisions that impact replays, changing teams, giving teams time to work on their robots, and the general scheduling issues are a joint decision between the FTA and head ref.

To me it isn't so much an issue about interpreting and enforcing the game rules so much as a logistic and communication issue, which would fall under the FTA's purview.

[nlknauss]

Awesome decision by Frank and FRC. I'm only assuming but I bet there were a ton of factors involved with making this decision and the pressure was probably immense. This reminds me of a book for educators called "Teaching with Love and Logic". The book is on classroom management and the psychology behind working with others to create a productive environment. One of the major points in the book, is that it's difficult to create rules and procedures to cover every problem that pops up. The best you can do is deal with individual problems and come up with a solution for that problem. I'm as much into the rules as the next person but this scenario calls for an individual solution.

All in all, this is a good learning opportunity (for anyone) because it demonstrates a problem solving scenario that comes with leadership responsibility. A rough call was made, it was evaluated, a solution was presented after weighing all of the information, and now the parties involved are moving forward. Examples of this outside of FIRST are few and far between. Good for Good Guy Frank!