FRC Blog - Team Feedback at IRI and Tim Howard

[cgmv123]

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...IRI-Tim-Howard

A few of our FRC Staff, including Collin Fultz, will be at the Indiana Robotics Invitational, arguably the premiere off-season event in FRC. As some of you may know from an earlier blog, Collin is transitioning to his new role as FRC Team Advocate. Please see his note below.

One of the best parts of working at FIRST is travelling to various events and regions to learn about the teams in that area. Hearing the passion and ideas that students, mentors, and volunteers have for improving the FIRST experience is what keeps us moving forward.

I’ll be at the Indiana Robotics Invitational this Friday and Saturday to hear some of this feedback. Some of the things I’m interested in are:

• Robot Rules – How can we make them clearer, simpler, and easier for inspectors to check?
• Q&A Process/Format – How can we get teams the answers they need without solving the design challenge for them?
• Resources available at Kickoff – What do teams need and how do they want to receive it?
• Championship Qualification – How should we determine which teams get to go to Championship?
• Championship Schedule/Format – How does having more of St. Louis available to us impact the experience of the team?

The primary forum for this feedback will be via town-hall style sessions at the event. The exact timing and location will be announced at IRI. There will also be other FRC staffers at IRI for other reasons who may sit in on these meetings.

I recognize that the type of team attending IRI is very specific and that even if all 70 teams participated, we’d have barely more than 2% of the 2014 FRC teams represented. These details will be taken into account when evaluating the feedback, and this will certainly not be the only opportunity teams have to provide feedback directly to me. However, when you have 70 teams gathered for an off-season event in your back yard, you need to take that opportunity to talk to them.

In all, I hope that doing this allows me to execute my new role within FIRST as well as I can, and be an effective advocate for the interests of every FRC team.

See you there!

Also, I know this is a little ‘two weeks ago’, but I still find it amusing – Simbotics* scouts think they’ve found a goalie that can stop the Poof’s three ball auto:



Frank

*I’ve mentioned them twice in the last few weeks, but I insist I am NOT crushing on Simbotics.

#ThingsSimboticsCouldn'tSave