[FRC Blog] FRC Expands Regionals to Four Days

[ykarkason]

Posted on the FRC Blog, 8/7/14: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...s-To-Four-Days

Actually, we did this some time ago, when we started allowing teams, if they wished, to load-in at Regionals the day before practice day. Teams are only present for a short time during these load-in days, but this is an officially scheduled team activity, so we’ve started including this date on our event schedules here. It’s not a full day, but you should be considering it in your plans. Review the agendas for your events, when they are posted, for the full details.

Hope we didn’t cause any panic.

Youth Protection Program Screening Required Before Event Registration

Hopefully most of you have heard about the new Youth Protection Program FIRST has. You can find details here.

I just wanted to make sure you are aware that if you are an FRC Team from the United States or Canada, before you can register for events this year, both the Main Contact (Lead Mentor 1) and Alternate Contact (Lead Mentor 2) must complete the Youth Protection Program screening process. You can start this process now, and we encourage it! Entering the information you need to start the ball rolling is fast, but you won’t receive the necessary Youth Protection Clearance until the screening report is completed and returned to FIRST by our screening service provider, and that can take a few business days. Please don’t wait until the day before registration opens to start this, or worse, the day of registration. Please do this weeks in advance (now would be a good time!). If you wait too long, you will miss the opening of registration, and this would not be a path to happiness. No exceptions will be granted to this screening requirement.

If you have any questions about the Youth Protection Program, please contact our Youth Protection Department, 603-666-3906 Ext. 250 or 207.

Off-Season Event Results Being Posted

Check it out – we’ve started including the results of off-season events on our calendar. Look for off-season events marked with an asterisk, those are the events for which we have results. We’ve even got a few photos posted. To have your event or event results posted to the FRC Calendar, please email FRCoffseason@usfirst.org.

We also want to send a big “Thank You” to all the Volunteers and Teams who are making FIRST Loud - even in the off-season!

Frank

[JohnFogarty]

Frank. You just trolled me so hard.

[Jon Stratis]

"Hope we didn't cause any panic"?!?!?!?

There wasn't any panic when I saw the dates on the website - I figured they were just counting load-in day, as it turns out they were... but when I saw the title of the blog post...

[Jacob Bendicksen]

*wipes sweat off of brow*

[Whippet]

*Gently sets down pitchfork*

[sanddrag]

Now Frank, will you PLEASE consider directing local regionals to allow teams to set up their pit areas during load-in night? It is SO much safer and easier than in the rush of things on the first morning. To be blunt, the existing schedule and limitation on setup is stupid.

We load in all our stuff Wednesday night, completely filling the 10x10 area, then Thursday morning we move it ALL out of the 10x10 area completely, blocking the aisle and getting in the way of numerous people, and then assemble back into our pit area piece by piece properly. While the pit setup is taking place, we usually move the robot to a vacant hallway or other area to prepare it for inspection. It's a very disruptive process to all parties in attendance, and we take up 3 pit areas worth of space doing it.

Just let us set up the pit on load-in night when hardly anybody is there.

[Boe]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Now Frank, will you PLEASE consider directing local regionals to allow teams to set up their pit areas during load-in night? It is SO much safer and easier than in the rush of things on the first morning. To be blunt, the existing schedule and limitation on setup is stupid.

^ Please Frank

[orangemoore]

The reason that has been explained to me that they don't allow pit set up is not all teams are able to make it to the competition venue until practice day (Thursday). It gives the teams that are there the night before possibly a very large time advantage which is not fair to the other teams. I wish that setting up the night before was a possibility but at this point it wouldn't be fair.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Now Frank, will you PLEASE consider directing local regionals to allow teams to set up their pit areas during load-in night? It is SO much safer and easier than in the rush of things on the first morning. To be blunt, the existing schedule and limitation on setup is stupid.

We load in all our stuff Wednesday night, completely filling the 10x10 area, then Thursday morning we move it ALL out of the 10x10 area completely, blocking the aisle and getting in the way of numerous people, and then assemble back into our pit area piece by piece properly. While the pit setup is taking place, we usually move the robot to a vacant hallway or other area to prepare it for inspection. It's a very disruptive process to all parties in attendance, and we take up 3 pit areas worth of space doing it.

Just let us set up the pit on load-in night when hardly anybody is there.

We don't have this in districts anymore but I will chime in that under the regional system this really should be considered.

It really wasn't worth the time to drive 25 minutes to the venue, spend 10 minutes unloading, and then drive 25 minutes home to spend 10 minutes the next morning clearing the pit again and in everyone's way.

I know the first argument regarding not making this change is it will give an unfair advantage to teams who couldn't make it the night before for some reason or another but whatever "advantage" that is there is minimal. Even when we have to setup our pit there is always a few hands tearing apart the robot as needed during setup or what many teams do now which is to not even setup their pits until Thursday night when the robot work is complete. We had to wait nearly two hours after doors opened to get into our first district event but that didn't stop us and our laundry list of to-dos.

Its little things like this that can make events less stressful on everyone that they just won't do for one reason or another.

[Kingland093]

Originally Posted by orangemoore

The reason that has been explained to me that they don't allow pit set up is not all teams are able to make it to the competition venue until practice day (Thursday). It gives the teams that are there the night before possibly a very large time advantage which is not fair to the other teams. I wish that setting up the night before was a possibility but at this point it wouldn't be fair.

We're not allowed to unbag our robots until Thursday anyway, why shouldn't we be allowed to just set up our pit?

[cad321]

Originally Posted by orangemoore

The reason that has been explained to me that they don't allow pit set up is not all teams are able to make it to the competition venue until practice day (Thursday). It gives the teams that are there the night before possibly a very large time advantage which is not fair to the other teams. I wish that setting up the night before was a possibility but at this point it wouldn't be fair.

If the event dates include the load in day as a fourth day, than it is hardly an unfair advantage. It is another day of the competition that teams can choose whether or not this is something they wish to take advantage of or not. I fail to see how a scheduled day of the event is leading to an unfair advantage to certain teams.

[madhav]

I have now gone into cardiac arrest.

[sanddrag]

With the current set up restrictions, we actually are at somewhat of a competitive disadvantage compared to teams with a minimal amount of "stuff" they bring to their pit. We bring everything we could ever need, and everything we own that our partners or any other team could ever need. We know many teams are not well equipped, so we like to be, not only for our benefit but also for theirs. Also, we like for the pit area to be a showplace, not a haphazard work - on - the - floor trainwreck like 80+% of them are. It takes some time to put this all together. While it may give us an advantage in judged awards, it's most certainly a disadvantage on the field because we are still setting up the pit when teams with less stuff are passed on inspection and out practicing.

And on the topic of practice, Frank, why the heck do we close the field SO early on practice day? It kills us for a perfectly good Field to be sitting right there, and not being able to use it past 4PM or whatever it is when practice day goes until 8PM. We pay an aweful lot to just stand around and look at an empty field Thursday night.

[MechEng83]

My team has never done an early load in (Wednesday night) because the venue wasn't close enough to warrant driving there, nor was it far enough away that we couldn't just leave early in the morning and save on hotel costs. There hasn't been an advantage for us to do Wednesday load-in. Even with the 5-person early crew on Thursday, the load-in but not set up rule has to be one of the most annoying things about regional competitions. Robots are all in bags, so we can't open them and work on it until the prescribed time anyway. Especially because of the same-day early load in, there is no advantage given to a team by allowing them to set up early if everyone has the opportunity.

It's also rather annoying to be placing our un-set up pit objects in the space and arranging them to fit while a smug inspector yells at us that we're not allowed to set up. I calmly explain that if items aren't arranged properly, we violate the sacred pit space boundaries. It causes unnecessary stress in a timeframe where it's already stressful.

There is no real advantage gained by allowing us to set up our pit early and actually would help in terms of efficiency. We always hear that getting through inspection is a top priority, well, it would be a lot easier to get a robot ready for inspection if the pit was set up ahead of time. This also allows teams to check if there's a problem with electricity provided to the pit (we've encountered this multiple times over the years) before serious work has to begin on the robot, where time, in fact, matters. It also causes traffic jams in the aisles when we have to remove everything to set up properly while other teams are doing the same.

I'm interested to see how this works in the district format this coming year. Maybe it'll be a refreshing change, or maybe it'll be more of the same, just later in the day.

[sanddrag]

On second thought, I think these are such valid issues that I'll submit them for Frank Answers Fridays. But until it"s addressed, let the discussion continue.

EDIT: Submitted. We shall see.