Pit work during ceremonies

[Dillon Carey]

Originally Posted by Libby K

You can put your power tools down for 20 minutes to give these people some respect. Send all-or-most of your team to the stands to respect FIRST's invited guests, and if you really feel like you need 3 or 4 people in the pit, make sure they know to keep it down.

How is that so hard?

I am going to restate that this is a very reasonable way to deal with the situation. The way the rules are currently stated outline this, however they could be clarified.

To address all the people that seem to think that everyone should be forced out of the pit because that last 20-30 min isn't necessary, you're wrong. In some cases everything just works and you can attend the ceremony, but in my experience, there is nearly ALWAYS something that isn't working right.

People have said that tweaking these little things aren't worth missing out on the ceremony. I'm sorry, but some of these kids have put an enormous amount of effort into their robots. They have spent 6+ weeks pouring all of their spare time into trying to make the best robot they can, and even with all of that time, many teams can't quite get it all done.

I was forced out of the pits when I was a student, even after showing the rules which stated I could stay, and it was very frustrating. Sometimes the all of the effort you put into your bot comes down to that last 20 minutes. As long as the rules state (very clearly in my opinion) that it is allowed to work in the pits I will argue this with any volunteer that states otherwise.

I don't want to see a kids entire competition ruined because they were forced out of the pit.

[waialua359]

Hopefully Frank could address this with all of the RD's of various events and have this ironed out.
Its great that this issue has been pointed out, and based on the responses on this thread, a decision needs to be made, clarified and uniformly addressed at all regionals since there are varying opinions and interpretations on the matter.

One of the most frustrating things in general to deal with are varying interpretations of rules that are applied/not applied from one event to another.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Oblarg

Or perhaps you're not particularly clear in your writing?

I can understand him clearly. And I'm not exactly reading, I'm skimming the post.

There is a difference between reading and understanding/critical reading. If you can read, you can see these words on the page and know that they represent some thought. If you're actually understanding, or reading critically, you see the words, understand what the thought means, maybe pick up some context, and generally get a much better picture of what someone is trying to say.

As an example:
If I say "Shop skills are more important than engineering", I'm sure some folks will jump all over me about that one, something along the lines of how those "are engineering" or some such line of thought (or the other one, "just build it, the engineer knows best"). But, to put some context in that, I hold an engineering degree and work as a technician. And sometimes I go "I'd just LOVE to get the engineer who designed THAT down here and have HIM try to build it." And if you think about it, how is that engineer's design going to get built without some shop skill? Hmm?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Without being judgmental here I would like to relate some observations from an LRI view about work required during opening ceremonies.
1. Only about one or two teams at any event are so far behind that spending the time during opening ceremonies on Friday (first day of competition) would help.
2. Of those teams that need the time, the LRI is fully aware of the needs of the team and the event schedule as it applies to that team.
3. Rarely will more than one or two team members and a single mentor will be effective in this period. The rest cannot get close to the robot or are working on non-essential items.
4. Often (almost always) the LRI and/or RI will be in the pit supervising and assisting and therefore miss the opening ceremonies.
5. The team that needs assistance usually is behind due to school travel rules, lack of mentorship or failure to understand all of the applicable rules. (overall size is historically the biggest issue requiring work)
6. There is no better inspiration at the event for the entire team than to participate as a team especially if they are being called out for being the team that has traveled the furthest, is the only rep from their state at the event, is the rookie or oldest veteran, etc.

For those that see no value in politicians or other high ranking guests getting a good reception from a large crowd I have an interesting tale. The Midwest Regional specifically moved to a Chicago site in order to attract important political and educational representatives to the event. Specifically targeted was the mayor of Chicago, Rich Daley. It took several years and then the mayor's office only promised a 15 minute appearance and a short speech at opening ceremonies. Well the reception he received made him decide to suspend other appearances and walk the pits. His 15 minutes turned into several hours. And I can tell you that many a Chicago Public School student was flattered and shocked to be talking with the mayor of the third largest city in the US on a personal basis. That is some inspiration those students will rarely get.

[kmusa]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Without being judgmental here I would like to relate some observations from an LRI view about work required during opening ceremonies.
1. Only about one or two teams at any event are so far behind that spending the time during opening ceremonies on Friday (first day of competition) would help.
:
And I can tell you that many a Chicago Public School student was flattered and shocked to be talking with the mayor of the third largest city in the US on a personal basis. That is some inspiration those students will rarely get.

Al:

Well said. I'm glad that accommodations have been made for the extreme cases.

I can't recall a regional that I've attended, that the Pits haven't been closed during the various ceremonies, and I don't have a problem with that.

Though I will say that some administrative common sense would have been useful at last spring's FLR, when the combination of schedule delays and replays had Team 20 playing 3 consecutive matches (if memory serves) Saturday morning.

-Karlis