# not returning to Dow Red Stick Rumble

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by Fusion_Clint

Ryan Dognaux,

We did that last year, this year we let everyone else know to avoid this one.

Your choice, we are done with this off-season event. Because it is off-season No should care based on the Dow Red Stick Rumble officials.

I'm baffled that this many people care about this off-season event, when the people that ran it did not.

So the people who spent the time to reserve an FRC field, secure a venue and organize everything else that it takes to run an event didn't care about it? One team's opinion. I'd love to hear from others at the event or the organizers. I'm sure 3337 really appreciates all of your super constructive feedback.

[Fusion_Clint]

I challenge anyone to disprove anything that I have said.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Fusion_Clint

I challenge anyone to disprove anything that I have said.

Why bother to try? Seems like it'd wrestling a greased pig.

Some of my favorite off-season events are run in the same way and that's why we love them.

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by Fusion_Clint

I challenge anyone to disprove anything that I have said.

I don't think you quite understand the reactions people are having to your post. No one is trying to tell you that things were peachy keen or that you had a good experience. But it's hard to trust what you are reporting when you do it in such a non-professional way.

So in the interest of being constructive, figure out why those controversial decisions were made and then offer suggestions as to how to improve them next year. If you earnestly offer your help (or your team's help) then you can actually help improve this event. Do some work to help other teams avoid the negative experience that you had.

[Fusion_Clint]

Look, I stand by my post. This event was horrible, they had no interest in customer service at all, and we won't be going back.

If they had tried do anything at all to correct anything or at least apologize for mistakes; this post would not have happened.

Is FIRST really about spending your hard earned money on a poor event and then just accepting it?

Again the issues were brought up and they didn't care!

[cbale2000]

As someone who is currently on the planning committee for the second year of an off-season event, I can say that planning for a small (less than 24 team) event can be very challenging.

Last year we didn't actually know how many teams were going to show up until the day before the event. The alliance structure of a FIRST competition is highly dependent on the number of teams there, especially when you have less than 24, so it doesn't surprise me that changes would be made last minute. Heck we were still finalizing our alliance rules at lunch time on competition day. It wasn't because we wanted to, it was because we had no choice.

I can't speak for the rule changes at your event, but at ours we generally try to make the rules more relaxed without adding more complications to the game. Our event's rule changes were released about 3-4 weeks prior to the event after looking at what other events had done and coming up with what we thought was a good balance. Would we have liked to release them sooner? Sure, but when you have a planning committee that meets only once a week (or less) and consists of volunteers that usually have day jobs to deal with too, we get the information out when we can.

Finally, I don't know what caused the date of your event to change, but try to keep in mind that almost all off-season competitions are completely at the mercy of the venue. If our school were to say to us "sorry, something came up and we need the gym that day", we would try our best to work around the issue but ultimately we too might have to change the date at the last minute.


Now, obviously, I was not at this competition, I do not know the people in charge there, nor did I share your experience. But I hope you consider that there's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that aren't always within the control of the event organizers who, generally, are just trying to do their best with the resources they have.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Fusion_Clint

Look, I stand by my post. This event was horrible, they had no interest in customer service at all, and we won't be going back.

If they had tried do anything at all to correct anything or at least apologize for mistakes; this post would not have happened.

Is FIRST really about spending your hard earned money on a poor event and then just accepting it?

Again the issues were brought up and they didn't care!

That's fair, but coming from personal experience from doing this myself, it's not a good look. If you took some time to reflect, sent them the feedback personally, and the event told you to shove it, then it would have made more sense to come on here and complain.

You're right to assume that Chief Delphi is a safe haven for any length of litany for any magnitude of grievance related to competitive robotics, but it's also a very political realm. The more diplomatic a course of action, the more accepted the course of action can be. Throwing the idea of constructive criticism out the window and launching into a diatribe is not going to get you anywhere. This is a hard lesson for some people to learn, and one I still have not mastered.

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by Fusion_Clint

Look, I stand by my post. This event was horrible, they had no interest in customer service at all, and we won't be going back.

If they had tried do anything at all to correct anything or at least apologize for mistakes; this post would not have happened.

Is FIRST really about spending your hard earned money on a poor event and then just accepting it?

Again the issues were brought up and they didn't care!

For everyone watching this thread, you should know that there were 3 FTA's at this event. One of them is a Championship level division FTA. Two very experienced FTAs were there with the field from AndyMark. Also, another local FTA was there to ensure that the field run properly. All three have tons of experience running the technical aspects of many events. Between the three of them, there is enough experience from about 100 FRC events. (Correction: the local FTA was not there)

From my experience with these three gentlemen, and knowing the leadership on team 3337, I am very surprised from the above comments. Even though the above comments are defamatory, I would trust and believe in the abilities and care of the event organizer and the three FTAs.

Sincerely,
Andy Baker