[FRC Blog] Pit Set-Up and Trophies

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Rangel(kf7fdb)

Pit Set-Up the day before is a great change that is sure to help a lot of teams. Now they can get right to it Thursday morning instead of trying to designate who is setting up and who is working on robot.

IF it's implemented at a given event. And that is going to be the interesting part of this. (And then there's the undeniable fact that some teams' load-in comes pretty close to setup as it is.)

I've got a funny feeling that the inspectors are going to be asking for some extra hands during load-in periods.

[R.C.]

I've been pushing for this for years. I'm glad it's been implemented and can garuanteee the CVR regional will allow early setup.

[JB987]

Great idea! Biggest challenge likely to be kicking the teams out at a reasonable time Wednesday evening. Pretty sure we will go with this format at LVR, but will know better after our regional planning meeting this Thursday. I will post our intent asap.

[thatprogrammer]

While I'm excited for the ability to set up pits on wed, I'm really sad to hear that we won't be getting 2 trophies to give to sponsors any more. I can't help but feel that there are ways FIRST could reduce the cost of trophies without this solution.*
*Perhaps a redesign of the trophy?
I'm not an expert on cash flow in FIRST, so maybe I'm just mistaken.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by thatprogrammer

While I'm excited for the ability to set up pits on wed, I'm really sad to hear that we won't be getting 2 trophies to give to sponsors any more. I can't help but feel that there are ways FIRST could reduce the cost of trophies without this solution.*
*Perhaps a redesign of the trophy?
I'm not an expert on cash flow in FIRST, so maybe I'm just mistaken.

They've already shrunk the size of the trophies once [cue massive complaints] and removed participation medals from the equation (for participation pins in the KOP).

Also, I'm willing to bet that most sponsors have more wall space than trophy case space, which makes a plaque a tad easier to handle.


Here's the thing: All those trophies have to ride the semi for all the events that truck is covering. So on top of the cost of the trophy itself, you have to include the cost of transporting it to up to 5 (6?) events before the one it's supposed to leave the truck at. And the trophies can be rather bulky and awkward. So if there's a plaque instead of a trophy... I suspect I can stack 6 events worth of plaques into a space previously occupied by 2-3 events worth of trophies (or smaller). Means more space for other important items.

[Nathan Streeter]

In my opinion, the pit setup change is very good and long overdue (although irrelevant to our team in districts) and the trophy/plaque change is reasonable. I'd prefer that they make the second trophy a plaque than they shrink the trophies again... see below.

Originally Posted by EricH

They've already shrunk the size of the trophies once [cue massive complaints] and removed participation medals from the equation (for participation pins in the KOP).

It is amusing that our 2006 Granite State Regional Winner trophy is decisively larger than our more prestigious trophies from more recent seasons... and saddening.

[Sperkowsky]

This setup thing sounds great just doubt NYC will be doing it with the high cost of venue time.

Also with the trophies I always assumed one was for your room and the other was for the schools trophy displays. The plaque sounds cool though.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Very positive changes, I like having two trophies because we have two schools but actually they end up both sitting in our lab most of the time anyway and reducing the costs is a good thing. Love the pit setup the night before. Now we should be able to see some even cooler and more functional pit spaces.

I like that they are looking back over old rules/traditions and seeing what still makes sense in the current FRC world.

[Jacob Bendicksen]

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV

I like that they are looking back over old rules/traditions and seeing what still makes sense in the current FRC world.

This, absolutely this. There are wonderful traditions in FIRST that should stick around forever, and there are some things that need to be rethought as time goes on. The trophy setup is absolutely one of them, and hopefully we as a community can keep thinking of improvements to make FIRST more current, innovative, and able to reach as many people as efficiently as possible.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by EricH

IF it's implemented at a given event. And that is going to be the interesting part of this. (And then there's the undeniable fact that some teams' load-in comes pretty close to setup as it is.)

I've got a funny feeling that the inspectors are going to be asking for some extra hands during load-in periods.

This is what really worries me... events that implement this need additional volunteers on hand to handle it. And events that don't need additional volunteers on hand to handle all of the teams that complain/refuse to accept that this isn't a universal thing. It's going to be painful for a year or two while everyone figures it out and adjusts schedules as needed.