Being Proactive About Paper Airplanes on Einstein

[Michael Corsetto]

Thanks for bringing this up.

I'll be sure to add this topic to our team itinerary.

Namely, "Littering via throwing paper airplanes in the Dome does not align with Team 1678's public image. Please focus your energy and enthusiasm towards the competition and your roles on the the travel team."

Also, the paper airplanes can be disruptive to matches. A ref needed to remove this airplane from the field before Einstein Finals Match 2.

Although not every team will, I'm sure many teams could be proactive in addressing this behavior.

Now, it doesn't help when a CMP speaker tells your kids to throw them

-Mike

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

Now, it doesn't help when a CMP speaker tells your kids to throw them

No one on our team threw any airplanes last year until this happened. After that, well, I lost my motivation to explain to students why I thought throwing airplanes was poor behavior.

We did pick up airplanes on our way out to throw them away, but the garbages were already overflowing, so all we really accomplished was a spreading of this silly mess from the stands into the hallway.

[Taylor]

It was difficult to tell our 6 year old son he wasn't allowed to throw airplanes when he was surrounded by high school students and adults doing the same.

FIRST Championships: Setting Back Good Parenting Since 2003

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

I may have not been paying attention but has FIRST ever even asked the crowd to not throw paper airplanes. It seems by just making it clear at the start of opening ceremonies would decrease airplane throws dramatically. Instead all I've hear is occasional encouragement to throw the airplanes.

[bkahl]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

...

You said it best last year...

When Karthik Kanagasabapathy has to pick them up, you know there's a problem.

Stop throwing paper airplanes people

[Lil' Lavery]

Do it all at once, as an organized event. When the speaker asks, do it then, and not again. Have fun with it during that set downtime, and get it out of the system.

[Matt_Boehm_329]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Do it all at once, as an organized event. When the speaker asks, do it then, and not again. Have fun with it during that set downtime, and get it out of the system.

This is an idea I like.

[WynS]

I'm not sure I've seen this mentioned but as someone who has been hit in the head repeatably by paper airplanes that were inexpertly made and thrown, I'm not a big fan.

[PayneTrain]

We're only flying paper airplanes because Libby likes them so much.

[Andy A.]

It bears looking for the root cause here; people are bored, paper airplanes are fun and the dome offers a pretty awesome place to fly them.

I'd propose a formal (either FIRST or team organized) paper airplane contest. Each team gets the same paper/whatever, launches from the same place and graded on whatever criteria seems appropriate. Let people get it out of their system in a positive and easier to control manner.

[Taylor]

How about create a schedule that doesn't have 30 minutes between matches?

[MechEng83]

Originally Posted by Taylor

How about create a schedule that doesn't have 30 minutes between matches?

This. So much.

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by Taylor

How about create a schedule that doesn't have 30 minutes between matches?

Please! Yes.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

We're only flying paper airplanes because Libby likes them so much.

Dangit, Wil, I'd been avoiding this thread.

I'm honestly tired of being the broken record on this one.
It's disrespectful. Just don't do it.
Why this isn't common sense is absolutely mind-boggling to me.

Who cares what a random speaker says, Good Guy Frank himself has said in a blog to stop throwing paper airplanes. FIRST should absolutely put out wording (team update, maybe?) that states clearly states a position against it, and continue to make announcements throughout the event.

If the only possible way the kids on your team can have fun at World Championships is by throwing airplanes, you might want to reconsider bringing those students on the trip at all. It's similar to the idea of students who paid all the money for a trip, just to play games on their phones in the stands ... what's your end goal here? On 1923 we ban a lot of things that are disrespectful to the event on our team, with wording similar to Mike Corsetto's above. Paper airplanes are one of them, along with things like headphone use & gaming in the stands.

Yes, there are WAY-too-long breaks between matches. FIRST should work on their end to make them smaller, and fill those breaks with valuable content (team history & match review by knowledgeable commentators, maybe? I know I'm shooting for the stars here...) - but just because FIRST ends up creating a break doesn't mean we get to fill it with awful behavior.

What other ways can we, as a community, think of that a team in the stands could do on their own to fill the time between Einstein matches?

I'll start: Our team, when we're watching elims matches with long breaks, tends to 'bet on' & discuss the upcoming match. Oh yeah, I'll bet it's Red, did you see Team XYZ's high shot now? Or what about something like an "Einstein Bingo" card that your team can play against each other in the stands? A trivia game about your team? I Spy: FIRST event edition?

Doesn't have to be something huge or intense. Just anything that's not littering...

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by Libby K

What other ways can we, as a community, think of that a team in the stands could do on their own to fill the time between Einstein matches?


Doesn't have to be something huge or intense. Just anything that's not littering...

Well, let's preface this by kinda throwing the "Doesn't have to be something huge or intense" part out the window - what about expanding on the FIRST Einstein show that was put on last year into a Preview/Season Recap show?
One of my favorite parts of the season is listening to team history recaps during Finals from MCs like Karthik (His recap during GTRE 2012 was phenominal) and Dave Verbrugge (The one that comes to mind was his recap during 2010 Einstein).

So, expanding on this, once the first or second division gets out of division eliminations, over on the official Einstein screen FIRST could start a preshow in somewhat of the same vein as your conventional sports preshow. It could cover everything from the history of the Einstein teams at Champs to significant moments during the season (First capture, first hang, first double hang, first Triple hang, etc.) and cover things like event with best breaching percentage, highest capture rate, etc. [1] to a panel of "experts" predicting general strategies that are expected to be seen on Einstein - things like expected offense/defense ratio, types of defense, over/unders on scores from different points in the match, etc.

It's information that I, and at least a decent amount of people on Chief, seem to love to hear about. It'd be something that would be mildly interesting, but not something that would be unfortunate to miss since your division is still playing. There's plenty of people with much better qualifications to host this show (FUN, RoboZone, GameSense, etc.) but would be a position I'd love to volunteer for / shoot for in the future.

[1] - May require some research on the fly. I suppose access to TBA would be helpful.