Being Proactive About Paper Airplanes on Einstein

[BenHildy]

Originally Posted by ConnorTheCoch

Even after last year, people seem to be in no rush to recycle. I, personally, think we ought to take a strong hold on this issue and assist is stopping the aerial assault. Ultimately, as the paper airplanes ascent into the air, we stay grounded in logic and common sense to stand together, and protest this faulty tradition.

Ok

[BrennanB]

Throwing stuff on a playing field just yesterday.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by BrennanB

Throwing stuff on a playing field just yesterday.

You know, I was thinking about that reading this thread...

I suggest a rule that any paper airplane thrown, if the thrower is identified, is a Foul against their team, or if their team is out, their subdivision, in the next match.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

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

Absafraggin-lutely. Before heading up to 2015 CMP, we briefed our team that we would not launch paper airplanes, and stuck with it until then. When the announcement came down from a CMP speaker, the rules changed. I confess to re-constructing some championship gliders from my high school memory. Not just once or twice. I estimate that three program books worth of paper airplanes wound up somewhere below us based on my designs and/or construction.

[Chris Hibner]

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?

This is the part that I don't understand. You mean to tell me that a generation of kids that use their phones to occupy their time to fill every down second (and a lot of seconds that they should definitely not be on their phones) all of the sudden decide that something is more interesting than their phones? Seriously, everyone saying that they need to throw airplanes to keep from being bored, where is that creativity the other 364 days of the year?

In other words, stop throwing airplanes and play on your $%^$ phones - here's the one chance that we would rather you do that.

Ok, I'm done being an old cranky guy.

[Joe Johnson]

One more point about having Dean and/or Woodie ask the audience to stop, it empowers cranky old folk like myself to tell young whippersnappers to knock it off. If we know we are standing with Dean/Woodie, then we can confidently (and nicely, at least at first) ask people around us we see folding planes to stop.

Dr. Joe J.

[marshall]

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?

I propose a "Waiting for Einstein" bingo app... though none of the boxes should be "someone throwing a paper airplane".

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by marshall

I propose a "Waiting for Einstein" bingo app... though none of the boxes should be "someone throwing a paper airplane".

Actually, let's take it a step further: A clean version of JackBox games actually wouldn't be a bad idea at all. If it works as well as I saw it at PAX South, then the whole arena may be suspiciously silent.

[marshall]

Originally Posted by synth3tk

Actually, let's take it a step further: A clean version of JackBox games actually wouldn't be a bad idea at all. If it works as well as I saw it at PAX South, then the whole arena may be suspiciously silent.

I have no idea what that is but I think we are on to something.

[lamiet01]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

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

-Mike

And, if I remember correctly, one of the speakers that encouraged the throwing was a general in the United States Air Force.

I do not condone the throwing of paper airplanes in the dome, but a little discouragement from the stage would go a long way towards ending this "tradition".

[Al Skierkiewicz]

OK,
Sorry to weigh in here, but...
I work on Einstein and see this period from a different view than the stands. Last year, is was a rain storm of paper that went on for hours. Some of those planes ended up in the LED video board above the stands. Removing them would be a costly fix for venue staff. But check out the picture below. This is one of at least four piles of similar size that were swept up during the Einstein program. I did not get a picture of the piles after the crowd moved to the finale. Yours may have only been one of these, but they add up.

[jvriezen]

Clearly the way to deal with this is to print the prohibition against paper airplanes on 8.5"x11" flyers, and place one or more on each seat in the stands. To make it fun, origami techniques could be used to pre-fold the flyers into some shape that relates directly to the topic being covered. Do you think this idea will fly? Anyone willing to get this idea off the ground?

Also, place a few Recycle Rush bins near the back curtain and on the flyers encourage that they be recycled in those containers.

I like to float such ideas like this, but sometimes things just go over the heads of most people.

[Francis-134]

I think if someone said anything over the PA, or had a screen with something along the lines of "Please refrain from throwing paper airplanes", it would stop almost completely. This practice has been going on for years, and is almost a tradition, whether good or bad.

FIRST kids are, in general, friendly toward authority, or are at the very least, not afraid to tell their peers when something is bad. Literally, any sort of "official" word from the event, while at the event, saying to not throw airplanes is really all we need. Not everyone reads the blog, and even fewer read Chief Delphi.

[marshall]

Originally Posted by Francis-134

I think if someone said anything over the PA, or had a screen with something along the lines of "Please refrain from throwing paper airplanes", it would stop almost completely. This practice has been going on for years, and is almost a tradition, whether good or bad.

FIRST kids are, in general, friendly toward authority, or are at the very least, not afraid to tell their peers when something is bad. Literally, any sort of "official" word from the event, while at the event, saying to not throw airplanes is really all we need. Not everyone reads the blog, and even fewer read Chief Delphi.

I agree. Hopefully Frank is reading this and they give us a sign (a literal one).

[JesseK]

This is all well and good for us to say in a thread as people who have habitual champs attendance problems, but we're already ignoring the environment and frame of mind teams will be in on Saturday. In other words, our words will fall on deaf ears without a much larger microphone.

100% of teams will wake up and go into the Dome on Saturday
65% of teams will have nothing to do but pack up their pit on Saturday, which takes about 30 minutes
95% of teams will have nothing to do for up to 8 hours after lunch, including the 65% of teams who have already been sitting/watching for 3 hours.

It will take something official for teams to stop, IMO. I have tried to stop my own team, and yet been overridden by mentors or (worse) parents who simply disagree because they're the ones who have been sitting for what feels like forever. The kids even made paper airplane templates last year, with team branding and social media contacts.

Please, FIRST, speak up about this.