The negative effects of FRC

[Alan Anderson]

Almost everything about the original post strikes me as either something that can be handled by the individual, or is part of the specific team culture. I believe it can all be addressed without any changes imposed from outside. None of it (aside from the paper airplanes) seems under control of FIRST itself.

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

The lunch break thing has really started to irk me particularly when events run late and decide to eliminate a lunch break all together. This should not be the case. If an event runs late have everyone go on later but do not make students not eat.

You don't have to go without food just because the field doesn't shut down for a lunch break. It's common (though not yet customary) for teams to arrange for food to be brought to the pit crew so they don't have to leave the venue.

Eliminations this year at the NYC regional was particularly bad for me. We were not the top 30 teams so they would not let us get reinspected before alliance selections. Instead after we were chosen we had to remove our bumpers (we had reversible bumpers that did not like being removed), get reweighed, and spent 15 minutes with an inspector trying to explain our pneumatics system... We then had to start prepping for elims get our robot fixed up a bit and before we knew it we had to queue.

You were not allowed to be reinspected? That's just wrong. I think you should contact the LRI for that event with your concerns. This is not how re-inspection has been done at any event I have been part of. All teams are pushed to get their robots reinspected after their last match, and the usual procedure is to have them show up at the scale with "bumpers on, battery out."

Food isnt allowed in the pits or queue so I had to go without eating.

I'm sorry you didn't find time to eat, but you already figured out how to make it more of a priority. I also think that keeping the students from running out of fuel should be one of the mentors' responsibilities.