[FIRST EMAIL] Stop Build Day Survey

[EricH]

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV

Please feel free to propose other courses of action.

He did.

Let's start with the Witholding Allowance. 30 lb? .25 robot? Nope. Particularly with the amount of COTS items these days, that's a LOT. 12 lb, or .1 robot, would make teams think a lot more about what they're holding back to work on. No limits on raw materials/COTS items--but, you know, you do need to do work on those at the event for them to be useful, even if it is just duct-taping them to your robot. (That's just an example weight, BTW--could be 15, 10, 5, 0... less than 30, though.)

Eliminating multiple competitions is an answer--but, TBH, the howling would pretty quickly convince HQ that that was a very, very bad idea. The "obvious" alternative would be districts for everybody, mind you--not that I'm opposed to that. (Since X cannot be eliminated, it shall henceforth be required, and all that.) BUT, you'd have to get rid of the unbag time before events. (Or count it as part of build season--as in, we have a 6-week build season, plus some quick check time right before competition.)

Practice robots aren't going to be easy to eliminate. There's practically nothing that can be done other than to specifically tell the teams that "We are putting in a rule that says you cannot have a practice robot, and we are making you sign a legally binding document at inspection that says that you adhered to all the rules." And then, of course, trust that they follow the rule. (And I would take a pretty good gamble that if Frank made THAT announcement, the Team Advocate--and Frank--would be swamped within 47 minutes by angry team emails.) Wouldn't try that.

Eliminating Stop Build isn't the only course of action. But continuing to insist that it is means that you've got blinders on.