Discussion: Release Team Field Drawings Early

[bkahl]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

This brings up the unspoken advantage that kickoff host teams have over the rest of us. They show of the field elements at kick off, then get to keep them for the season.

Sigh...TO GET BACK ON TRACK....

To build the field for a kickoff, I'm fairly certain you have to sign some kind of NDA to see the field drawings. This prevents any teams who have access to the drawings from spreading them to others and to their own team members who have not yet seen the field.

I don't see an issue with opening this access to anyone who wants to sign the NDA, regardless on whether or not the build is for a Kickoff event. I think opening this to mentors only is a reasonable measure to ensure that the students are still getting the "kickoff experience".

125 builds the field elements for the local kick-off event (I am not involved- I'm home in CT on break during the build), and it was really nice to have everything ready to go on Day 1. From what I understand, it took the contingency of mentors a dew days work to get the elements done. I can definitely see where an advantage comes into play, and how the field build can be especially challenging when most of the team would rather get "robot-work" done.

However, before we release the field drawings early, maybe there should be a little more work ensuring proper dimension rules are followed.