[FRC Blog] Stop Build Day Survey Results

[tickspe15]

This survey was clearly rigged.

It'd be interesting to see how metrics such as OPR or BBQ influenced survey responses.

[SenorZ]

Keeping or eliminating "stop" build day was a bit simplistic.

There should have been multiple choices, ranked by preference:

• Keep things as they are
• Continue Kickoff in January but eliminate SBD
• Move Kickoff to an earlier date and keep SBD in February (longer season with a hard stop)
• Pull a VEX, and have months to work, including all the way to the event.

...etc.

But just dealing with this one questions is sure to cause them huge headaches.

[marshall]

This is at the top of the report:

61.5% of all respondents said their team builds an additional robot or robots, in addition to the robot that gets bagged. 50.2% of teams said their team builds an additional robot or robots, in addition to the robot that gets bagged.

So a majority of responding teams (2,196) build more than one robot...

[Mark McLeod]

I would call it half, not a majority.
4 teams out of 2196 isn't statistically significant.

[marshall]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

I would call it half, not a majority.
4 teams out of 2196 isn't statistically significant.

Fair point. It's still a surprising number to me. I'm glad they asked the question and we know the results.

[headlight]

If I'm reading this correctly, there is a somewhat significant portion of respondents in most categories who think that stopping bag day would be "best for ensuring equity and inclusion of students and schools in the FIRST
Robotics Competition program", but for some reason don't think that it would be "Best for the FIRST Robotics Competition program".

Is the equality and inclusion of students and schools undervalued or is there some other priority?

[AdamHeard]

Even if the survey had said everyone was in favor of eliminating SBD, I wouldn't trust the results.

The survey phrasing was pretty darn awful in terms of phrasing.

It also would have been helpful to have a panel of consulting mentors or something present 3-5 options to FIRST. FIRST would critique these, then present them to the masses with some education of their details.

I bet everyone had different interpretations of what their answers mean.

Weekly unbag windows seems like a pretty darn good compromise.

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Weekly unbag windows seems like a pretty darn good compromise.

Agreed. This would be a relatively non-controversial change; one that simply gives the advantage that district teams already enjoy (especially those who attend extra events) to everybody.

Even if you have gripes with the survey methodology and put large error bars on each bar in the graph, I'd wager that ~90% of those in the "1: Eliminate Stop Build Day" camp would think this is an improvement on the status quo, and probably 1/3 to 1/2 of those in the "5: Keep Stop Build Day" category would agree. Even if the survey is biased by a factor of 2x in either direction, it adds up to consensus.

[Mark McLeod]

Spin city

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Spin city

Just you wait until I tweet at 3AM that my side won the survey.

[marshall]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

Just you wait until I tweet at 3AM that my side won the survey.

Bigly.

[TJP123]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

Agreed. This would be a relatively non-controversial change; one that simply gives the advantage that district teams already enjoy (especially those who attend extra events) to everybody.

Would the district team get the same six hours weekly, and also the current six hours that's simply meant to level the field for not getting the third day at the regional? Or would regional teams lose access to their robots on Thursdays?

I can see that going over like a FIRST survey.

[Nate Laverdure]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

The phrasing was pretty darn awful in terms of phrasing.

Alanis Morissette-style irony?

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Even if the survey had said everyone was in favor of eliminating SBD, I wouldn't trust the results.

The survey phrasing was pretty darn awful in terms of phrasing.

It also would have been helpful to have a panel of consulting mentors or something present 3-5 options to FIRST. FIRST would critique these, then present them to the masses with some education of their details.

I bet everyone had different interpretations of what their answers mean.

Weekly unbag windows seems like a pretty darn good compromise.

This post's accuracy is pretty darn good in terms of accuracy.

[Michael Hill]

Originally Posted by Caleb Sykes

This post's accuracy is pretty darn good in terms of accuracy.

Yugely accurate?