Feedback request for West Coast Regionals

[Jason Morrella]

This is for all the teams who attended either the Silicon Valley (San Jose), Pacific Northwest (Seattle), or Southern California (LA) Regionals:

The feedback from the volunteers, judges, and staff has been incredible - as people were SO impressed by the robots, the attitudes, and the character of the teams who competed in these events. We hope you all had a good time and great experience.
We'd love your input, comments, suggestions about some of the aspects of these events. Please let us know what you thought of the events. We very much listen to the feedback of the teams - good and bad - as we try to make these events the best possible experience for the teams. We'd particularly like to know some of the following items:

What did you think of the new pit layout in SJ and LA (rookie/veteran alternating instead of just going in straight numerical order)?

What did you think of the team party (food, music, entertainment - which games were your favorites)?

What did you think of the venue/arena?

Teams who attended other regionals or from far away (such as WPI and other out of state teams) - what comparisions and suggestions could you give us?

General suggestions/comments (things to keep, add, change, improve, etc...)?

Thanks for any feedback and thanks again for your contributions to these events. Good luck to all those going to Orlando. We look forward to seeing all the teams who compete in the Regionals out West in 2003 - San Jose, Seattle, Los Angeles, Arizona, ???....

[ahecht]

These comments relate to the LA regional.

Originally posted by Jason Morrella
The feedback from the volunteers, judges, and staff has been incredible - as people were SO impressed by the robots, the attitudes, and the character of the teams who competed in these events.

We feel the same way about all the volunteers! Great job!

What did you think of the new pit layout in SJ and LA (rookie/veteran alternating instead of just going in straight numerical order)?

This was wonderful for us. Team 992 had the honor of being placed next to the Gila Monsters, who were invaluable in providing assistance, advice, and even forgotten supplies. We also saw many other rookie teams being helped out by their veteran neighbors. While it made finding a certain team a bit tricky, the benefits outweighed the inconveniences. Maybe an indexed map (with an ordered list of team numbers and their rows) would help.

What did you think of the team party (food, music, entertainment - which games were your favorites)?

On the whole, the food was lousey, the majority of the entertainment was boring for High School students (for example, the trike races and the inflatable obstacle course), and the little fun entertainment was plagued with hour long lines. None of our team wanted to stay much past dinner. This was the only dissapointing part of the whole experience.

What did you think of the venue/arena?

The Sports Arena is really showing it's age, but on the whole, it served its purpose nicely. The only real complaint that my team had was the unsanitary flooded men's room, and the overpriced concession stand. Other than that, it was great to have such a large and impressive venue.

General suggestions/comments (things to keep, add, change, improve, etc...)?

Again, our team was thrilled with the way the regional was run, and the only suggestion we have is to try to allow teams to bring donuts into the pits next year. Congrats on pulling off a great competition, and we look forward to attending next year.

[Azn_Dawg16]

I was really pleased with the way that the SJ regional was run, and I thought that everything worked out pretty well, except... I have to say, as head of scouting for my team, that the organization of the pits made it incredibly hard to find specific team numbers in a hurry. I, as well as many of my scouts, spent lots of time wandering around the pits looking for a specific team so that we could get the scoop on their robot. Anyways, that's just my 2 cents overall, thanks for a great regional event!!

[Deej]

Jason,

Overall the San Jose Regional was very well run. I can't speak for everyone on my team, but being a 7 year veteran of the program (4 as a driver, and 3 as a coach/mentor/engineer), I can honestly say that this was one of the most professionally run events I've been to. The overall pit layout was definately a change from the sequential orders from years past. I am definately a fan of being close to rookie and second year teams, to see what kind of out of the box thinking occurs, as well as being able to lend a hand.

The team party was definately a great event. I really enjoyed the games aspect, the twister, the sumo wrestling, etc.... Personally, the sumo wrestling and the twister were two great events ( one of our guys spent almost 3 hours on that inflatable twister board, outlasting everyone!!). The food was good (chicken fingers are always a great option too!).

The venue was very nice as well, seemed as though there was plenty of seating, and we as a team got some pretty good seats for viewing. My one complaint with is concerning the team viewing when on stage. Sometimes it was tough for smaller teams (we were only able to bring 15 for the cross country voyage) to get in there and cheer and see whats going on mechanically,when larger teams were in there. I realize that it is essentially limited to the size of the field however. The San Jose area was also extremely beautiful, and an overall great place for the regional.

I hope this answers your questions. If you need further feedback, feel free to get in touch.

DJ

[Greg Ross]

Originally posted by Azn_Dawg16
...the organization of the pits made it incredibly hard to find specific team numbers in a hurry. I, as well as many of my scouts, spent lots of time wandering around the pits looking for a specific team so that we could get the scoop on their robot. ...

I never did figure out the numbering scheme. It took me ten minutes to find our pit in LA. Still, it was fantastic idea to do away with the the "rookie ghetto". Maybe next time we could have a map posted with an index?

[Mike Rush]

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What did you think of the new pit layout in SJ and LA (rookie/veteran alternating instead of just going in straight numerical order)?
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I really liked the arrangement because we had rookies on both sides which we could help along when they needed it. They were also helpful when we needed it. Sometime we had difficulty finding teams due to the arrangement but I thought it was worth it.

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What did you think of the team party (food, music, entertainment - which games were your favorites)?
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My favorite was 'early to bed'......Hopefully you will get more feedback from those that attended.

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What did you think of the venue/arena?
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THe venue is fine but the facilities need A LOT OF HELP!!

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General suggestions/comments (things to keep, add, change, improve, etc...)?
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The biggest complaint is the drayage charces. They were 4 times as high in LA ($117/100lb) than in Seattle ($28/100lb). Many teams were obviously angry at Freeman and made no bones about expressing thier frustration.

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Arizona!!!!!
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See you in AZ in '03!