FIRST Wish List

[Covey41]

All this talk about changing the elimination rounds, auto/driver times are great ideas.

But lets address one or two of the basics.

Consistency: As we all experienced this season, each event was run differently from each other. Each Head Ref, or Lead Robot Inspector had their own ideas how rules the should be interpreted, or they added their own when they felt that FIRST missed something. I know that FIRST has numerous ways of communicating with all the Officials, but as we see this does not always work. I also know that these people are volunteers working a very difficult job,(Having been a Head Ref/Lead Inspector.) and are only trying to do their best. Still something needs to be done to make sure each event is the same, with no surprises when we reach the championships.

Scoring System: If you kept up with CD this comp season you know or heard about all the scoring system issues. Each year FIRST seams to reinvent the wheel. The Hatch system while not perfect, seamed to work better each week. Lets keep the Hatch system, let them make it even better. Lets not have what happen this year, next year.

How can FIRST help to make sure these things do not happen again next year. Maybe they need to have a team of officials that travel to each event. They would only need 5 or 6 teams. The team would be made up of a Head Ref, Lead Inspector, Field Supervisor, and a Score keeper. ( I believe that part of the problems with scoring was a new score keeper each week trying to learn a system that was not perfect.)At least there will be only 5 or 6 different ways, not 30.

The other thing that would help, would be to have the Game Design Committee not make changes at any event. I saw twice this year where students went to a member of the GDC, complained, and the GDC member had the Head Ref change their call. I also witnessed a time when one was asked about seeding and gave an answer that was completely wrong, and effected the outcome of the event. It would help (My opinion.) that no changes be made after Week 1 events, unless safety related. Sometimes there are a lot of bad feelings generated by these decisions.

This is my $.02.

At no time was it my intention to insult anyone, or to make anyone feel offended!