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#16
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Re: Interesting stories of the 06 building season
Fedex came a day early and tried to pick up our empty crate…..Boy would that have been bad!
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#17
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Re: Interesting stories of the 06 building season
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I think that your team and ours would fight over which FEDEX employee should get the employee of the year award. Our team (538) had a very similar experience, except it wasn't FEDEX's mistake. This tired experienced sponsor made a rookie mistake. I followed all the instructions on the FedEx Passkey but forgot to call for our pick-up. When they hadn't shown by 3:00 I sent the kids home and said I would wait for them. By 3:30 I was very nervous. I came inside and called the FedEx number in the phone book. They transfered me to many different departments and I finally talked to Berry in FedEx Ground Freight. He finally informed me that he could not find anyone willing to come. My exact words to him were "I am going to have a heart attack. One year of my students hard work is going out the window." He replied "Not on my watch!". He then preceded to put me on hold and talked to countless managers and supervisors until he reached Chuck Wells at the Huntsville Ramp. Between the two of these fine, wonderful gentlemen they found a driver willing to come back to work and come to our location, a hour away. When the driver arrived I offered to kiss his feet and he told me seeing me dry my tears (these were literal tears at this point) and smiling was all he needed. The Hutsville ramp employees stayed until or robot arrived so that it would be shipped on time. Thank you FedEx, Berry and Chuck, you definitely saved the day!!! ![]() |
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#18
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Re: Interesting stories of the 06 building season
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P.S. You realized that you passed the venue on your frantic way to the airport, right??? ![]() |
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#19
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Re: Interesting stories of the 06 building season
[quote=artdutra04]The Day FedEx Forgot Gus
February 21, 2006 by Arthur Dutra I think this is both the scarest and the funniest thing I've read in a very long time. I'm printing it out and taking it to my english class! I'm glad you got your robot shipped! |
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#20
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Re: Interesting stories of the 06 building season
Thanks for all the comments on our saga last night! Shipping is always the last thing to worry about, but this obviously points out the fact that more teams need NEMO volunteers. The engineers / fabricators / programmers / students are all far too tired and stressed to handle the simple task of scheduling a package pickup.
However, this whole shipping thing still baffles my mind. As a CT team going to the CT regional, our robot gets transported to the airport, flown to Tennessee, unloaded / reloaded, flown back to CT, and delivered to drayage 30 minutes down the road from it's original pickup point. All this in 3 days, for (typically) a few hundred dollars (donated by FedEx...) Wow! By the way, after kickoff I was questioning how a midnight deadline really helped any teams. I guess I now know my answer. BEN |
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#21
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Re: Interesting stories of the 06 building season
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#22
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Re: Interesting stories of the 06 building season
Haha Im in the story!! Art, we are soooooooo good! Deff. the best year so far! At least the one with the most excitement! Cant wait to uncrate Gus at UTC! haha this is going to be interesting. Bye bye best buddy! |
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#23
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Re: Interesting stories of the 06 building season
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#24
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Re: Interesting stories of the 06 building season
Although I am already in the, "FED EX Forgot GUS" story I have another Interesting bit from Team Gus build season.
OK, so everyone knows that in some way, shape, or form, someone on there team is counting the number of teeth on there gears and sprockets right? Well last year that person for team Gus was me. During that time a former team member came up to me while I was counting the teeth on one of the gears from a fischer price motor (which are chock full of yellow- orange grease) and said, "Hey Samm, I'll give you a dollar if you lick that gear." So, as I'm thinking and looking over this disguistingly greasy gear, everyone else is gathering around and Art IV runs to grab his camera (of course). With camera's rolling and the team screaming, "Do it, Do it, Do it!" I start cracking up and say, "No," catching everyone off guard. But then, I just did it! An uproar of Oh My God's came from the team and laughter filled the shop as Ryan handed my the money. Deffinately worth the dollar and the memory! This memory's for you guys, Ryan, Jess, Logan, and Art (my best friend). |
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#25
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Re: Interesting stories of the 06 building season
Our story begins under a dark cloud, and I’m sure many of the mentors and engineers can relate at least in part to what I am going to say.
Unlike past years, our resource pool from work has been severely depleted (for many reasons). Engineers that we counted on in the past have moved on to other endeavors, retired, chose not to return, you name it. Times they are a changin ... So, this year it basically boiled down to me and Mark from Delphi working on the robot. Working on includes; Designing, Instructing, Mentoring, Teaching, Fabricating parts, and Assembling them together. With only the two of us from Delphi doing this, the students and Mike Martus stepped up and carried the heavy load. Many/Most of the parts were fabricated in the shop by the students, including the welding being entirely done by a student. Anyways, on the 3rd Saturday of the build everyone arrived to work on the robot except Mark. At first I wasn't worried, as I knew that Friday night is Bowling night and Mark probably just needed extra sleep. When Mark had not shown up by 9:30 I started to worry – then we got a phone call and it was Mark. He wanted to let us know where he was so we wouldn’t worry that something bad had happened – even though something bad was the reason he hadn’t shown up. Mark was upset as he informed us that when he got home from bowling he found his house was filled with smoke and a fire had started in his basement. Not to scare anyone – no one was home at the time and his house didn’t totally burn down to the ground, but he did lose one of his dogs, all the clothes, and most of the furniture to smoke damage. We told the rest of the team that day – everyone was concerned for Mark and plans were started to try and find a way to help him deal with the loss. We also realized that we would not have him around to help us for a few weeks as he needed to deal with the issues around not having a place to live, clothes to wear, and a sick dog (he saved the retriever by going into the house, finding his dog, and carrying it out). Mark, being the kind of person he is, stopped by an number of times to make sure we were getting everything done - he was concerned about the team missing the build date. We assured him that we would make it, and we did. I am proud of the students, coaches, and mentors dedication and determination to make this FIRST experience happen this year under extremely difficult situations – and as I told the team last Saturday, having completed the 6 week build phase is reason enough to celebrate ...everything after that is cake! And the FedEx truck showed up on time and the right day -so, things are looking up! Last edited by meaubry : 23-02-2006 at 11:50. |
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#26
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Re: Interesting stories of the 06 building season
Not that i have any say in who gets the founders award, but i think FedEx deserves it this year, Sounds like they went above and beyond to help out FIRST!
Last edited by Rombus : 23-02-2006 at 12:42. |
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