Venue issues...

[David Brinza]

The home of the SoCal Regional the past two years, the Great Western Forum, has a couple of issues that FIRST should consider for next year's regional:

The main issue is the closing of the large ramp to teams moving tools and pit supplies in early (8:30 am) on Thursday morning and out after 1:30 pm on Saturday. This led to many individuals carrying supplies down concrete steps at the east entrance. It is true that there is a freight elevator, but the operator would only allow a couple of teams with carts onto the elevator at a time. It took 20 minutes for one of our team members to bring in a cart. The "reason" given for closing the ramp down was for emergency vehicle access. As I chatted with someone from the machine shop van (who also had to walk around to the east side of the Forum to enter), a linen service truck was parked on the ramp for at least 10 minutes (selective enforcement?). Having students carry awkward loads down stairs when a nice, long ramp is available seems contrary to FIRST's commitment to safety.

The lighting around the perimeter of the pit area was pretty dim. I had asked a FIRST safety person her opinion and she agreed that the shadows from the center lighting made the working conditions for pits on the edge of the arena floor poor. I asked the pit admin person to see what could be done to improve the lighting - apparently nothing could be done with the arena lighting configuration.