Feedback for 2006 Lone Star Regional

[Kevin Sevcik]

So here's your official thread to post the good, bad, and ugly of this year's Lone Star Regional. I saw a few people in the LSR thread say something about a few issues, and I'd like to know what those were. And yes, all posts here will be rather quickly communicated to the regional director. Also, for my edification, how many teams made use of the spare parts desk? Specifically, the small parts section with screws and whatnot. Is there any commonly used item that we're missing or don't have enough of?

[Tazlikesrobots]

I think everyone did an excellent job! Expecially the field reset crew.

We never had a problem getting what we needed (especially wire ties) from spare parts or other teams...

[Andrew Rudolph]

I thought it was neat that you guys managed to get ahead of schedule. But I would much rather have the competition running on time or a little late than fast. Its hard enough to get robots turned around but when you have the Field running ahead of time and teams having only a short amount of time in between matches it makes this more chaotic than it needs to be. Then on that the pit announcer needed to have better communication with the Field, we would come for our "final" call and wait outside the door to go to the on field cue a few times. And the pit announcer doesn't need to yell at everyone. I understand they want people to go to opening ceremonies, but having the pit announcer telling you your not allowed to practice or work on your robot, talk or do anything but sit in the stands is pretty rude. And alliance pairings took waaaaay too long.

The good parts were pretty great though, The facilities are second to none. Most of the people running the Field were very helpful and courteous which is better than other competitions I have been to. The team social is a great event, I think its the only way to have good clean fun that people wont break their necks or whatever happened in those old ones. The music was at an acceptable level and it didn't have moments where the DJ seemed to leave the cha cha slide on repeat all day. The inspection process was really smooth and the NASA Machine shop was outstandingly helpful. I liked the practice Field in another room, it was good to have room and not lots of onlookers while you work on code or test the robot.

This is my second year coming to Houston and I thoroughly enjoy the regional. The negatives really nagged me during the competition, but nothings perfect.

[GB330033]

Though I enjoyed the regional for the most part, my single issue was with the time. I understand that the regional was ahead of schedule, but it seemed as though the directors became obesessed with this, and tried to make EVERYTHING run fast. I never got a chance to eat lunch (in the whole 30 minutes or so that we had) because I was trying to get our robot prepped for the elims. Why not take advantage of being ahead of schedule and give the teams a break? Isn't the whole point of being ahead of schedule to have extra time?

[JaneYoung]

ok - here you go -
1. spare parts:
we used them a couple of times for nuts and things that we ran short on and we used it while looking for materials trying to help other teams.
A suggestion would be to stock some spare victors and spikes though we understand why not.

2. first aid station:
it seemed over stressed and understaffed. Don't know what LSR could do with that. I don't know about - in general - but when we need help, we need help.

3. the visiting schools:
they were much more manageable and courteous this go-round. Smaller groups with more adult supervision and the children seemed delighted to be in the robotics atmosphere. They were very respectful and gracious. Kudos to the schools!

4. UL is cool. I like. Helpful, reasonable, educational, with a planned course of action.

That's what I know today.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Jane

ok - here you go -
1. spare parts:
we used them a couple of times for nuts and things that we ran short on and we used it while looking for materials trying to help other teams.
A suggestion would be to stock some spare victors and spikes though we understand why not.

2. first aid station:
it seemed over stressed and understaffed. Don't know what LSR could do with that. I don't know about - in general - but when we need help, we need help.

3. the visiting schools:
they were much more manageable and courteous this go-round. Smaller groups with more adult supervision and the children seemed delighted to be in the robotics atmosphere. They were very respectful and gracious. Kudos to the schools!

4. UL is cool. I like. Helpful, reasonable, educational, with a planned course of action.

That's what I know today.

I remembered one more:
5. The concessions staff @ Reliant Center were very concerned with the monetary exchanges with a couple of the International teams. The team members were giving them too much money, in one case a very large bill, and it would have been easy to rip them off. The language barrier with one of the teams made it impossible to communicate. (Please keep in mind that some of our Texas drawl does not help with communication at times either.) I picked up on one & was able to botch a couple of phrases and hand mime.
When I went back for some more coffee the same concessions folks told me it had happened again with another team. I alerted the staff @ the volunteer table and they dealt with it. A suggestion might be to have a home team volunteer to provide a team member as host for interpretations & a sheet with money breakdown at the volunteer table. You may already be doing that -

A cool outcome, one of the teams whose language I had botched so horribly, came and tied a lovely giveaway bracelet on my wrist. It goes in the team scrapbook.