To extend or not to extend the ship date!

[mzclayton55]

Originally Posted by Steve W

Deadlines are part of everyday life. If you were trying to win over a client would you like to ask for extentions? If you were the client would you give one?

Even NASA will postpone a flight when the weather is bad. Airlines will even change their schedule because of the weather. That’s the real world!

[Vashts6583]

Speaking as the president of a team who lost both Tuesday and Wednesday due to inclement weather, I still think that the official ship date should not be extended. Not every team has been affected by this very strange blast of arctic weather, so not all teams should benefit from an extension in their deadline. HOWEVER, FIRST might consider extending the ship dates of teams who were affected. Either that, or allow specific teams at regionals an extension in their pit times, depending on their situation, because not all teams at a regional will have been affected. Regardless, teams, like mine, should put in some overtime hours in order to get their robot done by the 20th. I doubt FIRST will do anything (except extend times for the teams that might work under 12' of snow) about the weather, so STICK WITH IT TEAMS!!

May the force, and lots of food, be with you.

[camtunkpa]

I have to agree with many of the posts before me about deadlines are deadlines.Things like this happen many times in the real world. Everyday people have to deal with issues like these.

On a side note delaying ship time would be good for my team right now because we have some gears and shafts out to the guys who do our heat treating and depending on shipping and/or the fix it window we may or may not be assembling our transmissions at Pittsburgh Thank goodness for our practice transmissions. In the end I know the kids on our team are learning a thing or two about logistics and FIRST is all about learning.

[billbo911]

Ship dates, rules and deadlines all share one thing in common, they are your friend.

If that doesn't make sense to you, consider this, without them, you would have no direction. Consider them the same as Design Criteria. Without Design Criteria you would have no way to know what to build.

Honestly, we would love to have extra time to build, but that's because we drag our feet. No one else is to blame, not even the weather. So, how do we meet the deadline? We bust our hump for the next 5 nights. (Actually, we need ours finished for a practice session at St. Francis HS, home of the FemBots, this Saturday.) So, we bust our hump tonight and tomorrow and work with what we have Saturday, then finish everything Sunday and Monday.

[Jaine Perotti]

Originally Posted by FIXIT

Gracious professionalism must be willing to alter scheduled deadlines in order to level the playing field for those teams who have lost 5 after-school build sessions. We cannot require students, teachers, and mentors to take unnessary risk traveling in dangerous conditions to make sure we meet a deadline!

I don't think FIRST is "requiring" anyone to put their lives in danger, nor do I believe that they are showing a lack of "gracious professionalism". They showed plenty of sympathy in the response sent to Tonya here, and I do believe that they understand the difficult situation that many teams are in. You are not being forced by FIRST to drive in bad weather. That is your choice and yours alone. I think it's pretty unfair to judge FIRST negatively and blame them for a situation which they really have no control over.

Originally Posted by mzclayton55

Even NASA will postpone a flight when the weather is bad. Airlines will even change their schedule because of the weather. That’s the real world!

It's true that weather is a highly influential factor in the "real world". However, if FIRST were to extend the deadline because of the weather, why shouldn't they then extend deadlines for teams who don't have as much money, who have lost mentors, or who have problems with team organization?

FIRST does make an effort to level the playing field for all teams, but they can only do this WITHIN REASON. It would be logistically impossible for FIRST to make things 100% fair for everyone, all of the time. Can you imagine being a FIRST official, trying to judge how much extra time each team should receive on a case by case basis? It would truly be an organizational nightmare for FIRST. And if exceptions must be made for bad weather, than exceptions must be made for EVERY OTHER handicapping factor a FIRST team might experience - which definitely would not represent the real world.

So please - try to step into FIRST's shoes for a minute. It would be unreasonable to expect them to be able to place everyone on a level playing field. FIRST isn't all about being fair - instead, it's all about overcoming real-world engineering difficulties. Do the best you can to get as much work done as possible. If you are unable to complete your robot, believe me - there will be plenty of teams willing to help you get back on your feet at the competition. If anyone can overcome a challenge like this, a FIRST team can!

-- Jaine