Championship Uncrating

[ttldomination]

Hey Guys, on Bill's Blog, he suggested that the championship uncrating time be changed from 6-9 to 5-8 on Wednesday. I suggested that we keep it from 6-9 to mainly avoid traffic. What do you think?

[RMS11]

Originally Posted by ttldomination

Hey Guys, on Bill's Blog, he suggested that the championship uncrating time be changed from 6-9 to 5-8 on Wednesday. I suggested that we keep it from 6-9 to mainly avoid traffic. What do you think?

Agreed. I am from Atlanta and the traffic it usually TERRIBLE from 5-7 on the weekdays...

[Phalanx]

The last few years we've traveled to Championships we don't usually land at the Airport until 6 or 7 PM, then getting to the hotel etc.. Hence we have found it difficult to get to the conference center on Wednesday between 6-9.

It also depends on what hours the conference center is willing to be open as well. I know the staff is all volunteer and this would be asking a lot, but something like 7-11 might be better and allow more teams access that Wednesday evening.

[dtengineering]

While I look forward to one day uncrating a robot last year at the championships, I know that last year when I went to volunteer that it was extremely difficult to catch a flight out of Vancouver that would get me in to Atlanta by 5:00. A quick check of Travelocity.ca shows only one flight option that would get us there on time... leaving Vancouver at 5:40am (meaning getting to the airport shortly after 4:00am) and arriving in Atlanta at 3:30 pm. (Assuming that the Transportation Safety Authority doesn't confiscate our tool-bearing luggage, like they did to the FTC teams I was travelling with last year, that is just early enough to get there and uncrate at 5:00.)

I think for teams on the west coast later is probably better. Overseas (and probably Hawaiian and Alaskan teams) are likely stuck with an extra night of hotel bills anyways.

But if FIRST is really interested in changing the timing of some things... how about making kickoff an hour later...?

Jason

[ttldomination]

YES!!! I agree. Instead of making 9 in the morning, it should be more like 9 at night!!!

[BJT]

Ya, 9:00 is pretty early, but our west coast friends have to get up a bit earlier than that.

[Brandon Holley]

the later the better! for teams that are flying down to atlanta Wednesday after school/work....i know in the past our flights have been late enough that we actually missed it.

[David Brinza]

I certainly hope FIRST does not move up the uncrating time. Last year, we barely got into the pits in time to uncrate. I hope some consideration is given to the teams flying from the west coast before this decision is made.

As far as kick-off is concerned, doesn't everybody like to get out of bed at 5 am on a Saturday? Last year, after picking-up team members, I got to USC right at 7 am - just in time!

Of course, the Hawaii teams probably just stay awake overnight for their kickoff event at 5 am!

I agree with Jason - why not move the kickoff an hour later?

[Elgin Clock]

I hate to burst everyone's bubble here, but early uncrating (up until this point - and I'm going to assume in '09) is optional in Atlanta.
You don't HAVE to be in there Wednesday night, it just helps a bit if you have an elaborate pit set-up, and also helps with the logicistics of removing crates from the venue by the crew of the shipping/drayage company.

We all uncrate the same morning we arrive at every one of the regionals we attend, so what's the big deal if you don't uncrate Wednesday night in Atlanta?

If you are really that worried about not being able to uncrate because of a time change, just get to the venue earlier.
I'll also question if early uncrating is moved up, then will the driver's meeting be moved up as well to an earlier time?
We had a lot of (exscuse my bluntness) really dumb questions at last year's driver's meeting which teams whould have known by the time Atlanta rolled around which wasted a lot of time in 2008, that pushed that meeting really behind schedule, but that's a whole other topic altogether.

As far as traffic in Atlanta, I'm going to guess only a few percentage of the teams who travel to atlanta even care about street traffic.
Public transportation is completely filled by FIRSters from all over the place while in Atlanta, & so are sidewalks.

Sorry to the locals, and to those who drive to Atlanta & use their cars, but you're in the smallest percentile of that argument.


Anddd... since I'm on a roll here... lol

Originally Posted by David Brinza

I agree with Jason - why not move the kickoff an hour later?

I would argue that Kickoff is recorded & available as both a video & transcripted written archive at any time you want to wake up & watch (or read) it that day, and from that point on all season. To those who complain about the start time of kickoff, how many of you actually watch the whole thing?
Do you skip right to the game unveiling instead of watching the whole thing like the important speeches, & statistics about the program you love?
Be honest.

[Brandon Holley]

Elgin,
Im going to agree with you that the uncrating time is optional, but lets be real here, you want as much as you can get thursday morning to make your adjustments/fix the robot that was destroyed at its last regional. I think where they have it now is a fine time, but I still see problems with people being able to make it then. Moving it earlier, if only for the purpose of making it earlier, does not make sense to me.

We have a lot of problems (as im sure many teams do) with getting the kids out of school for 2 days as it is. We try to cut back on as much missed school as possible. This means we cannot leave boston until after school on wednesday, and with waiting for chaperones, it brings us to about 5 or 6 oclock meeting time at the airport....add on a flight with 1 layover usually and theres no chance we'd make it at all. I'm sure this is the case for a lot of teams.

Regardless of the outcome, were not going to be there early enough, but it seems to me like you should give as many teams a chance as possible to take advantage of the early uncrate.


I'll also go ahead and agree that the drivers meetings have been filled with "dumb questions" in the past (everyone I've been to since 2002)...but I mean, they do tend to entertain.

[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

We all uncrate the same morning we arrive at every one of the regionals we attend, so what's the big deal if you don't uncrate Wednesday night in Atlanta?

Were you in Altanta last year? In spite of the Wednesday uncrating opportunity, the pits were a nightmare on Thursday morning. Some of the crates weren't moved from the aisles until almost noon. Of course, the compressed floor space in GWCC was a factor as well.

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

Do you skip right to the game unveiling instead of watching the whole thing like the important speeches, & statistics about the program you love?
Be honest.

You're more likely to listen to those speeches live rather than recorded. If you go to the kick-off event (and get there on time), you're a captive audience. When the rest of our team gets together on kick-off day, we jump right to the game unveiling. Although last year, the hybrid demo by Dave Lavery before the unveiling of Overdrive got our attention. (We do replay the key speeches for students and parents at other times, but on kick-off day, it's all about the game!)