No Change Rule Yields More Openness

[archiver]

Posted by Ken Patton at 02/27/2001 5:48 PM EST


Engineer on team #65, The Huskie Brigade, from Pontiac Northern High School and GM Powertrain.


In Reply to: My unofficial TEAM UPDATE from FIRST
Posted by Raul on 02/26/2001 1:19 PM EST:



Thanks for your efforts in clearing this up Raul, it makes things clearer for everyone.

Our team has been working under the the same interpretation as what you orginally posted, so I am relieved to hear that we interpreted correctly.

As to whether or not the rules *should* be that way, I can understand where Bill (and I also think the Bomb Squad) come from. They get it right the first time, every time, in my opinion. I wish we were that good.

Ken

[archiver]

Posted by Raul at 02/25/2001 9:56 PM EST


Engineer on team #111, Wildstang, from Rolling Meadows & Wheeling HS and Motorola.


In Reply to: Changes
Posted by Bill Beatty on 02/25/2001 12:57 PM EST:



Bill,

It is funny that you are quoting M19, I thought you were referring to a subsequent update that I missed. I spoke to Eric at FIRST the first week after kickoff and asked him about the rule regarding parts made after the original ship date.

In our discussion, as I remember it, he said that it was OK to fabricate any new parts from legal materials at the competition site and up to Tuesday after the event. The statement in M19 about the parts not having to be identical was a very specific question of mine that he decided to answer via M19 instead of a usual Q&A update. So you see, I actually thought he wrote M19 just to official answer my questions. But I can see where the way it is written can be misleading in either direction.

The statement "We rely on your gracious professionalism to not continue fabrication ..." was referring to the ship dates after each event, not just the original ship date.

I'm no psychologist, but I remember reading that we each tend to interpret rules that may be vague in a way that is beneficial to our way of thinking. Thus, I may be wrong; so, just to make sure, I will call Eric and get his interpretation again in case I was remembering or interpreting our previous conversation incorrectly.

Raul