So what happened at the FIRST forum

[Ricky Q.]

TIMS is Team Information Management System, where all your team info is kept and updated through.

[Rob Colatutto]

i agree with the food complaints. the food at the long island regional was very bad too, and i heard the epcot food at the party wasn't worth eating

[Bill Gold]

In response to food problems with either San Jose or Los Angeles... In order for FIRST to be able to use the San Jose State Event Centre or the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena they have to sign a contract which includes a stipulation that the only foods/beverages that people can consume onsite are ones purchased through the vendors in the building. Yes, they're over priced and it's a pain. But you've got to deal with it, because there's nothing FIRST can do about it. What people have done in the past, and most likely will continue to do is sneaking food into the arenas. My understanding is.. the only food that the Regional has any control over is in some cases the food at the Team Dinner.

[Jon K.]

Originally posted by Nataku
the food at the long island regional was very bad too, and i heard the epcot food at the party wasn't worth eating

I didnt think the food at long island was that bad why did you say that i have heard others say this as well and i was just wondering why everyone is saying this

the food at the UTC regional in New Haven was bad and it was overpriced. by the end of the weekend most people had found a deli/little market place where there was decent food from what i had heard i didnt know about it until the last day but whatever and most people by saturday knew of the soda machines upstairs in the parking garage which where still pricey but not as bad as inside

[Ian W.]

well, you guys think you had a problem of bad/over-priced food, at least you had food. at NYC, there were no food vendors within the competition site. none, not even one from columbia. luckily we found a really good deli, and everyday we had to count up who wanted what, and send a few people over to get it. became quite annoying, but it was good priced and good food.

[Ashley Weed]

Mid Atlantic Regional - go outside of the arena, walk down the street that goes by the student center and the cafe place, continue for close to a half a mile, and they have these little kiosk things set up. Now it may be me because I live in the middle of nowhere, but they have the nifftiest sandwiches I have ever seen. You get a 'fast food' sandwich, there are wbout 15 to choose from that are all called 'Fat ________', not only do you get the sandwich, but inside the sandwich is also fries. These things are huge, and you don't have to wait around to get food either unlike the cave.

[Jack]

Was it discussed about giving out more than one max license? Personally, i don't know how anyone but one person could learn max at the same time w/o sharing a computer. And so, i think that first really needs to rethink the one license otherwise teams need to buy extras which are about $500 - A lot for teams w/ small ammounts of extra cash. Or at least give teams extra "learner" licenses like they have for Inventor (At least i think they do.)

Just a thought for FIRST

[DaBruteForceGuy]

Did they mention anything else about the kit of parts? other than a more standard shaft on the chipuwah motors? Did they actually say that they are going to add another reserve tank to the kit and reverse the celenoids from always shut to always open?
What pneumatics parts were they referring to when they said some might not be availiable next year?

[sanddrag]

I don't think there should be different kits for rookie teams. It seems kind of unfair. We could always use another battery charger or compressorn anyway. Besides, if we didn't need them, we could just sell them on eBay to earn a couple extra bucks.

eBay - The World's Online Marketplace

[Bill Gold]

sanddrag:

You've got to look at all of this from FIRST's point of view. It takes on the order of $250,000 to run a regional event, plus they have to pay people to work for them. They've got to look at any way they can cut a few expenses here and there. The battery chargers and the compressors are extremely expensive parts of the kit.

If they only had to hand out ~250-300 chargers to 3yr veterans and younger that would save them a ton of money. The compressor is also very expensive to supply, which is why at the SJ Forum we suggested that with regards to 3 yr+ teams, FIRST only send out the compressor to teams who order cylinders. So basically, what we suggested wouldn't necessarily be a "rookie kit", but a 3 yr and younger kit, in which a team would receive every component. What are your thoughts on that?

-Bill


<edit>
btw, if you feel strongly about these issues then you should probably attend yourself, or have your team send a representative or 2 to the Forum next year. You're from CA, San Jose isn't that expensive to visit for a day. It's kinda like $@#$@#$@#$@#$@#ing about taxation w/o representation, but in this case it's up to your teams to represent yourselves. It's not as hard as it used to be when the single forum was held in Manchester.
</edit>

[Alfred Thompson]

Being an AP teacher I talk to the AP (ETS) people on a regular basis. There is no way they CAN change that schedule. Earlier and they run into two problems. One is that there is not enough time to cover the matterial and two is that the places they use for grading are not available earlier. They can't move the dates later because a lot of schools would be closed by then. Plus they need time to grade the exams (it takes a couple of weeks believe it or not) in a timely manner so they can get the results to colleges and the like.

Personally the current Championship dates work great for me. It's during April vacation so I and my students do not miss school for it.

BTW I would think about running AP CS review sessions in Orlando if anyone was interested. Fat chance of many being interested in anything but robots there and then though.

[Wayne C.]

Bill- regarding the "rookie kit"-

part of the competition's consistency is that all teams get the same kit to begin with and all PAY THE SAME PRICE. If FIRST wants to ship a stripped down kit to senior teams who request them, let them knock $1000 off the registration fee. Otherwise everyone should get the same setup.

If you have usable equipment from past years more power to you- you paid for it already!

If they really want to be progressive, give a list of equipment teams can choose from for your own design. I have a closet full of pneumatics we have never used. I sure could use more chargers though.

WC

(PS- I think the May date for Orlando is great. And I teach AP courses- we always manage to survive one way or the other )

[Trashed20]

Was anything said at any of the forums about shipping the Autodesk and Microsoft as soon as the team register? Also was anything said about clarification of the copyrighted music usage in the animations?

[Joel J]

Originally posted by Ian W.
ugh, i don't like one more thing i heard. if they keep pushing nats back, it will be during APs, and that will extremely screw over many people. i say that if they're gona push nats back anymore, they need to jump back to after APs, for two reasons.

1) No crazed students taking 4 or 5 APs, who are also very important to the team, goign insane at nats because of the study/work load.

2) Makes everyone's lives who take APs much easier. instead of worrying about APs at nats, you just relax and purge your mind of all unimportant information .

the other idea is to push nats forward somemore, but i don't know how that would work. of course, the last idea is for the stupid college board to push APs back, but they've monopolized the industry, so they dont' give a @#$!$@#$!$@#$!$@#$!$ to other people's needs. so dean, woody, who ever from FIRST that is reading this, please reconsider the timing of nats this year, and if it's impossible to change this year, at least try to make it after APs next year. thanks.

CRAP! (sorry about that).. I just got my school calendar in the mail and according to it IB exams begin on May 2nd, 2003 and end on May 16, 2003. I guess I won't be going to nationals next year, unless of course I quit IB.. what a bad day this is.

[Edit]I scanned the schedule sent to me and it can be viewed here: Schedule. The image is about 200KB and its dimensions are 757x1024 (that should be a 30-45 second download on a 56.6Kbps modem).[/Edit]

[Ian W.]

Originally posted by Alfred Thompson
Being an AP teacher I talk to the AP (ETS) people on a regular basis. There is no way they CAN change that schedule. Earlier and they run into two problems. One is that there is not enough time to cover the matterial and two is that the places they use for grading are not available earlier. They can't move the dates later because a lot of schools would be closed by then. Plus they need time to grade the exams (it takes a couple of weeks believe it or not) in a timely manner so they can get the results to colleges and the like.

Personally the current Championship dates work great for me. It's during April vacation so I and my students do not miss school for it.

BTW I would think about running AP CS review sessions in Orlando if anyone was interested. Fat chance of many being interested in anything but robots there and then though.

the only problem is that i'm taking more than one or two APs. also, many people have nothing to do after APs. sure, i have regents, but those are a joke. from ~may 14 - 20 (whenever AP week is over) till the end of june, i sit in school and goof off. what better thing to do than go to florida. not only do i not miss important stuff, but i get to wind down from APs, and have the best time of my life. i feel that robotics is much more important to me than a standerdized test, but the @#$!$@#$!$@#$!$@#$!$ college board has a monopoly on tests, so i'm screwed in that sense .