FRC Pit size 2015

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Libby K

Safety, for sure. I know at one of our events we had a 'take a pin!'/brochure stand outside of our pit by about 3 inches, and the Safety Advisors wouldn't leave our space until we scooted it inside of the taped line. (Not sure how 3 extra people refusing to leave our pit made it any safer, but...)

We got a frowny face on the next morning's form for it.

Pretty sure getting a frowny face from a safety advisor means you're doing it right.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Cory

Pretty sure getting a frowny face from a safety inspector means you're doing it right.

Libby got the name right. You should too. They're Safety Advisors, not inspectors. They don't exactly have the authority some of them seem to claim.

If one of the green-shirted folk tells you to do something that doesn't make sense, try to comply without compromising real safety, and then ask him or her to join you in a conversation about it with the Lead Safety Advisor. (The alternative is to laugh and say "You have no power here. Begone before someone drops a robot on you!" And then suggest the conference.)

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Libby got the name right. You should too. They're Safety Advisors, not inspectors. They don't exactly have the authority some of them seem to claim.

If one of the green-shirted folk tells you to do something that doesn't make sense, try to comply without compromising real safety, and then ask him or her to join you in a conversation about it with the Lead Safety Advisor. (The alternative is to laugh and say "You have no power here. Begone before someone drops a robot on you!" And then suggest the conference.)

What happens when the person telling ordering you to do something that doesn't make sense is the Lead Safety Advisor?

That's happened to us, too.

Off-the-thread-topic, but: I'm looking at this from two hats - a mentor, and a Volunteer Coordinator.

No matter how much I try on the VC end, I still see a few SA's being way out of control and ridiculous. I've seen a Safety Advisor yell at kids at the event I was working. Yell. I told him to calm down or I'd ask him to go home. There is no reason for any volunteer to yell at kids. Your job is to be there and make the event experience the best possible for the students...it's not about you. That's always my reminder to volunteers, every morning. And yet, it still happens. I'm not even sure how to fix it anymore.

As a mentor? Hey, maybe stop yelling at my kids. What you're asking doesn't make any sense. Let's talk about this calmly instead of you standing in our pit in 'protest' until we fix your issue.

Back-On-Topic-Point being - keep everything inside of your 8x8 (or 9x9 or 10x10 if you're lucky) box, and hopefully you won't have to deal with that.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by Libby K

As a mentor? Hey, maybe stop yelling at my kids. What you're asking doesn't make any sense. Let's talk about this calmly instead of you standing in our pit in 'protest' until we fix your issue.

This happens to us at least once a year and it is absolutely infuriating. I guess we just didn't have enough baking soda for our non-spillable batteries or something.

[JVN]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Libby got the name right. You should too. They're Safety Advisors, not inspectors. They don't exactly have the authority some of them seem to claim.

If one of the green-shirted folk tells you to do something that doesn't make sense, try to comply without compromising real safety, and then ask him or her to join you in a conversation about it with the Lead Safety Advisor. (The alternative is to laugh and say "You have no power here. Begone before someone drops a robot on you!" And then suggest the conference.)

I've been told that judges will often confer with other volunteers at the event to ensure that judged awards will go to teams who are deserving in all aspects of the competition. Teams need to listen to the green shirted volunteers, be gracious, professional and graciously professional about it.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by JVN

I've been told that judges will often confer with other volunteers at the event to ensure that judged awards will go to teams who are deserving in all aspects of the competition. Teams need to listen to the green shirted volunteers, be gracious, professional and graciously professional about it.

Last year we were told by the Safety Advisors that we would no longer be allowed to work in our pit unless we cleaned/tidied our pit up to their standards. They seemed certain that they had the authority to do this. Then again, we were once told by a Lead Inspector that we wouldn't be able to win the Chairman's Award at an event because one of our students was seen running nearby the playing the field. So I'm certain that the standards on the power of individual event volunteers varies greatly by event.

[wesbass23]

As long as we are on the topic of safety and such (sorry this got off topic OP) what is the idea behind having to wear clear safety glasses? I have a personal pair of slightly tinted safety glasses that I use at work/home that I mainly wear because they are comfortable (some say I have a weird shaped head). At a few events I have been asked to put on a different pair of glasses or leave the event claiming that they needed to be able to "see my eyes" but could not give a better reason.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by wesbass23

As long as we are on the topic of safety and such (sorry this got off topic OP) what is the idea behind having to wear clear safety glasses? I have a personal pair of slightly tinted safety glasses that I use at work/home that I mainly wear because they are comfortable (some say I have a weird shaped head). At a few events I have been asked to put on a different pair of glasses or leave the event claiming that they needed to be able to "see my eyes" but could not give a better reason.

The FIRST Safety Manual specifies certain tints as being allowed, with all others being disallowed. If your tinted glasses are one of the allowed tints, and someone tells you to change, I suggest asking them to reference the FIRST Safety Manual before asking you to change glasses. If they won't, pull out your electronic copy and show them. If they still refuse, I suggest having a chat with the Lead Safety Advisor or VC about someone going beyond the requirements in an unproductive manner, or some such topic.

Now, as far as "seeing the eyes", that is a reasonable request. The tints are allowed to help deal with the brightness in some areas. But once eyes are harder to see, then there is actually a real risk that you can't see something as well as you need to.