a white elephant?

[Rich Wong]

A question from my NYC R-Kickoff committee to the Q&A group:

Since this is NYC FIRST! first remote kickoff, we
want it to be worth everyone's time to visit Polytechnic
University in Brooklyn. We are planning to build the
playing field component(s) and have it ready for the R-Kickoff.
Attending teams can look, feel and examine it.

(Don't even try to look in Polytechnic's basement, it is being
built at a remote and secret site!)

Here is the question:

What do you do with it after the kickoff?
It's a big white elephant!

Here are some suggestions being "KICK" around-

1. Keep it (but where it's too big)?

2. Give it to a rookie school?

3. Raffle it to schools attending the R-Kickoff? (bring a truck)

4. Burn it! (... college students are all the same)

What do you think?

[ChrisH]

Originally posted by Rich Wong
A question from my NYC R-Kickoff committee to the Q&A group:

Since this is NYC FIRST! first remote kickoff, we
want it to be worth everyone's time to visit Polytechnic
University in Brooklyn. We are planning to build the
playing field component(s) and have it ready for the R-Kickoff.
Attending teams can look, feel and examine it.

(Don't even try to look in Polytechnic's basement, it is being
built at a remote and secret site!)

Here is the question:

What do you do with it after the kickoff?
It's a big white elephant!

Here are some suggestions being "KICK" around-

1. Keep it (but where it's too big)?

2. Give it to a rookie school?

3. Raffle it to schools attending the R-Kickoff? (bring a truck)

4. Burn it! (... college students are all the same)

What do you think?

Whether it's a big white elephant or not depends in large part on just how big it is. Or are you giving us another hint here?

As I understand it, last year, the field elements out here on the West Coast that were used in the remote Kick-Offs were paid for by local veteran teams. (No, they did not get to see the plans, the work was done by a neutral 3rd party) Those teams then decided what to do with them. Of course they all took them home and used them for their own robot development. They also brought them to various scrimmages and post season competitions.

If no one team is paying for them and they are coming out of funds for the Kick-Off, then I'd have a team volunteer to store it until the regional. Hopefully they would be graciously professional enough to let other teams have access to them during build season.


NOTE: The elements you see at a remote kickoff will be similar to but may not be identical with the "real deal". Last year here on the West Coast ours goals were apparently built correctly per the drawing provided, but the ones in NH were not. Guess which ones became the "standard"? That's right, they changed the drawing to match the NH goals. The differences were minor, many teams would not have noticed them at all, but for a few they caused real problems. SO PAY ATTENTION to any notices about changes to the drawings for the field elements. There may be some changes after Kick-Off.

Just another way FIRST mimics real life....

[Matt Reiland]

I would sell the components at cost, all of the teams building a field need to purchase the raw materials anyway. If you are building an entire field, again raffle it off since there are always teams that will be building the entire field. The key here is the teams need to buy it anyway, if our competition team could have bought it assembled to save time and the price was right, it would be a done deal.

As for burning it, this is high school, not Big Ten Football