Survey of the 2004 NJ Regional- The good, the Bad and the So-So

[Jessica Boucher]

We had this problem when I used to work in the Media Tent at Nationals, dealing with the flow of traffic around the smaller fields so that view wasnt obstructed but at the same time, flow was kept moving.

I honestly think that a roped off walkway that is monitored by some volunteers could serve as the solution to the alternate route to the pits. Or, roping off a row of seats from the stands to the pit staircase would work similarly.

[The Lucas]

I had a problem with this one volunteer who Bearhugged several members of our team after we won the special Judge's Award. Now, I understand that some people get caught up in excitement of the moment, but that does not justify the number of bruised ribs our team sustained. I didn't catch the name of this volunteer, but he was "Big" and wore this crazy yellow flowered hawiian shirt. Just kidding Mike that was pretty funny .

Originally Posted by Big Mike

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carlo
Some consistency in noisemakers is needed. Banging sticks together was banned, but horns, drums, rattles and cowbells were allowed. And the rules changed day by day. Perhaps a clear explanantion of what is allowed and what is banned - with specific examples - would help.

Almost as funny as you misquoting Carol by calling her "Carlo". She looks nothing like Carlo Sr. or Carlo Lite. In fact Carlo Sr. is almost as big as you. I am glad you like our new MOE Wobblies noisemakers. We will make sure you can hear them in your sleep just like the MOE Stix. One nice feature of the MOE Wobblies is: Lexan is significantly harder to burn then wood.

On a more serious note, I think the NJ regional was a great success. All the volunteers did a great job, especially those brave enough to deal with the new scoring system. I loved how you they let people go down onto the field to dance. Its great for the energy of the competition. Some of those people were nonstop and they must have danced for 2 hours straight. The food fiasco was a bit of a downer but it could have been worse (just look at those poor people at VCU). I like the size of the new area, pits had a decent amount of space (I still remember NJ 2001 when we had fire code issues and they limited attendance). Finally, the way the robot inspectors came around to your pit was very nice.

[Mike Schroeder]

alright the whole dyslexic thing was fixed, and what can i say, your team members just looked like they needed a hug, to be honest you guys looked a little green with envy after loosing (this would have made more sense if you guys wore bright blue, then i could have just said you guys looked blue)

[JohnBoucher]

Rich,
I thing that you and the other volunters deserves a HUGE thanks for all the pictures that you've posted from the NJ regional. I know a lot of my questions about scoring and penalities were answered by looking at the pics you posted.

jb

[galewind]

To add my thoughts in the appropriate section:

On a whole, the volunteers, procedure, etc, was run fantastically! For the first event of the season, it seemed amazing.. the volunteers at this regional are some amazing people, and I loved every single one of them! The queueing and pit people were great, the staging and field setup and layout was nice, etc!

I hope that for next year:

1) we make the pit accessible on both sides to keep a traffic flow and to not bind up one set of steps

2) FIRST can negotiate with the SBA to at least provide "non-fried" food alternatives, or to be more flexible with food being brought into the venue.

3) FIRST can get the final details of the computer scoring system completed before the first event.

[Aignam]

Volunteers - excellent! Thank you all!

Pit flow - seemed quite smooth. Again, great job by the volunteers.

Food - slightly beyond your control, again, but overpriced and limited.

Noise - very well controlled.

One of the things that I don't like, but won't be limited to this regional only, is the field reset. Getting those eighteen balls into the ball drop was so tedious, and they kept bouncing every which way when the volunteers went to reset it. I hope next year's game is designed with field reset in mind to allow for more efficient competitions.

Overall, excellent job! This is what keeps people coming back to New Jersey year after year, aside from the competition.

[mtaman02]

as mentioned in previous posts by me and others

Seating and Location. Seating was excellent plenty of room for an additional 10 teams (estimated). Location for the arena was easy to get to, since i wasn't the one who had to drive.

Pits, Neatly organized and plenty of space. Pit flow ran quite smooth. Pit noise was under a controlled level. However the Teams by the field could've been louder.

Food, WAY TO EXPENSIVE in the arena nevertheless thats their prices and almost certain non-negotiable, As far outside food sources scarce in the immediate area but with somewalking i and a few others found a pizzeria and chinese food place, spanish food place and a 99cent store lil did i realize there was a mc-donalds not to far away from that. It woulda been nice to let some outside food in doors since there were no tables outside to eat off of that i could find and weather conditions were iffy.

Otherswise you get a B+ to an A- rating


Edit:/ Coming from Rich. He says he is taking all the comments and forwarding them to the Regional Director.

[Mike Schroeder]

it wasnt really all that difficult, at NJ we were running 10 minute rounds, in 5,6,7 minutes (although i will admitt it had to do ALOT with the speed we got robots on and off the feild, 2 seconds after the match ended, the teams were already taking their controllers off, and the new teams putting theirs on, as soon as the head ref gave the goahead, the robots went on to the feild for the next match

not to sound annoying, but i would just like to point out, that like rich said the food was beyond FIRST control, you cannot sign a contract, with most places, and have it not include food, that is a contract that the venue has with the food companies, and somthign they are likely not to break, for FIRST unfortunatly

[KathieK]

One more thing that seems to be a problem this year is the automatic release of the balls when the small yellow ball is knocked off the tee. There were issues with it at the UTC Scrimmage, and the balls did not release at least once when we successfully hit the ball off the tee during autonomous mode.