Previous Year's spare parts

[Gary Dillard]

Here's a not-so-hypothetical question:

S.P.A.M. went with the Nothing-But-Dewalt gearboxes for the drive train again this year (as we did last year). Last year we built (modified per Joe Johnson's white paper) 4 sets for the robot and 4 sets as spares. We never needed the spares. This year we again built 4 sets plus 4 sets as spares. I anticipate that at the end of the season we will have all 8 sets of spares sitting on the shelf, unused, that we cannot use for any future competition since they were built in a previous year. This is different from purchased spares (which we can use in other years) since we actually performed fabrication on them.

Could we sell, trade or donate them to another team next year? Would that team be allowed to use them? I'd say by the letter of the law maybe, but certainly by the intent yes if they bookkeep the allowable cost since the raw parts are readily available to any team. It doesn't give anyone an unfair advantage. What do you think?