[WRRF]: Aug 11 Planning Meeting Notes

[Ken Leung]

Notes taken by Ceal Craig

CalGames 2007 Planning Meeting #3

Teams Present: 100, 114, 115, 192, 604, 668, 692, 766, 846, 1072, 1351, 2141, 2159

Welcome & Introductions
- Introduced teams and many volunteers present!
- Registration completely full at 30 paid teams as of 8/6.

- Review of agenda
Registration Oversubscription Challenge & Increasing Team Limit
Problem Statement: Two teams who have not paid registration fee are interested in competing; registration is currently full at 30 paid teams. WRRF BOD decided to reach out to community before deciding on extending to 36 teams or remaining with 30 as planned.

Assumptions: 7-8 minutes a match; minimum 5 qualifying matches for each team.
FYI: 24 teams only last few years of CalGames

Ideas to support extended to 36 teams:
- Start earlier? We do have an aggressive schedule already though…
- Reduce/eliminate introductions of teams at each match
- Quarter finals limited to one match.
- More opportunity for teams, quantity of them
- Go to six alliances and have byes
- Field 4 robots instead of 3 in an alliance?
- Eliminate quarter finals completely? Only 8 (?) teams for semi-finals
Cons:
- With 36 teams, less matches possibly for more teams.
- If cut Quarter finals, again less match play for some teams
- If finals are important part of competition, maybe go with one less qualifier?
- Less opportunity for participating teams
- Pit time might decrease if the time between matches has to be tighter.
- Recovery time for issues is decreased
- Quality of event for smaller number of teams versus quantity of teams participating
- Responding to issues in quarter finals is a key element of competition.
- Quarter-finals with one match makes winners almost random.
- Typical competition is 3 days. First day is practice and field crew is learning that day. CalGames is the “first day.” Putting the robot ramps away takes more time.
- Trying to open it up may jam us up.
- Experienced teams have often graduated; teams participating may have a higher ratio of new people

Consensus of the Meeting providing input to WRRF BOD:
12 teams voted stay at 30 teams; 2 teams voted move to 36.
NOTE: Less than 50% of registered teams were present.


Logistical issues and setup/teardown plan, support fee work shifts
Volunteer Support Deposit -- Time Blocks:
- Thursday
o Load truck, move truck to venue, unload truck
- Friday
o Noon at this point
o Set up pit area
o Set up main gym w/ underlayment & carpet
o Set up playing field
- Saturday evening
o Clean up
- Sunday morning/early afternoon
o Move truck to storage facility
o Unload truck
Getting carpet & field from NASA-Ames
- Need to be citizens, names will be needed ahead of time to ensure visitor badges are available in office.
Set-up Tasks
- Aiming for faster set up with more detailed assigned tasks. Detailed task list will be provided to teams for these tasks.
- Plastic coated lead shot mallets needed
- Reviewed rough draft handout. Provide input to Ken and Mike directly on details you think are missing
Tear down
- Reviewed rough draft handout. Again provide input to Mike and Ken.
- Loading diagrams for truck will be available
Spider Rack
- Was assembled at one time. Full Rack.
Volunteer Recruitment
- Key areas missing a lead: Inspection, A/V,
- Need people for various groups: queuing, inspection, field crew, field reset,
- Recent alumni are great for refs! Parents for field crew, queuing.
- Field Technical Advisors
- Photographers, Pit Admin,
- Food: free lunch (really!) For volunteers that work during day/competition.

Supplies for CalGames
- Ringers! We have…10 black, 2 red/white, 1 blue/white, 26 blue, 26 red. They pop. Need more ringers from teams!
- Need four lights for top of rack.

- Autonomous change being considered: fixed bonus if robot scores in autonomous.
(a) 0, (b) 5, (c) 10, (d) 15, (e) 20
(a) 1 vote
(b) 1 vote
(c) 3 votes
(d) 6 votes
(3) 1 vote

Workshops
September Workshop
- 9/15 or 9/22. Will depend mostly on availability of space at Santa Clara University. Waiting to hear back on that. Announcement soon! NOTE: ACT test on 9/15… Yom Kippur on 9/22. Conflicts…
- Focus: AM workshops will be morning-long subjects requiring more in-depth study/practice thus providing more time before FIRST 2008. PM workshops will likely be panel discussions on team formation, team governance, communications, etc.
- Have CalGames 2007 volunteer meeting at end of day
- Suggestion: AutoCAD workshop
December Workshop
- Planned for 12/1.
- Focus: mini-workshops on various topics preparing teams for FIRST 2008 competition (motors, physics, rookie team overview, etc.
- Past Workshops:
How to Start Programming, Robot Controller and Programming Software Tools, Robot Physics, Strength of Materials, A Tutorial for Using DC motors System Engineering approach to Robot Design, 3D Studio Max, Rookie Team Orientation to FIRST (Schedules, Tips), Electronics: A short course