How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by mac

Hi Ed, Good to here from you. I met you at The"Battle O Baltimore"2008. You were listed to come last year. What happened? I like to follow your Team 191, from a distance. I'm very proud of their community involvement.

Will give some snow!
Mentor Mac
Thomas McCubbin
Mccubbin99@live.com

Lack of commitment from the students for going to the event so we canceled.

[Foster]

We've lost about 10 hours due to the recent snow, but we will make it up on Friday. School is closed, but our build space is open, so we are working 8AM - 8PM and should catch up.

We spent the last few days building multi page punch lists so we know what to do, the order it need to get done in and the priority, so we should be able to rock through quite a bit on Friday. Friday, Sat, Sun and Monday are our four push days working 12 hour days. At the end of Monday we will either be 99% done or 99% dead.

[wilsonmw04]

Greetings folks,

Looks like those who have lost multiple weeks of build time due to weather will not be getting relief from FIRST. I've just had my first full meeting with my kids in 13 days today. We are going to work as many hours as we can through Sunday before the next storm comes in Monday.

I am having a hard time believing that FIRST doesn't feel the urgent need for relief for smaller teams with little or know corporate support. Working out of a school is not something we want to do, it's something we have to do. We are having to choose between meeting a deadline and following district policy. I know the robot is just the vehicle, but it is hard to get excited about a "brave little toaster" when we could have done so much more given the same amount of build time as others had. I'm sorry for being negative. I'm just not feeling very inspired atm.

[rsegrest]

Believe it or not Team 2582 in Lufkin Texas (90 miles north of Houston)...has lost 1 day due to snow...2 - 3 weeks out for a hurricane is normal but SNOW!?

Actually it's been kinda fun for us because we only get snow once every 10 years or so and even then it doesn't last long...

Wilsonm,
I understand the disappointment but if you look at it another way it forces the team to come up with a better game strategy than they perhaps would have if they had not missed all this time. I'm in the same boat as you regarding corporate support and building at the school. I can't imagine doing this during hurricane season (we are an evacuation town for most of the Gulf Coast region) and losing 3 weeks because we have no power anywhere for 150 miles and another Rita or Katrina blew through. Don't knock the 'brave little toaster' he had a lot of positives in his own right...

Best of luck and hope the snow lets up soon!

[hipsterjr]

Here in Charleston SC we haven't seen measurable in over 5 years. Tonight we lost an hour after 1 inch dropped and everyone rushed home. we are getting ~3-4 inches tonight so we may lose our first day on Saturday.

[oddboy]

we have lost about 12 days because of the snow it sucks having 38 inches on the ground then having the school closed for 10 days straight then another 2 during the week. I hate FCPS and northern va right now

[gblake]

Originally Posted by qwertyuiop[]\

Well the snow just started to come down in northern Virginia(again) and the fairfax county has locked us out of the school! im just wondering how other teams are dealing or have dealt with the increased amount of winter weather this year

Here is a picture of the aftermath of that storm (I think all Northern VA schools have been closed since the Thursday afternoon this thread got started). We just aren't equipped to deal with this much of the white stuff.

It's now Monday, and the forecast for tomorrow is 7-16 inches more.
7"-16" more
I suspect some area teams are being forced to switch to their Plan B designs; and I suspect some are learning to plan for snow disruptions when planning how to use their build season.

Blake

[qwertyuiop[]\]

Historic snowfalls= historically shoddy robots

[wilsonmw04]

We didn't have school all last week. With the storm coming in, this week may be busted as well. Plan "B" has already been thrown out the window. I just hope we have something to drive when ship date comes around.

I broken down today and drove the 20 miles to school to work on the robot. The roads were a mess (Thank goodness for Jeeps!). I didn't feel very inspirational doing it though.

[SteveGPage]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

We didn't have school all last week. With the storm coming in, this week may be busted as well. Plan "B" has already been thrown out the window. I just hope we have something to drive when ship date comes around.

I broken down today and drove the 20 miles to school to work on the robot. The roads were a mess (Thank goodness for Jeeps!). I didn't feel very inspirational doing it though.

There are a lot of us out there that feel the same way. We, too, are locked out, and with the next storm starting tomorrow and Wednesday, I don't expect that we will meet until maybe next Monday (The Superintendent is adamant that we are 'closed' and NO ONE can get into the school!). We have already missed something like 8 or 9 days, and will probably miss 7 more. We usually get 5 inches of snow a year, this year it will be closer to 5 feet.

But having said that - here is a slim glimmer of hope that I have seen. Emails are going around, kids are trying to do something, even if it is just looking at the code, fine tuning CAD drawings, drawing a new team logo, etc... at least they, to some degree, "own" this. The way things are going, we are going to also have a tough time to ship something that actually runs the way we imagined - but I think we will ship something, and we will have something there to compete with. I know it can seem a bit cliche, but it really is the journey, not the destination that matters. If, at the end, we have a robot that drives in a straight line, and occationally scores, then for this season, it will be a victory.

For the teachers like you, who year after year, work with these kids and try to inspire them to do their best, you are making a difference. Sometimes it is hard to see when you are in the midst of a mess like this, but one day you will see how your efforts to reach them, reached them. They may not show it right away, but the seed at least has been planted, and one day, through things that you all and all the teachers out there have taught them, it will bear fruit, and they will finally "get it!"

Hang in there!

Best regards,

Steve

[Jeff Pahl]

Between the weather closings (3 so far including tonight, and probably will lose tomorrow also) and the 4 days we can't work because the students have finals for a week, we've lost about a weeks worth of time.

[1086VEX]

we counted them up today and were up to 10 days so far

[Pjdaley13]

We are in northern Delaware, we have not been in the shop, locked out by the school district for close to two weeks. We organized as much of the programming work outside of the school, built our crate, and did admin type stuff, but we are in a hole. We have had 4 feet of snow in less than 5 days when we didn't have four feet total in the last 4 years. It's looking tough in Delaware, we need a break.

Pat Daley
Mentor
Team 1370

[MarcD79]

It has been unusually mild for snow in northern CT. We lost one day last Wednesday for what the forecasters predicted as a major snowstorm. It fizzled to about 1.5 inches. The schools, on hearing the impending forecast canceled school & evening activities. This didn't bother us at all.

The forecast is looking good for the Suffield Shakedown next Saturday.

I feel sorry for all the mid-Atlantic teams that have suffered extensive time lost that can not be made up. All I can say is hang in there & you will persevere.

[Foster]

At this point we are ahead of hours because of the snow. We missed a total of 12 work hours because of the snow. But we made back 3 on Thursday by working 3-9 vs 6-9 and on Friday 8AM-9PM we picked up 13. So we are ahead 4.

Downside is we worked 6 hrs Fri, 13 Sat, 13 Sun, 13 Monday (today). A 45 hour push to get things done is hard on everyone, but we made very good progress.