Give us a waver*FREE Robots*God Bless

[Steve W]

I bought a brand new snow blower in preparation for this years snow. Here I sit, waiting for some snow to use it but none comes.

Moral of the story, buy a snowblower and there will be no snow days.

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by ChrisP

You had 6 weeks to build a robot like everyone else. If you cannot meet the deadline, dont compete, simple as that.

Hold up. So if my robot isn't ready in 6 weeks, then I shouldn't be competing? I feel like there's something wrong with that statement. Unfortunately, a few years ago, my team showed up at their first event with a box of parts, and the robot was put together at the site. They still competed, and proceeded to advance to the semifinals at the next event.

This year, even a box on wheels can be helpful to an alliance. I would hope that, by the middle of week 5, all teams would have gotten their drivetrain sorted out. If worst comes to worst, a team could ship their half completed robot, and fix it at the site, trying to make the best of a bad situation.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

The teams complaining about losing time should have thought of this last night or the day before and either put in even more hours during those days or moved their robots and tools they need to someone's garage. It is as simple as that.

Akash,

Fairfax County Public Schools (home of seven FRC teams) have been closed since last Friday. They've already canceled tomorrow and Friday. That means schools will be closed from Friday the 5th until at least Monday the 15th. Even if teams were able to get some of their parts and materials out of their shops/work spaces, they have been denied access to the rest of their material and large tools for better than a week. Beyond that there are a number of completely unusable roads and power outages that prevent teams from working even outside of school.

Despite even the best planning, this is a major setback.

[Adama]

Originally Posted by Kage

Even when we have a snow day, some of my team still manage to make it to the shop...me included

Baltimore and DC are in states of emergency and while not enforceable it is actually illegal to be out driving in some areas at the moment. Regardless of fairness it is highly likely that the shipping trucks won't be able to get to some of the teams pick up points. FIRST may have its hand forced into allowing teams extra time.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Adama

Baltimore and DC are in states of emergency and while not enforceable it is actually illegal to be out driving in some areas at the moment. Regardless of fairness it is highly likely that the shipping trucks won't be able to get to some of the teams pick up points. FIRST may have its hand forced into allowing teams extra time.

In the meantime, the teams should continue to do what they can do in preparation for the competition(s). It would also benefit the teams to document their progress this season, which would include the challenges that the weather has presented. Pictures say a thousand words and would be a nice addition to the pit 'decor' in the form of a scrapbook, framed photo section, bulletin board. They could also be part of the team website, blog, etc. Make use of the challenge and in how the team is meeting it.

Snowmageddon will become a part of the teams' histories and will be talked about for years to come.

[V_Chip]

At the present . . .

(all of those who are struggling with the deadline and praying for an extension)

. . . can only shovel (and wait)

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Adama

Baltimore and DC are in states of emergency and while not enforceable it is actually illegal to be out driving in some areas at the moment. Regardless of fairness it is highly likely that the shipping trucks won't be able to get to some of the teams pick up points. FIRST may have its hand forced into allowing teams extra time.

Shipping the robot is not due for 2 weeks ... hence, FIRST is not 'forced' to do anything.

I'd suggest you take Janes' advice and try and figure out how to use this time wisely.

[BrendanB]

Who knows, you guys can be in your shops in a couple of days, and you still have 2 weeks until ship.

Just another challenge, will you overcome it or just complain?

[Isaac501]

It isn't FIRST's fault, or problem, that states and localities are completely unprepared for normal Winter weather. It's snow. What's the big deal? We routinely have 3-5 snow days in build season, but I don't think I have ever seen a team north of Delaware truly complain about it.

Posting something like this (terrible spelling, grammar, punctuation) as a Mentor in a public forum is very unprofessional and doesn't do anything for your case or your team.

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

It will be very interesting to see how they handle that. Trying to give specific teams or specific areas extra season build time opens a can of worms.

Agreed. I think this plays in the decision not to give an extension. Basically, there is no fair way to do it. If you give a region (like the 'east coast') an extra week, there will be teams in the midwest that missed a couple of days calling foul. Also, there are some teams that will receive the extension that did not miss any days so they will greatly benefit. A blanket extension for all FIRST teams won't really make things 'more fair' as everyone would be better off. So, if there is no good way to make things perfectly fair, why try to make things fair? I would rather have mother nature be the determinant of who wins/loses rather than FIRST.

I also would be wary of setting a precedent if I were FIRST. What happens next year if there is a huge lake effect snow storm that only affects Milwaukee? Or a specific team's build site loses power for a week? Where do you draw the line? I think the answer is never putting the line down in the first place.