Bills Blog - Are you packed yet?

[JohnBoucher]

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Are you packed yet?


Good Afternoon Teams,

We’re expecting 352 FRC teams at Championship this year. That’s 88 teams per division and a lot of people and equipment we need to get into the America’s Center on Wednesday evening.

You should know:

Monday - Wednesday, there will be Greeters in the baggage claim area of both terminals at the Lambert-St Louis International Airport, in the Metro station at the airport and in the lobby of most major downtown hotels. Greeters will be wearing blue vests with the FIRST logo and will be carrying welcome signs. These greeters are local volunteers who can help you get oriented to St Louis and who will be able to answer basic questions about getting around town.

FRC teams may load in from two sides of the convention center Wednesday night. There will be five street level loading stations on 9th street and one street level loading station at the 7th Street & Convention Plaza intersection. (See diagram.) FRC traffic should proceed clockwise around the America’s center to facilitate unloading. The city has agreed to close one lane of 9th street to allow FRC teams to park briefly. There will be police and event staff on hand to direct teams.

The driver of the load in vehicle may not leave the vehicle. Unload the 5 members of your team who will be entering the pits, unload the gear as quickly as you can and move so the next team may pull in. Large vehicle parking is available on 5th and Cole Street directly behind the dome for $35 for a 24 hour period. Be sure to mention you are a FRC team as the usual rate is $75.

There is no set limit to the amount of materials teams may load in, but load in MUST be done in a safe and manageable way. Remember to review the withholding allowance rules as defined in the FRC Game Manual section 1 – Introduction and discussed in the FRC Game Manual section 4 – The Robot.

Teams sign for their 5 load in wristbands at the load in station. Wristbands must be worn for access to the pit area. If a member of your load in team needs to leave the pit for any reason, they may return as long as they are still wearing their wristband.

Wednesday night teams may:

• Uncrate/unbag their robot – be sure to have an inspector sign off on your bag & tag form before opening your robot bag.
• Charge batteries
• Set up their pit
• Work on their robot – the NASA machine shops will be open
• Get their robot inspected
• Get their encryption key

Practice fields will not be open on Wednesday night.

Thursday
Teams report to their division field at 8:15 for the Driver’s Meeting. For consistency, Aiden Brown, Chief Referee will be broadcasting his portion of the Driver’s Meeting to all fields simultaneously. If your team has any questions they would like answered during the Driver’s Meeting, you must tweet your questions to @FRCrefs by Monday, April 25th.

Friday
Teams report to their division field (in its new location) for a Driver’s meeting regarding queuing in the new location.

In other news:

FRC is shipping a total of 10 trucks to St Louis; eight fields from regional events plus the two truckloads of supplies that left Bedford yesterday afternoon.

The drayage company is estimating it will take 25-30 trucks to load all of the robot crates into the convention center.

Show Ready Events estimates we will unload 60 trucks total when you include the robots, fields, sound and lighting equipment, carpets, event necessities and other items.

If you’re wondering what to do in the off season:

Check out these off season events and consider borrowing a FIRST field to hold your own off season event.

IPO Education Foundation is holding a video contest to encourage teens and the public at large to consider the value of the US patent system. Deadline July 1, 2011 www.ipvideocontest.com

7 Days until Championship
(Yes, I know the usfirst website shows 6 days at this point, but I’m counting down to the moment FRC teams can access the pits)
See you then!