Have they made an announcement about Bag & Tag yet? If not we will have to get our forms signed before unbagging.
No announcement yet (watch it come right after I post this…). If there is no announcement, the expectation is bag and tag will be enforced.
Why would they not enforce it?
Because they haven’t for the past two years. I think they have to enforce it every so often so teams don’t assume it won’t be enforced and start pulling shenanigans.
Time.
Teams have to uncrate the robot. Get cleared to unbag. Then they can start getting their robot ready for inspection.
Robot inspectors will have to run around clearing robots to unbag.
All that takes time. Load-in is 1:00-4:00, and Pits open at 4:00 pm, and the first practice match is at 6:00 pm.
If they waive bag & tag, teams can start getting their robots ready for inspection right away, and the RI’s can focus on inspecting robots. I’m guessing it would save about 1 hour if B&T is waived.
At regionals, load-in is on Wednesday, and pits open Thursday morning. RI’s can clear teams to unbag Wednesday evening, and teams can start working on Thursday morning when pits open.
Ah, ok. At both the regionals I was at we actually got our bag checked on the practice day.
We actually ripped our bag pretty bad in transport and the LRI kinda just shrugged it off.
That happens as well - some teams load in thursday morning, so they get checked then. Others have issues that need to be addressed by the team on Thursday before unbagging (most common is forgetting to leave the lock up form out where the inspectors can find it Wednesday night!).
We loaded in on Thursday night (Friday-Sunday event) I had no clue you were supposed to leave the bag/tag form visible to inspectors! Well, that’s a note to make for next year.
A good idea is to attach your form to the bag. You cannot lose the form without losing the robot!
How about picking one Division each year, and that Division has to do Bag & Tag. That levels the playing field for that Division. They can also flood that Division with RI’s for the first hour to get all the teams cleared.
Maybe they can pick the strongest division (Newton) to do Bag & Tag.
I am pretty sure it is explicitly recommended that you do not do this.
1 Like
Actually, it’s putting the form INSIDE the bag that you don’t want to do. Because if you do that, you’ll be digging that form out under the watchful eyes of the inspectors…
If it’s taped to the bag, in a page protector, chances are that you’ll be OK.
That is how we have always done it. In addition to that we have made copies or taken photos in the unlikely event we do lose it.(I’m not entirely sure how that would work out because we have never had it happen to us yet)
Like I said, it is hard to lose the sheet and the robot especially if they are together.
On the contrary, I explicitly recommend that every team does it as part of my presentation at the annual training seminars put on here in MN. Don’t duct tape the form to the bag - then it’s impossible to get off. But rather tape a clear page protector to the bag (even using duct tape if you want to), then fill out the sheet and slide it in the page protector.
It’s also a great place to put your BOM and any other paperwork you want to make sure you don’t forget between bag day and competition!
From today’s blog.
*Bag and Tag Inspection at Championship Good news!
In an effort to save time through the Inspection Process, we will not be checking your Bag & Tag forms! Once you arrive in your pit, feel free to get your robot out of its crate and bag and get into the Inspection Process as soon as possible!
*
They have never enforced it at worlds since Bag & Tag moved out of the districts. Before then is was largely a mute point since most of the robots where in crates & not in control of the teams. I would be mildly surprised if it ever enforced at worlds. The robot is supposed to be shipped the week after the teams last competition. So there is a small time frame for shenanigans. One of the nice things about First is the culture is largely against this kind of shenanigans even with the most competitive teams.
Even us “wait list” teams had only one and a half weeks between final regional and ship. We bagged/tagged as a precaution at our last event