Dear Rookies - It only gets better....

FIRST General Forum
#1

I wanted to send out a note to all the rookie teams who are asking themselves today… what just happened?

If you packed and shipped a fully functional robot that does everything you originally planned for it to do - you did better than 99.9% of all the teams in this competition.

For the rest of you…

We are very proud of you. Your robot may not be able to move, or maybe that’s about all it does, but you followed the rules, you gave it your best, you learned alot of stuff along the way. Some of you had no engineering mentors, some had no machine shop support, some had little or no financial support, some had to fight school board policy to compete, some of you had no-one with software experience. Alot of things went wrong in the past 6 weeks, but you are about to find out (if you haven’t already) how cool it is to be part of the FIRST family.

This year is a 3 on 3 competition; as in the past we will be paired with some great teams, some average teams and some BLT’s (brave little toasters as we call them) through qualifying. We will carry some teams; some teams will carry us. We will try our hardest to win every match, and we have a strategy for every type of robot. If your robot won’t move, your job is to not move. If our robot stops moving, your job may be to push us back. There’s alot of luck involved. Sometimes you’ll do more than asked, sometimes less. All I can say is, we want you on the field with us. We want to see the excitement in your eyes when your plywood shoebox keeps the other alliance’s powdercoat painted, precision machined, fully automatic mega-arm from scoring a tetra.

Please don’t act embarrassed if your designs didn’t work out; join the club. You are learning and will get better every year. When you get to the competition we will have a small lathe and mill in our pit if you need a part made; we have software guys just itching to help you debug your code; we’ve got extra bolts and nuts and whatevers for you to use; and we’ll probably have to stand in line behind all the other veteran teams who are already helping you.

We are not better than you; we may have more resources than you, or more experience than you, but we expect to learn something from you and we hope you will learn something from us. We plan to have a blast at the competition, and we might even win it with you while we’re at it.

We want you here, and we want you back. Welcome.

#2

We want you here, and we want you back. Welcome.

Great Post.

I would add, “Do not be afraid to ASK!”

At a competition:
If you see something you don’t understand, ASK! If you want or need help, ASK! If you want to know how some team did the impossible, ASK!

You are about to enter the Friendly Zone. Enjoy it!

Ken

#3

A quote from the Southern California Regional Visitors guide:

“If you are having problems the FIRST thing to do is ask your neighbor for help”

yes the pun was intended.

Here in the West we tend to put rookies next to experienced teams in the Pits. So if it is your first year, you will be right next to one of the oldest and most experienced teams around. Make use of them, they will be happy to help. After all, if their robot is running well, and it usually is, their Pit crew will need something to do besides take in the admiring stares of people looking at their robot and wait for the judges to come around. :smiley:

#4

However, here’s a little something for some of you who don’t know how your robot works or what pneumatics even is (I didn’t know til this year)…

Teams want your spirit. It doesn’t take experience, resources, or engineering skills to be loud, proud and support your team and alliance, or somebody you don’t even know who needs a hand. This applies to everyone who can help. :slight_smile:

<forumplug> Oh, and attend the Chief Delphi WebHug at Nationals…</forumplug>

#5

This is the most inspiring Chief Delphi message I have ever read.
If there is a place on the website for “the best message of the day”
this one would get my vote!

#6

Yes, I agree. This is an outstanding post. I think I will try to make it into a poster for our robotics lab. It certainly makes me feel good to read it. I am anxious to share it with others. :smiley:

#7

ya its crazy its weird
considering the shipping guy came at the begining of the window

but all is up and running (10 pounds drilled out)
just autonomous needs alittle work but thats what day 1 at competition is for

#8

That is just amazing, To all the rookies attending the Pittsburgh, Philly and Nat’s if you need anything look for the guys/gals in bright green.
This is going to be such a great experience to all the rookies and even still the vets, you will meet people from all over the world and from every walk of life you can imagine. Ideas are shared and friendships are made, this is going to be a great season, enjoy it.

Good luck to everyone this year!

#9

Ditto from the guys in Purple Hawaiian- we’ll be available at NJ and SC as well as Nats…

WC :cool:

#10

As a member of a rookie team, I thank you all. This has been an incredible year so far for me. I fully expect that even though my team shipped a not-so-complete robot, we will have a great time. We plan to complete some of our functions at the tournement. I now know that we are not lone!

#11

If any rookies need a robot built or finished, talk to the nearest veteran team. I know of three teams that have shown up without a robot for some reason and had a running robot by the end of practice matches. The record time is around 6 hours for a complete build. If you just need to finish building, chances are, just ask, and you will have many offers of help within minutes.

#12

I’m willing to offer software help, stop by the 237 pits and ask for Mike. We’ll be at the finger lakes regional, trenton, and nats :slight_smile:

#13

Thanks for that, I’m still not sure what to expect at the competition, was a very nervous final two days, finding out we were 10 pounds overweight, drilling holes, spent 2 days learning 3ds max for the animation, with only one animator (myself), and then having the fed ex guy show up a whole hour before the 3 hour window, thank god he was nice and came back later. But thanks again, and I look forward to seeing experienced teams at the competition and learning from them. Hopefully next year my team wont have to build a robot in a shower room =x Good luck to all teams.

#14

I must say that as a rookie team, we’ve learned a great deal this year about robotics, I actually wouldn’t have even known about it had my friend not suggested I join with him. It’s been a great time building and luckily, our robot works just how we wanted it to, just not near the same way. I hope other teams have as good of an experience like this :smiley:

#15

that part sounds like your talking about my teams robot.lol but i do understand what you are saying when you say it. it was just funny as some of my team was reading the post we were like he is talking about are little baby. but it is always a joy to see the rookie teams grow and what becomes of there team. F.I.R.S.T.

if any rookie teams need anything at UCF or coloroda and nats just look for the Pink team and we will do our best to help you out.

#16

oh and this was a really good post.

#17

Really inspirational post. I applaud you.
At New York City, the 759’ers will be around, and willing to help if we can, it looks like we have quite a few rookies there. Remember, as i said before, 99.9999% of FIRSTers are really nice.
btw whats the lowest rookie team number?

#18

This really IS a great post!! Hats off to the one that started it!

I was thinking. Every competition I’ve been to seems to organize the pits numerically. That means all the rookie teams are grouped together at one end. WHAT IF!!! The pit assignments were folded so that the most experienced team was right next to the newest rookie and so on. Now that would be great. It would put the rookies in direct contact with teams that can help. It would also mean that the experienced teams would be close to their resources when the help is needed. This might be the time to contact the event coordinators and see if this can be arranged!

Our team is more than willing to help any team in need(you don’t have to be a rookie). Look for us under the big white balloon (Provided the venues allow it ) If not look for team 343 - Metal in Motion. We’ll be at Florida, Palmetto and the Championship.

Good luck everyone, lets have a great season!!

#19

This has been Standard Operating Procedure in the West for at least the past three years. It eliminates the “rookie gheto” quite effectively. Though I did like what they did in Atlanta last year. All of the rookies in all divisions were on the main aisles. So while they were all grouped together, they were in a prominent place and you were practically forced to walk past them. Either way helps get them the attention they need.

#20

Hats off to all teams veterans and rookies!!
One thing that is sooo great about FIRST is just everyone coming together. We all help each other even though we play against each other. And I think all the rookie teams are going see the interaction which is great.

Even teams that have been around remember we are always there for each other. Just ask and someone will find someone to help you. The rookies on veteran teams have to learn that too I feel. I know it’s kinda weird to walk up to a strange person and just ask for all the scouting info but hey everyone does it and it’s okay.

Build season its over but at the games you learn so much and make always a new friend. So what the bot is not done. Remember FIRST is not just about building a robot, it truely is something greater. Every team has something to offer to the competition. So no matter what went wrong during the 6 weeks or what goes wrong. I’m sure everyone will walk away winning something. Yes, as they all say we all are winners. :smiley:

There are tons of crazy S.P.A.M. people around at UCF, Palmetto and the Championship all willing to help of course. We generally have the mini-lathe and mini-bridgeport so yeah if you need a part made stop by with drawings and stock and we’ll be surely glad to help if we can.

Good Luck to All!! It’s been a great build season. All teams are the same with the ups and downs so nobody is alone in FIRST ever. Some had the same problem somewhere…

Happy Trails!!! :slight_smile: