Anyone else hoping and praying for an increase in weight allowance? FIRST did the right thing last year in granting this. I hope they do the same this year.
Many of us have lost valuable bldg time due to weather closing. The effects are worst this year across the country than last year. I hope they are watching, listening and considering this.
I assume you’re talking about the withholding allowance. Another thread relating to this has an active discussion here:
A few days ago Bill Blog said there will be no extension of build season or increase in weight allowance: http://frcdirector.blogspot.com/2011/02/thats-one-fourth-of-your-robot.html
The CT FIRST Facebook page has started a discussion on this; teams from our state might want to post there about their troubles so FIRST can get a sense of how bad things are.
I personally think FRC should reconsider… Our rookie team has lost 7 meetings which is around 2 weeks worth of meetings for us. Our team is composed of members from 2 different schools so it’s difficult for us to get a good time and day when all members can be present to make decisions and help with building. So far, our arm design team is still in the process of designing because everyone keeps on arguing. More time would be better.
Everyone can always use more time. Part of FRC is doing as much as you can in a small time frame. This is as close to “real world” as you are going to get. Sometimes, there are no extensions.
We, too, have lost a lot of build time to the weather. That being said, we’re taking the approach that this is *‘just another challange’ *for us and we plan to let the judges know what we had to overcome and how we did it.
I understand that missing lot of time can be a tough problem especially for a rookie. It’s possible to argue over designs for months and months. It’s too late now, but next year, set a deadline at a certain point early in the build season, and say you have to make a decision. Use some kind of online communication and file sharing so you can share ideas even on snowdays. My team uses wiggio to send out team messages, and we have a wikispace for discussing ideas and sharing designs. We have missed about 6 meetings due to snow, but it didn’t delay any decision making since we communicated effectively even when we weren’t meeting. (The snow did slow our sheetmetal fabricator a few days though)
Does the lost time hurt? Yes it does. Does it hurt that last year was our rookie year, so we’ve never dealt with the 30lb limit? Probably. Are we going to let any of that hold us back from doing our best and making it to St. Louis? No it won’t.
It’s like the title of Bill’s Blog says, “That’s a quarter of your robot”
Daniel,
Excellent!! I love it when a “disadvantage” is turned on it’s head.
To th OP and all others,
I truly understand your position, the weather back east has been horrendous this year. That doesn’t mean I have to agree with your point of view.
Here’s why. Please hear me out before you pull the trigger.
During the build season, you can expect foul weather in the mid-west and east. Now out here on the west coast, we are much more fortunate and usually do not have to deal with it. Although, out here, we never know when an earthquake may hit. It could be mild, or catastrophic! There is no way to know when it will happen.
No, let’s switch roles here. Let’s say you had a wonderfully mild winter, yet on Jan 18th, a magnitude 7.8 struck the San Francisco Bay area. Schools all around the bay were shut down for a full week.
Would it be realistic for us out here to beg, plead and expect FIRST to cut us some slack while the rest of the country was still on schedule? I don’t think it would sit to well with you.
Now, let me apologizes to those who’s feelings have been hurt. I mean no disrespect. I’m just saying, we all deal with difficulty. Some more severe than others. It’s what we do in FIRST.
Take a look at Daniel’s response, that exemplifies what FIRST is all about.
Not being able to find a good time to meet, and trouble making decisions for designs sound like problems within your team, not weather related issues. It isn’t FIRST’s responsibility to extend the build season because your team has had trouble coming up with a design. You could have used the snow days more effectively, by designing and sharing online, like stated above. Weather is a foreseen part of the challenge, adding to the complexity and fun of the build season!
We haven’t lost build days, but various parts have been stuck in Northeastern snow. So we compiled build instructions that any student and mentor can pick up and build. The drive train was also designed with the shortened time in mind. While we measure, cut, and drill certain parts, programmers can test the base structure. While we work on the drive base, we’ll compile instructions for the lift.
You need to make the best use of every day you have, on or off. In the internet age, early missed days can be corrected with Chat rooms and late days can be made up for by planning strategy and perfecting code at one’s homes!