At the RI District Event, inspectors came over on Day 0 to ask about our withholding allowance, which we showed. They then asked whether or not it was for our own robot (it was), i.e. were we planning to cheesecake or not. No big deal, we weren’t going to anyway.
As playoffs were beginning on Day 2, there was a large sign by the inspection table with “no cheesecaking” written on it. Again, inconsequential for my team as we were loading out, but I like to think I read the rules pretty thoroughly. Out of pure curiosity, am I missing something?
No really, this is unacceptable, the manual explicitly allows this, not the other way around. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and say it’s possible some inspector put this up as a joke or something but that’s not really ok either. I hope this is looked into.
That’s a pretty strong statement given that we have relatively little to go on here. Yes, cheesecaking is allowed, and if the inspectors weren’t allowing it that’s a problem.
But I can tell you from experience… when playoffs start, neither me nor my inspection team is at the inspection desk. We’re at the field looking for issues that teams are going to be frantically fixing between matches. We’re in the queue giving every robot a quick once over to make sure they stay legal throughout the playoffs. But we aren’t at the inspection desk. If someone (for example, a student who thought it was funny) put up a similar sign at the inspection table in Iowa last Saturday afternoon, I would have had no idea.
So before we all rush to judgement and calling out volunteers at events halfway across the country that we’ve never met or interacted with, maybe we should find out some more details or get confirmation from a team that was actually impacted by this sign. It’s easy enough to figure out what teams were there, and who was in the playoffs. It’s easy enough to contact some of them to get their view of the event, but why do that when you can rush to judgement?
Sure, I’ll be bitter. No, I’m just tired of team experience being the last thing on people’s minds. The manual outlines the rules, interpreting the rules by any reasonable interpretation of the english language SHOULD dictate what you can and can’t do. This is flagrantly out of line with any reasonable interpretation of the rules as presented by HQ that we all expect to follow when we attend events.
I can put up with stupid bagging rules, I can put up games that are literally unwatchable, I can put up with stupid high costs to attend an event that don’t go to the event. But I am completely fed up with volunteers who think because they are Lead XYZ they can do whatever they want and there’s nothing us peons can do.
There’s always something you can do. If you see something going wrong, say something. Bring it up the chain - The Volunteer Coordinator is a good place to go if your issue is with a key volunteer. Or the RPC Chairman. Or the Regional Director. Or e-mail FIRST. There are a lot of ways to get your voice heard and the issue resolved. Complaining on the internet is not one of them.
CALM DOWN PEOPLE! I was LRI at RIDE and the comment was placed on my nap poster AFTER we determined no one was going to cheesecake, exactly there was “No Cheesecaking” and I could take my nap. Next time feel free to wake me up or ask anyone sitting at the Inspectors table. I love cheesecaking if done right.
Now, don’t all of you that got all up in arms about this feel a little silly? The sign didn’t mean it wasn’t allowed, it meant there was none going on. the inspectors did their jobs and actually followed the rules. It sounds like some apologies might be in order!
Yeah, Inspectors said that. It’s hard to ignore them when they then follow up to this with passing a note to the JA saying you’re being unreasonable and taking you out of consideration for awards. So, teams are given the choice between no judged awards or complying with made up policies with no recourse. What are we supposed to do?
You know what, at this point the only suggestion I have for folks is filling out a non-medical incident form any time crap like this happens. Doesn’t help at the event, but maybe if enough people complain instead of saying “tone is unacceptable” because I CLEARLY don’t understand what the volunteers go through… maybe something will change so teams can enjoy events they are paying thousands to attend.
At Gary: You may not have INTENDED to say that it was a rule but your wording left a lot to be desired.
CLEARLY someone misinterpreted your intent:
At the RI District Event, inspectors came over on Day 0 to ask about our withholding allowance, which we showed. They then asked whether or not it was for our own robot (it was), i.e. were we planning to cheesecake or not. No big deal, we weren’t going to anyway.
As playoffs were beginning on Day 2, there was a large sign by the inspection table with “no cheesecaking” written on it. Again, inconsequential for my team as we were loading out, but I like to think I read the rules pretty thoroughly. Out of pure curiosity, am I missing something?
It really amazes me how many people seem to think volunteer-bashing deserves positive reputation, while saying we shouldn’t rush to judgement deserves negative rep. I guess that’s the internet for you.
You don’t think if teams had their withholding allowances weighed, and were being repeatedly asked if they were planning on cheesecaking, that a sign that says “no cheesecaking” at the inspectors table might be interpreted in this way? This seems like a reasonable conclusion for a team to jump to.
This is an event where teams were required to fill out paperwork disclosing the intent of their withholding allowance usage, where teams were told that they need an inspector in the pit during the entire process of cheesecaking, and specific teams were called out and told a close eye would be put on them for their cheesecaking efforts based on perceived reputation alone. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for an event participant to have concluded that the event was being hostile toward cheesecakers, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable for people to assume a sign saying “no cheesecaking” means what it says. After all of the deliberate effort that went into policing cheesecaking at the event, the entire inspection team couldn’t have been ignorant to the effects of such a sign.
I’m ready to retire from my high-paying volunteer inspection duties … anybody wanna step up and take it? BTW, we are way short on volunteer inspectors at the championship(s) … here’s your chance to make things perfect.