Competition Preparations

Below are some checklists made every year in preparation for the various competitions attended by the Robo Lions.

Organization of Members

Rooming

Make a spreadsheet for students (make sure to include role, phone number, car and room arrangements, and a place to check forms and payment).

• If staying at a hotel during competition, team members must bring luggage and forms to the team at least 2 days prior to competition.

Roles

Make sure all members are fully briefed on their roles

• Have scouting meetings (pull from the prelim scouting meeting power points, scouting leads should modify year by year)
• Have a well rehearsed chairman’s team
• Have data analysis people practice Tableau
• Drive team roles should be well divided (who talks to teams, who follows the robot around fixing problems, who manages strategy)
• Would be preferable to have pair scouts at all times, so that no one gets lost or make it possible to switch scouting
• Make sure each member has a team shirt to wear at competition

Liability Forms

• Teacher signature form
• Info form about competition and travel arrangements
• Insurance and parent form
• Liability waiver
• GA FIRST waiver (once a season)

Lists

Packing

Edit the basic packing list to include robot replacement parts specific to that year - consult build leads and mentors

Devices

Make a devices list for that year: include laptops and tablets being taken and who is responsible for them Make sure that on packing night the people in charge of devices take theirs and carry them to competition (divide up between scouts and programmers)

Handouts

Buttons

Make sure that buttons are made (probably about 300 for district level competition)

Robot

• Make sure that robot info sheets are made and printed.
• Make sure that electrical diagrams are made and printed
• Make sure that the bill of materials (CAW) is complete (with mentor approval) and is printed and put into the rule book.
• A list should be compiled of what needs to be done on the robot once it is unbagged on load in night. It should be detailed and have the people responsible listed.

Pit

Talk with safety captains on role

• Batteries
• Pit cleanliness
• Enforcing safety rules (number of people in pit, safety glasses)

To-Do

• Check the safety box for all necessary equipment (see safety captain manual)
• Set up green flash drive with any necessary pit videos (that year’s chairman’s video, etc.)
• Put down floor tiles
• Take everything that’s not boxes off of wire shelf (this includes metal, etc.)
• Put everything that belongs on wire shelf onto wire shelf
  • Boxes of screws
  • Safety box
  • Safety glasses
  • Monitor
  • Toolboxes
  • Batteries
• Unpack batteries and chargers and start charging immediately (batteries should go on second shelf of wire rack)
• Get out gray cart and set up laptops there
• Set up curtains and banner in the back of the pit
• Set up tools on back table
  • Drill press
  • Bandsaw
  • Vices
  • Belt sander
• Set up FRC banner thing in the front of the pit
• Set up monitor
• Put on top of wire shelf (make sure it is zip-tied securely)
• Load videos from flash drive
• Have pit crew practice judge talks about robot and team

Scouting

Scouting Postitions

Make sure that there are appointed head scouts that are responsible for pit or stand scouts.

Scouts

Make sure that each scout knows which team they need to be scouting at which times and that they always have a device ready to input data.

Materials

Take a power strip and portable batteries up to the stands so the stand scouts don't run out of battery while scouting the entire day.

Tableau

Make sure Tableau is on a minimum of 3 laptops (codes can be pulled from TIMS)

App

• Make sure all students have accounts and have been approved by admin
• Input live scouting and pre-scouting forms
• Input team lists for pre-scouting
• Once match schedule has been released, the lead stand scout at competition should put them in immediately.

Chairmans

• Make sure that all Chairman’s materials for that year are prepared - these should stay with the Chairman’s presentation team lead
• Make sure video is on a flash drive
• Have essays printed in Chairman’s packet
• Judge’s sheet
• Any other things (copy of business plan, buttons, etc.)
• Media waivers - make sure to print extras to give to other teams (they always forget)

Assigning Tasks

It has been proven useful to make a timeline visually so that tasks are completed by the desired deadline. Below is a generic template made by Caroline Means in 2017.

Assignment

• Actual Due Date:
• Team-set Due Date:
• Assigned to:
• Check in: (usually with a student organizer for the Chairman's team or a team mentor)
• Backup plan:

It is also helpful to draw in language arts teachers so that they may provide more insight and advice on ensuring the essay is in optimal form.

Communication

• Set up a Remind class for that competition team - make sure that ALL students are on it
• Set up the rest of in-team communication that needs to happen (scouting leads group chat, etc.)
• Once competition event is over, have someone write up a press release for review before a final release.
• Have pre-scouting form and scouting line # put on the website a few weeks in advance

Media

Make sure media person is briefed on what to post to IG, Twitter, and FB

• Match score updates
• Overall team progress
• “Excited to start and end the day”