Competition preparation

Tickets

Liaise with Competition Coordinator about ticket allocation process for teams. Once system confirmed inform LTCs and Team Leaders and remind them of process periodically to ensure process is being followed.

Dealing with drop-outs when not enough time to re-allocate kits

When Team Leader has notified either Mentor or LTC, LTC should respond asking for more information about circumstances of dropping out. If there is a problem that can be resolved by LTC or with involvement of Team Coordinator, then this should be done. If not, then the Team Coordinator will respond in a way that is dependent on nature of drop-out. If unavoidable or unfortunate circumstance then email Team Leader acknowledging drop-out, offering further assistance if applicable or suggesting that they come to the competition anyway for experience and explain procedure for Kit Return. If inconsiderate cause for drop-out explain ramifications of dropping out at this late stage and impact on applying for a place in the following year’s competition.

Example email sent to potential dropout Team Leader:

Your Local Team Coordinator has passed on that you are unfortunately thinking of withdrawing from competing in the competition. Could you give me an idea of what circumstances have prevented you from competing and whether these were anything we could address?

It seems such a shame to put your team's hard work to waste by not competing. There is 'tinker time' at the competition to work on your robot further and attending and competing is the culmination of the whole SR process.

Also by having a kit for all this time, and not competing, you have deprived another team of the opportunity to compete, and we have had to turn away teams this year due to high demand. Securing a team slot and being allocated a kit result in the expectation that you will compete in the competition - slots are limited by the number of kits we have available and the competition is the culmination of the SR year so we want all our teams to be there competing and having fun.

Furthermore, in terms of entering next year, which we would wholeheartedly encourage, dropping out at this stage would influence the allocation process next year, thereby impacting on your chances of competing. Attending and experiencing the competition in whatever state the robot is in with be invaluable for future years - it really is the taking part that counts.

Please do reconsider your decision to withdraw and I look forward to hearing from you.

Information about the competition

Liaise with Competition Coordinator about information that they would like relayed to the Team Leaders prior to the competition and send email via MailChimp Team Leaders mailing list. To include information such as the following:

  1. Teams should bring some laptops as we will not be providing any computers/laptops.
  2. Teams should bring any tools that they require to work on their robot while at the competition as we will not be providing any tools.
  3. All of the kit must be returned at the end of the competition (including the white box it comes in). If a team wishes to keep the kit for a little longer they must email info@studentrobotics.org ASAP to request a loan extension. Any team that has not been granted a loan extension before the start of the competition will have to return all of the kit before they leave on Sunday.
  4. Teams should have a good read of section 2.8 and Appendix B of the rules (Safety regulations). All robots will undergo a safety inspection and will not be allowed to compete until they pass this inspection.
  5. Please do let us know if your team has any special requirements with regards to disability access or other matters that need to be accommodated.

Deal with queries that arise

This involves monitoring emails, responding to LTC queries and directing people to the relevant person to resolve their query.

Attribution

This page is based on work done by Fiona Gillan, originally published at https://github.com/fgillan/sr-team-coord/wiki/Competition-preparation, which was under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.