Bad Event Coordinators

[Tman111]

At Solon invite last year, the Compute This supervisor told me that I could use a separate computer, and then at the end told me I couldn't.

[sj]

The tower event sup. at my regionals had us test our tower on a non offical platform that was leaning and it caused our tower to break early.

We still won though so I guess it was ok...

Furthermore they DQ'd us last year on the grounds that my partner was holding the bucket. However they did this after we left because another team told the sup. then they didn't inform us till the award ceremony...

[bearasauras]

It's unfortunate that you weren't told immediately that you were disqualified, but were you guys holding the bucket?

[sj]

No. we had a video which we emailed to the state coordinater but it was to late to do any thing but we were un dq'd and given participation points.

[hscmom]

Hi Soccerkid,

Impound is simply that time set up at the beginning of the day for some, not all, buidling events. The purpose is to keep teams from watching early in the day and then seeing that the early teams are encountering a certain problem and then adapting their device to overcome that problem. So, everyone in certain events brings their robot, device, catapult or whatever to the event room before the competition, signs up and leaves the device there, usually along a back wall with a "do not cross" sort of tape on the floor to protect the devices. At the same time, you sign up for a competition time. Then, when it's your time, you get your device out of the impound area, do the event and usually are free to take it with you. It's just a way to make sure the later teams don't have the advantage of last-minute tweaks to their things.

HSCMom

[dholdgreve]

Our team is new and somewhat naive. It really hurts to put in all that preparation for an event only to get to the tournament and see that the event is so different from what you prepped for or studied that the competition has turned into no more than a roll of the dice...

In our three times at regionals and three at state we've run in to:

1) A bird test that included a bunch of state birds. Our state website (which we checked often) never mentioned we'd be tested on it.
2) A robocross that had a substandard board (the edging was different from what was described) and event coordinator on his cell phone during impound time saying "And, you need a freezer container and legos and some batteries."
3) A WIDI supervisor that lost the first page of our writer's writing. The team got back to our table and the do-er said to his sister (the writer), "So, why did you NOT give me the equipment list this time after all that practice?" A little visit to the event coordinator led us to discover that the first sheet of her instructions ended up stapled to the bottom of another team's instructions. Honest mistake but we still came in dead last on WIDI. The brother and sister quit the team (it was their first and last year)


4) A cell bio test that had ONE question regarding cell biology. Other questions had to do with space aliens and interpreting the meaning of bumper stickers.
5) At state last year, one team decided it would show up to knowledge events whenever it pleased, and event supervisors let them because they told the supervisors (who were intimidated) "our coach told us to come now."
6) BLG that flew in a hall where the fan turned on and off during the event. The team before us had a great flight because the fan was off and we had a horrid flight when the fan turned on halfway during our flight.
7) Mousetrap (C Div) and battery buggy were run on a tile floor that had huge dips and bumps. The tile was that decorative type that is all lumpy and the grout was wide and deep. Cars were hopping and bumping all over the place.
8) A supervisor decided to "help" my daughter and her teammate put the bridge on the testing board and they weren't expecting his help and somehow, with three pairs of hands, the bridge broke. To his credit, he let the girls reglue the bridge and have a later time to test it, but they did not do as well as they had hoped.

That's the nature of the beast.

HCSMom,
It sounds like you have faced many challenges over the years, and still manage to field a competitive team. Have you volunteered to run any of the Events?

[aubrey048]

Wow! *wince* What state is that in??

[Flavorflav]

HCSMom,
It sounds like you have faced many challenges over the years, and still manage to field a competitive team. Have you volunteered to run any of the Events?

That's really the only solution. You can't run them all, but at least you can make sure that your event is run right.

[hscmom]

I don't check here often enough. I'm running my first event at an invitational at a local high school next weekend and am more nervous than my kids because I want to do it right.

Our team is new and we've not been asked to do very much. This is our C team's second year and our B team's third. We're just a bunch of homeschooled kids and their tired moms and dads, most of whom have very little science experience, so we learn right along with our kids.

[frogzorz]

At the Rustin Invites, some event proctors seemed like they didn't have extensive knowledge of what is required to be known for their events. Other than that, some events didn't have tiebreakers or didn't have defined tiebreakers.