Proposal to Eliminate Beginning-of- Season Game Material Secrecy Daniel Curtis BEST Robotics, Inc. Board of Directors, At-Large Chair, Policies and Procedures Committee

Motivations BRI Goal: To improve the public visibility of BEST Robotics events and activities – Motivate media and online coverage – Enable community building efforts by hubs and teams Game Goal: The information and support provided, and general conduct of BEST competitions, is fair. 2 nd has traditionally motivated early season secrecy

Timeline of a BEST Season Time 1 st Kickoff weekend 2 nd Kickoff weekend 3 rd Kickoff weekend 1 st Game Day 2 nd Game Day 3 rd Game Day September OctoberNovember 3 rd Weekend Hubs’ local competition season “1 st Weekend Hubs” local competition season 2 nd Weekend Hubs’ local competition season “42 days of BEST” for every team at every hub Official Build Time equally constrained for every team to simulate professional schedule Therefore… SECRECY! DON’T REVEAL THE GAME FOR OTHERS!

Secrecy? Students are encouraged to promote their teams and efforts – Community – Fundraising – Videos Hubs benefit from greater visibility – More volunteers – Sponsors Is secrecy already impossible?

Proposal: Present all Game Materials on bestinc.org on 1 st Official Kickoff Date Enable beginning-of-season publicity at all levels – BRI? – Regionals? – Hubs! – Teams! Newspapers Media Online video What else might our talented people come up with?

Side Effects? Build time isn’t fair anymore? – Next slide! 2 nd and 3 rd kickoff events aren’t as exciting locally? – Maybe. – Lots of things happen at kickoff events other than the “big reveal”

Timeline of a Fair BEST Season Time 1 st Kickoff weekend 2 nd Kickoff weekend 3 rd Kickoff weekend 1 st Game Day 2 nd Game Day 3 rd Game Day September OctoberNovember 3 rd Weekend Hubs’ local competition season “1 st Weekend Hubs” local competition season 2 nd Weekend Hubs’ local competition season Unfair planning time? More unfair planning time? REVEAL THE GAME!!

The 3 rd Weekend Hub Time 1 st Kickoff weekend 2 nd Kickoff weekend 3 rd Kickoff weekend 1 st Game Day 2 nd Game Day 3 rd Game Day September OctoberNovember 3 rd Weekend Hubs’ local competition season Planning time for everyone! “42 days of BEST” 56 days of BEST? Fairness between teams at this hub is preserved! – 2 planning weeks and 6 weeks Official Build Time for everyone!

The Full Season Time 1 st Kickoff weekend 2 nd Kickoff weekend 3 rd Kickoff weekend 1 st Game Day 2 nd Game Day 3 rd Game Day September OctoberNovember 3 rd Weekend Hubs’ local competition season “1 st Weekend Hubs” local competition season 2 nd Weekend Hubs’ local competition season Unfair planning time? More unfair planning time? REVEAL THE GAME!! LOTS of tinkering time! Less tinkering time? Even less tinkering time?! Texas BEST 2013 Basically no tinkering time… Did we ever even ask ourselves about regionals?

Bottom Line Eliminating secrecy allows our hubs and teams to publicize right from the beginning! Fairness is preserved at the hub level! Build time for regionals was never fair! The sum of regional prep time is now more fair than before! – Brainstorming + building + tinkering = Equal time for everyone!

Relevant Policies Hub Licenses/Regional MoUs? – No obligation preventing BRI from making policy or procedure changes Hub and Regional Operations – “Since season kickoffs may vary, advance release of the game rules will be held in strict secrecy and released by the hub director only on a need to know basis.” Secrecy is practically implemented through File Manager and Q&A protection – Hub directors indicate this is not sufficient

Motion 1 The BRI Director of Operations (DoO) will make all Game Files for the current competition season publicly available on bestinc.org no later than 5pm on Saturday of the first Regulation Kickoff Weekend of each season. BRI DoO will announce Game Files availability to all hubs with instructions to announce this availability to their teams. Game Files will be held in secrecy before this time.

Motion 2 Amend the BRI Hub and Regional Operations Policy, replacing the text of item with the text of Motion 1.

Remember… We want to enable and motivate publicity! Teams no longer have to hide their excitement! Hubs can legitimately invite media and their communities! Maybe Regionals will join the publicity efforts? What will BRI do??