21st FRA General Meeting - 25 July 2009

Minutes of the 21st FRA Governing Body Meeting

Saturday 25th July 2009

Committee Present – Kane Aston, Geoff Smith, Karoline Pannell, Trevor Wright, Pete Lale, Clive Brown, Tom Kane, Mike Hamilton-Macy, Gilbert Grimm, Ed Wallace and Tim Bence
Apologies – John Bell, Tony Somerfield, Shane Swan and Leo van Miert
Members present – Andy Kane, Alan Young, John Findlay, Ed Hoppitt and Dave Moulds

Items of Discussion

1. Ed Hoppitt’s eligibility to stand as president

After eligibility concerns following the presidential election the FRA took an action to clarify eligibility around being an Event Organiser. The committee voted on the question of “Could someone holding the position of director in a company (whose purpose is organising events) stand for president”. A unanimous vote agreed that this was not the case, thus any candidates standing for the presidential election would need to ensure they did not have this conflict of interest. Decision – Agreed (Unanimous)

2. Presidential election

After resolution of Mr Hoppitt’s current position it was agreed that nominations would reopen for the presidential position, with 8 for reopening with 2 abstentions. With nominations to be made before midnight 31st August 2009.

3. Matter’s arising from the last meeting

Review of the minutes from the previous meeting. Martijn Benschop is now a paid up member and has been appointed the fan fic rep. Rebel robots event report was not completed at the event or has been subsequently misplaced. The event did go ahead under controlled conditions and advice has been given to Mr Danby about future events specifically about the arena roof to ensure a class 2F arena.
Roaming robots arena trials, Mr Findlay reported some positive and some negative from the years trial of the flip out zone and cages, some elements will remain for the future some not.
Weapon locks, ongoing issue that is slowly improving more tech check training maybe required. It was generally agreed that it was important going forward to ensure that arena changes did not compromise the FRA’s safety rules.
Major Damage in the pits; risk is reduced as much as possible when moving the robot. It was suggested a separate link for the hydraulic systems could be implemented.
Moving robots around the pits, to EO discretion as to which robots are safer being moved without trolleys i.e. Kan Opener.

4. Constitutional Changes

The changes have been presented to the membership culminating in an email vote of which the deadline is Tuesday 28th July. With reference to comments made on the forum to the GB not making rule changes apparent to the membership or without consultation. It was noted that this is not the case with examples given.

5. 40Mhz Phase out

Further research may be required and the kind offer of Mr Paul Cooper would be accepted for the Portsmouth event to test the 40Mhz frequency with a scanner. Hence a proposal was put forward to phase out 40Mhz over the next 18 months firstly in Heavyweights from Jan 2010 and featherweights from Jan 2011. This is now open to further discussion by the membership. It was generally viewed that in the Governing body’s opinion that 2.4Ghz was the safer technology for fighting robots.

6. Lithium Rules

New build rules, including A123’s allowance in heavyweights, were presented at the meeting and are to be verified by email. A proposal was put forward to allow lithium polymer batteries in heavyweights. It was decided more information was needed and it was suggested we apply to a LiPo supplier for some packs for testing. Ed Wallace and Dave Moulds to action.
Featherweights can continue to run LiPo in line with the current rules.

7. Future of roboteering thread

Currently there are no confirmed events beyond this year, although Robots Live have already started planning events for 2010 and Roaming Robots made the FRA aware that whilst there are not events on the forum currently listed, they are finalising their plans for 2010.
 EO’s have talked about charging roboteers a small fee to attend events, mainly due to the current financial climate that is affecting all. General consensus was that this move would be supported if it would help with ensuring the future of the sport. This requires further discussion between EO’s. Pete Lale proposed a FRA funded trophy for each event as an incentive to the roboteer, with the FRA membership fee increasing to incorporate this, no decision has been made at present. Obtaining sponsorship to provide these trophies was also discussed.

8. Judging rules

A sub committee consisting of Mike HM, Gilbert, Geoff, Tim and the EO’s was setup to report back with a standardised set of rules for judging FRA competitions in the future. Discussion would focus around escaping the pit and when a robot is immobile.

9. Website contacts

It was agreed without need for a formal vote that an alias email would be setup to provide email address contacts for the main website with the general location of the reps being added to the contact list. GB members to submit a preferred email address and area to Kane asap.

10. Forum usage

It is the perception that since the migration to the new forum usage has been dropping rapidly. Website statistics show a decline in pages being served. New ways to increase traffic should be considered. A month long trial with a skin of the old forum was suggested but decided that chopping and changing was probably not in everyone’s interests.

11. Newsletter

Geoff Thorpe has produced a A5 leaflet to help promote the FRA to distribute at events. We need to try to encourage new ideas and new roboteers into the sport. Mr Hoppitt suggested that a workshop could be run shortly after an event when interest is peaked, organisation of such an event would be difficult but possible, further conversation with EO’s would be required.
Mr Hoppitt suggested Wiki should be setup to help introduce new roboteers to the sport with tech pages and robot info on – Tom K, Ed W and Kane A to initiate.

12. AOB

Tether Rule to be copied into the build rules from the arena guidelines, for confirmation by email – Ed W to action
Boring boxes discussion resurface on the forum recently in keeping with last time this was brought up boring boxes (robots with no active weapons) cannot be banned as it runs against the FRA constitution. Also that we need to encourage all the interest we can for the future.
One driver rule, the FRA has never enforced such a rule, but at non-FRA competitions it is up to the EO as what to rule on this matter.
Proposal for Andy Kane to be co-opted onto the committee to act as an overseas liaison, a job which he did as president and with his continued travels should maintain this role. Decision – Agreed (10 for, 1 Abstention).

A vote was take to reinstate Mr Hoppitt to the FRA forum. Overall there was a wish to move forward from this issue.
Decision – Agreed (5 for, 4 against)

Items for discussion at the next meeting
• The definition of the role of overseas liaison to be outlined at the next meeting.
• Lithium Polymer trials
• 40Mhz testing results