FRA elections 2009

Do it Jonno youd get my vote
Ive said for years you should be el president
Ed did bring up some issues in his manifesto that should be common practice I look forward to reading everyone elses

Hi Jonno. Ed has organised events in the past but surely that shouldnt rule him out completely. Doesnt Geoff run your Haven tours? If so doesnt that make him an event organiser or at least have interest in organising events?

Dave

nope....

Geoff and Jenny are members of my Haven crew.
I use him as an FRA tech checker at my events.

I don€™t think you can call it organising an event when all they do is turn up for an hour, and then go back to their hotel.

The same as you help the Young€™s as crew, Mike is hired for his boxers, and Ed is hired to compare their shows. There€™s no difference.

Slightly different to running events for many years, trying to organise one for Sept 2009, and then conveniently it disappears when something better comes along.

Speak to Geoff Thorpe, who as far as he is concerned WAS about to grant him a licence, and has all the paperwork which has been drawn up by his solicitor.

Plus... I don€™t think its just whether he is or isn€™t an organiser.... its also the fact hes banned form the FRA, and probably most importantly that a high proportion of the existing committee has vowed to walk out if he was elected as they wouldn€™t work with him. They don€™t like him ! Is that good for our hobby ?

Im not even on the committee, they can speak for themselves if they want to... but... I feel people should know the truth. There€™s too many people too afraid to speak out and be counted, even though they are thinking the same things that I have written, and I stand by them.

And this is yet again another example of how the FRA can never be able to do its business, as their are people out there who are far too quick to start with the conspiracy theories.

There was a vote.... they voted 7 - 0.... doesn€™t that say enough about their feelings.

Do we have to keep going on about it.

John

This is what I think.
We all believe there should be, Unity within the community of Roboteers, clear goals for the future and further growth, a closed loop monitoring system to check progress and help were it is needed.
I believe there is a great future for robot combat in this and any country.

Robots Live has a great show with items like the boxing robots and the famous Skeletron
Roaming Robots has great show format with the cage and Major Damage.
Rebel robots are going to be on TV, plus they have a new arena that can take HW spinners.
This community can put on a show to impress any audience we have a product between Puppetry and Gladiatorial combat, it€™s got to be a winner.
I have always been impressed on how the robot community can air their differences.
After all the discussion, after all the debate, after all the arguments, I will support whoever is chosen by the majority to take on these heavy responsibilities to further the sport, for when the talking and voting stops, the doing (something) starts.
:)

Im not on anybodies side but i do think the the being an event organiser should be forgotten. He has catagoricly stated in writting that he wont be organising any events. Besides i dont see why the most active people in the community dont get to have a say. Lets not forget that one person cant just add rules etc. it has to be voted in by everyone regardless of how it may effect them commercially. I would like to stand as a roboteer rep and think i would make a good one but until that changes i cant put my expirence back into the community.

I personally agree 100% with jonno, although james may not.
My main problem is I also cant vote for someone that I dont believe will do much for our sport.
Geoff is a great guy, but so far on the FRA i havnt seen any real progress in the last year - every step forward as far as I have seen has been from Andy Kane.
Kane Aston for chairman:proud: Although i am looking forward to seeing what he proposes to do for the memebers of the FRA.

Lets get some perspective here - Ed is banned from membership of the FRA for reasons explained by Andy Kane. His current application for president is based on a membership by proxy ie; he is listed as a team member for team storm of which Tim Bence is the team leader.

If he was to apply for membership in his own right it would be refused, so how can we allow someone who is banned from this organisation to stand in an election for President. Think about it.

None of Eds ideas are new, we want to be discussing these topics, but our agendas are often taken up with reactions to events that are out of our control. So until the people who are sniping at the committee stop causing mischief, we on the committee are being prevented from discussing what we want to do because we are always looking over our shoulders for fear of causing strife among the membership.

James - you would make an excellent rep, but the FRA is a roboteers union and the EOs are the gaffers. It is the fundamental principle behind the formation of the association. You have been to many committee meetings and your voice has always been heard and never ignored. All the EOs regularly attend committee meetings and have a substantial input on any decision we make, they just dont have a vote. The only time the EOs wishes have been ignored is over the 13.6kg weight ruling - the committee backed the EOs, but was overruled by the membership at the AGM at the UK Champs in North Wales. You cannot get more democratic than that.

The forum - some may find this hard to believe, but issues raised on the forum often drive the agenda at the committee meetings, and have often led to meetings being arranged when we could do without the hassle of travelling hundreds of miles for a 7-8 hour sit down. The point being; if you have an idea, raise it here, you may get shot down by fellow roboteers but this is the place that we congregate without the pressures of working on robots getting in the way.

Socials - I have organised many socials, some successful, some not. I have not done one for a long while as there are so many events now, we are meeting up nearly every week. Also, it is not much fun to drive a long distance and have to sit in a pub drinking lemonade. I know, I have done it, and not got home until the early hours of the morning.

Trev

Doesnt Geoff run your Haven tours?

haha errr no i ran the Haven Tours :proud:

And jonno, all the funstars from Haven want me back this summer or there not co-operating there saying on facebook/msn haha.

Thing is i love Craig Colliasss view - great one. And yes people need to be their own person and make their own choice and vote and so on.. but then there are times where people need to look at facts and trust what is going on. The facts about Ed stand and speak for them self...

But about time people started talking real for once.

And Grant - to be fair, Geoff has done quite a bit in getting rules moved and organising stuff with Karoline inside the FRA. And Kane is sound, i think Geoff and Kane with Kaloline will be a sound un-biased team.

Mr Stu

A 7-8 hour meeting? ARE YOU SERIOUS? It wounds like the FRA really do need a chairman, one who knows how to chair a meeting.

Simon

I echo Trevors message - I could not have put it better myself.

May I add that, on a personal basis, I do this because I want nothing more than to see this community and the sport we all love survive, progress, expand and continue but as Trevor has said, often we are sidelined with other issues out of our control.

I have always considered my position on the committee as something of an anomaly of which I still cannot explain. I dont have the technical skills of the rest of you but I am always learning and asking questions (even if they may seem stupid). What I do know for sure is that I love this sport greatly and I take my position on the governing body very seriously especially in my duty to represent the interests of roboteers anywhere in the country whether that be for issues of safety, the running of events, and for many other intangible issues that the membership may not notice even if it means protecting roboteers from themselves. I also consider it my duty to represent the interests of EOs if it falls within my remit.

I cannot read peoples minds but I hope that you all see me as unbiased - I have been known to crack down with as much impartiality as many of the people closest to me will testify, but I will never roll over and allow the evil, disruptive influences that have hampered our progress continue to do so - that is (Edit: what I consider to be my most) solemn duty.

(Message edited by anukhet on February 02, 2009)

Simon, few meetings are that long but some of the issues raised at them require such lengthy discussion. Dont worry though, we do take coffee, lunch and pee breaks :wink:

Every member is entitled to have their say but the large majority of them do not want to be at all involved in the politics they simply want to enjoy what they doing. If all the membership happily continue in this sport without saying a word then we have done our job perfectly but we all know that that kind of Utopia doesnt exist :)

Oh the plot thickens it seems. This is more depressing than Eastenders.

Wish Ed Hoppitt would stop spamming my inbox. I didnt sign up to Edward Hoppitts Latest Stand on the FRA Elections. So stop spamming me or i take things further.

Mr Stu

quote:

This is more depressing than Eastenders.

Each to their own Stu, I personally feel this entire affair is beginning to exhibit elements of comedy :proud:

Haha true dude.. to be fair i enjoy the comedy site of things on Eastenders also. Im an Eastenders fan and not affraid to admit it. hehe.

Mr Stu
VOTE KANE AND GEOFF

Lets be honest ed has put a decent proposal forward. In anyones eyes it pushes the sport forward. So far ive heard nothing from geoff and therefore cant back some one who has no ideas for our future. how can i support nothing? Im not biased on anybodies side but it only takes a tiny bit of common sence as to which road we should be going down. A solid proposal vs so far nothing..

I would feel much happier if i heard something from Geoff but so far not a word and so i feel we have no choice until he does.

Joey - Spot On! Thing is that there are many, many members, past and present who are not laughing. They know the history.
Yet another spam mail - I am getting tired of this - no other candidate would have the gall to spam the membership for their own personal gain. Mike hasnt, Kane hasnt, Swanny, hasnt and Geoff wouldnt because they all realise that its just bad manners as well as being thoroughly unprofessional. Access to the forum or not, there are ways to direct people to your message without resorting to such invasive tactics.

James, I assume you will be at Magna tomorrow so you can chat to Geoff in person but as they say stay tuned to this channel

@ Karoline - I believe the phrase is called attention-whoring. Just ignore Ed like you have been. :P

This will be my first and probably my last comment on the forum but I can€™t just stand by and watch the discussions going on without commenting€¦
I feel that we are worlds away from the €˜one€™ roboteering community that so warmly welcomed me in 6 years ago and to be honest I am ashamed and embarrassed to be part of a community now where previous favours and good doings are being forgotten, where personal differences and unfound judgements are pulling a community apart and paving the way to the end of this sport in the UK€¦
At this time, more than ever before we should be focusing our energies on coming together not falling apart, on individual€™s strengths not their weaknesses, the skills they can bring to the community not the petty comments or disagreements from the past. We need to pull together each and everyone€™s strengths and skills and be big enough to put aside differences and misunderstandings to get to the same goal everyone has deep in their hearts- a future for roboteering in the UK and a community that can get together, have fun and grow the enthusiasm and interest towards the sport.
So at this point I urge you to step back and reconsider the direction we are heading in€¦ put aside personal difference, leave egos behind, stop creating villain €˜scapegoats€™ and look for the strengths and skills that are on offer within our community to help take us all ultimately to where we all want to be- one community and a thriving sport!

Here, here.
There will be elements, however, that will never let go of the past and drive the wedge deeper.

Why are some people under the impression that this sport is on its last legs and has no future?

Presumbaly the lack of any current TV coverage...

Meh, some people think like that...

Strange, Woodys link posted earlier now throws up a 404 for me.

Anyway, this is just a thought about the TV coverage (or lack thereof) - I am not aiming at anyone.....
Whether addressing anyones public or private persona, Robot Wars has gone! - Get over it!
Much of the thanks for that is due to the many teams and individuals that have come into the sport in the 5 years or so since the last series of RW was recorded. For anyone to say that the future looks clouded or doubtful devalues the contributions already made by the newest members of our community. It has kept the sport alive in the public eye by their enthusiasm for live events and to actually be real people rather than the perceived surreal personalities that TV tends to produce deliberately or not.

cant really say robot wars has gone

gladiators came back 8 years later - and robot wars is alot better then gladiators - just gotta see what happens at battlebots and it might make robot wars come back

if i was over it not going to come back on tv then i wouldnt be still doing it and i do hope one day it will come back and im not going to get over it or im off

Here you go karoline ...http://www.teamstorm.com/fra/backup/eo.htmhttp://www.teamstorm.com/fra/backup/eo.htm



(Message edited by woody on February 07, 2009)

Ed, take me of your email list. I do not want to recieve your spam emails.

Mike.

Remember, What a lot of people who have not look into what we do (eg. the people who did not know that series 7 was going to be on channel 5) dont realise fully what we actually do.

When I decided to make robotic combat my topic on my physics AS resarch and report, I had to refer to robot wars almost every time I mentioned my project. At first I was naturally embarrased as I had never mentioned this to my friends that I had anything to do with it(probably that I am a very shy person at school), but eventually I got to the You wanted to know so here it is, yes I like it , got a problem with that? phase. What Irritated me the most was that when my physics teacher asked me seriosly in public Chris, when you wrote down robotic combat, do you mean militaristic warfare, or the game using RC toys?

A lot of people need to get into their heads that the buc did not stop with the end of RW and will never take it seriously. Robotic combat is fun and a means of entertainment but it needs to be apreciated with a sport as well, and like any sport rather than some TV gimmick, just because it is not on TV any more does not mean that it is dead.

When RW stopped filming, It devided the fans who just watched the programme without building into two groups. The people who suddenly got over it and got on with their lives. Knowing that if (and I hope that it is a matter of when) the sport comes back onto television, will suddenly creep out of the woodwork and will claim that they always stood by it, even when it dissapeared.
And the other group who decided to try do something about it. When RW left, I decided to get off my posterior, research on the internet about it and spent what little of my own money and time learning how they worked and built one (it may be an antweight but I hope to move into the heavier weight classes when I get the time to build one). I also know that I am also not alone with this senario.
To be honest if I chose to get over it and disasociat myself with it than my life would be very different now. I wouldnt have considered to go furtherdown the path of engineering, I woudlnt have chosen mechanics or physics to do at A-level, and I certanly wouldnt have four offers from Universities to do robotics.

Sorry for the long rant, but the point is that I am tired with people around me refusing to treat the sport of robotic combat seriosly, with RW or without.

I would like to say, Ed please take me off your e-mail list. I did not ask to recieve them. So I am asking nicely.

Jenny

Apart from junk mail rejections back to the election.

Election for President is delayed until after the 1st new governing body meeting.

Tomorrow voting forms for the chair persons election will be mailed to you.

This election has two candidates
Kane Aston and Mike Hamilton-Macy

Please read their own individual threads for their election address

You will be asked to authenticate your paper with your membership number and year of membership card

Only 2008 and 2009 membership cards are applicable

Earlier year than above membership numbers if used will render your vote spoiled.

Your vote is important

Further to Andys post, the election form has now been sent to all FRA members at the email address shown on their membership forms.

Instructions on how to return your vote is included in the email. You have until midnight on 13th Feb 2009. (Friday 13th! :wink:)

If you have not received this email, please contact me ASAP using the following address:
kpannell(at)btinternet.com

Thank you

Meral / Mike,

The simple fact is that too many have been on the receiving end of his (in my opinion) unscrupulous behaviour. So it is hardly surprising that his emergence has created ill feeling. I cannot think of another person who could bring about a split more than he can.

i have tried explaining this to both Tim and Ed himself but hey if its what the community is destined to be then it is. I know thats negative but there is different opinions and at the end of the day neither for or against the idea will change anything.

For me now i have been thinking to stand back and watch what happens. I love my robot and i love socialising with everybody and i love the sport.

I will now just continue to be a roboteer and do my very best to be a good one.

Sod all this bollatics.

LETS PLAY ROBOTS :) :) :)

You know what i aint even gonna vote.

Shove it :)

Just one more thin.....Mike has put up some good speaches on his thread for election. Ed did a complete website.....Kane on the other hand has been down to earth with the most sensible approach on everything. He hasnt bigged himself up to be a great master that will change everything. He is just being his honest self and being real.

Thanks Kane for making me realise there is no mega dream of unity and i know you will do a good job as chairman.

Kane your logo should be...

Just Do It .... And Dont Dream :):)

i havent recieved the form to vote via emai,could you send it to me please. i was a member for 2008, but yet to renew so perhaps i cannot vote???

You can vote if you are member 2008, dunno if they will send you a form from just posting on here, so best to email Karoline anyway!

kpannell(at)btinternet.com

T.K.

ok cheers tom

I have voted. I also put in writing too just incase.

Please make sure you vote everyone. please.

Karoline i havnt recieved the e-mail. Niether have alot of people i spoke to today.

Im under the impression that were probably not going to be allowed to vote for ed.. alot of people i spoke to today want ed as president which might come as a shock to half of the community.. I think he should be given the option to be elected as much as any other roboteer would be. Especialy as quite a few respected people told me today they want him as president.

No offence Geoff.

I second your opinion and Merels. Agreed