Randomness

[pressure]

There was an event in Bradford?
Anyone got any info ie run by who, robots attended, arena details, youtube clips etc?
Mike.

[craig_anto]

and that is whats wrong with the FRA and why i wont be paying for membership

[leorcc]

Bradford was a competition between schools, and had nothing to do with the FRA.

[typhoon_driver]

Well the real question is, were the FRA approached for support in running such an event? Difficult to assist in an event if you don't know about it.

[craig_anto]

thats the problem Leo
the FRA is next to useless
The RFU is involved in EVERYTHING rugby in England, the FA is involved in EVERYTHING football, no they dont and cant control football on the streets but anything related to local goverments is brought back to governing bodies like the FA and the RFU
I've just started work as a community rugby coach and nothing in the local area rugby union related happens without one of us CRC's knowing
This FRA was founded as a governing body to do this such thing for robot combat I know I was there and we in the early days made the approches to bring in such projects as this but this has happened entirly without the FRA knowing anything about it
The local authority that put this event on did risk assesments and obtained liability insurance for this event and however unsafe it may have looked at time they ran the event and got local TV coverage

The FRA is a failure this just makes it more clear we dont need the FRA anymore

[swanaldo]

Craig if you think the fra is useless and you dont need them anymore then just dont renew your membership. Simple really. dont go slagging it off just before you leave tho cos there are some of us that think the fra is a good starting place for roboteering. even if thats all it does its there. better than nothing at all. Its about time SOMEONE got it on tv even if it was a news clip.

[craig_anto]

who says i'm leaving

[anukhet]

As Gary said - bit difficult if we have no knowledge of it. If they approached the FRA with regard to what I call an inter-schools engineering competition then we would have given them every assistance.

The local authority that put this event on did risk assesments and obtained liability insurance

Do you know this for sure? It is not a public event but an educational project.

The RFU is involved in EVERYTHING rugby in England, the FA is involved in EVERYTHING football

Wrong! My son plays for a local community soccer team and he is signed up with the FA however when it comes to his school team the FA are not involved whatsoever.

Godlike omnipresence is not something the FRA can manage when it comes to non-public events - no doubt and no apologies for it either.

The FRA is a failure this just makes it more clear we dont need the FRA anymore

And after all the time I gave up arranging your arena inspections, finding and getting the right people to talk to for technical advice and them giving up THEIR time as well. Me bitter? Nah!

[craig_anto]

I have family in local goverment they cant do anything without obtaining risk assesments and insurance so yes i do know this,
Your sons school team will be referee's by either FA certified Referees or teachers who have been on refereeing courses, I dont know that 100% but thats how it is with Rugby, The school team will have to obide by FA/FIFA rules as events like this should run by our rules
we dont need a ''Godlike'' presence how hard is it to make the FRA's presence known a standard letter to all local authorities is all you need to do with information of the local rep

Peoples time arranged for an arena inspection was more than appreciated, on the day and the event after I made sure to thank everyone who came, the FRA is not doing its job its not just here to write rules and organise the EO's

that Bradford event is a prime example of a potentially dangerous event, I would like the think that upon seeing this the FRA would get in contact with the local authourity and make its presence known

If the FRA is not even plannning to do that it really is a failure

[kane]

Unfortunately the FRA are not in a position to provide the same support that the FA can.

You are comparing an organisation with around 100 paid members to one of the biggest sports in the world.

The FRA spends a lot of time and money providing the framework and support for event organisers to use a common ruleset and put together safe events.

Just because a group of schools decided to put together and organise a Robot Wars style event without using the rules we put in place doesn't mean we are doing a bad job.

The simple fact that these sort of events are appearing is just the kind of sign that shows the sport is still alive and that the interest is still there.