Is it Outside Assistance for a non-team member to ask for materials for the team using social media?

From our Region 2 Director, Lynn Zimmerman:

OK, I would agree that it would be fine when the kids came up with the idea, that it is not outside assistance(OA). However, when the coach put it on FB, it comes close to crossing a line and it also opens it up for scrutiny with anyone and everyone, including competitors. In short, OA is a matter of degrees.

When judging, at the end of the Long Term solution, we encourage judges to ask questions like:

• That piece looks really cool, what is it made of? Answer being aluminum.

• Who came up with the idea to make it out of aluminum?

• Where is the aluminum from?

• How did you get the aluminum?

• How did you cut the aluminum?

• Who cut the aluminum?

• Then, if the answer is any part involving coaches or parents, I would dig deeper.

• If the answer is that a team did everything from brainstorming, sourcing and creation but had one or two things they could not find, but they brainstormed a different approach, it would be a perfect solution.

• If it appeared that the kids came up with a few ideas and then tasked the coaches to go make it a reality, I would investigate it being OA. This leaning would be even stronger if it appeared that everything was done this way. In short, OA is a slippery slope.

• If the conclusion among the other judges is that it was OA, then points are deducted based on how much the OA gave them an advantage

  • If the OA was incidental to solving the long term, 1 to 5 points

  • If the OA was pivotal to the solution, the penalty would equal all of the points gained in that scoring section, 10 to 50 or even more points

• As Head Judge I have had lots of uncomfortable discussions with Coaches when giving back scores with penalties. We usually come around to the question, ‘how could you have empowered your team to solve the problem without even a hint of outside assistance?’

So, to the problem at hand, the kids are like 12 and 13 year old, so lets be honest and say they are probably better with computers than any of the adults, including myself. They could have made the posting or found another way to get the fabric. For 7^th and 8^th graders, sourcing materials either electronically or in person, with a mask and physical distancing, is well within their grasp. I would also say that there shall be rules involved especially around cyber security and youth safety. However, teams always seem to have a kid who is a ‘scavenger’ that is pretty good about where to get stuff. Also, for next year in Div III, it will be even more emphasis on the kids to think up, locate and create their solution.

Again, it is a matter of degrees and outside assistance is a slippery slope. Conversely, why not empower your scavenger with the needed sourcing skills and remove all doubt on game day.