Possible Connecticut Offseason

[elfenari]

Hey everyone! I'm elfenari, captain of The Discotechs and senior at Brookfield High School in Connecticut. At our school, we have a program known as the senior capstone project, where seniors are excused from the last month of school, in order to do a project that either reflects their future career interest, is good for the community, or often both. For my capstone, I had the idea of planning and hosting a recycle rush offseason event. I have a couple questions I want to clear up before committing to this project.

1.What Teams would be interested in coming? We're located in Brookfield, CT, and the event would be somewhere in the area.

2. Where should the event be held? Our high school has a really nice gym setup, but limited parking. It would be possible to have parking at a nearby elementary school + a shuttle, but even that may be to little. It might also be possible at a nearby hockey arena with a parking garage, but flooring over the ice for the field might be very difficult.

3. How much does a regional cost/make for a team? I understand that the field would cost money to acquire, and we would probably need to pay the school for use of the facilities, and food and stuff. What would we be required to pay up front, and should we expect a profit from food sales and registration fees?

4. Are offseasons good for the nonFRC community? Our school has a fan section that has gotten pretty big this year and go to most sporting events. Luckily, Waterbury is close enough that we're going to try to get people there, but I feel like the majority of people don't understand how awesome our competitions are. For those who have ran offseason competitions, were you able to use it to increase awareness and excitement about your team?

Thanks for your help everyone, and looking forward to seeing you all at competitions!

[alextried]

1099! I loved talking you guys last year :) I know 3525 would almost definitely jump on the opportunity to have another off-season event in CT besides WIWI.

I can't answer all of your questions, but I can tell you it's very useful to have an event close to home. My team is hosting the Waterbury event and it's bringing a huge awareness to my city, which will be useful for us in bringing in sponsors, mentors, and new students. It can be a lot of work for your team (our students are all doing shifts for concessions at our event) but definitely worth it.

See you guys soon!

[kyle1997]

Hi,
I acted as an event coordinator(I was only a sophomore) last year for our teams first offseason event. I would like to applaud this idea as I think that offseason events are a great way to get people involved in FIRST.

I can't answer all your questions as my team is located in Texas but I will try my best.

As per where it should be held I would recommend the school gym just make sure you have adequate room for the pits. Parking was not an issue for us as most teams came in one or two cars.

It cost our team roughly 10 grand to host the event last year. Our shipping for from AndyMark cost about 4,000 your shopping should be cheaper than ours. Reserving a field from AndyMark cost $500 this is just a down payment and is non refundable Game peices are expensive also and you will need to purchase that. Just getting everything you need for the field will cost about 7,500 the remaining funds will go towards food t shirts supplies and other General things. Our team ended up making a profit but that was only beacuse we got a grant
from Texas workforce commission. Your first year will be rough and I would expect to loose some money but if you were to host it for two years you would turn a profit in my opinion.

Offseason have worked wonders for our team. It allows people intrested in engineering a way to get involved it shows them what first is all. Although getting the first few people in the door is hard after that more and more people will come.
If you have any more questions feel free to get in touch with me via phone call/text 817-996-0084 or email 16kgriffith@student.nchstx.org

[Jacob Bendicksen]

Hi! Team 1540 hosts 3 offseason events each year, so I'll be able to answer most of your questions.

1. Unfortunately we're a little far away...but ask around at the regional/district events that you're going to. A lot of teams don't frequent CD.
2. It would be a lot cheaper (I'd think) to host it at your school than to have it somewhere else. I'd reserve parking at the school for official team vehicles (trailers, etc.) and run a shuttle, since renting another venue can get really expensive really quickly.
3. We don't have to pay for a field since we're in the PNW. Before the PNW had fields (prior to this past season), it usually cost us about $10,000 to ship the field out, which we paid for via registration fees for the event and event sponsors. We never make money off of the events - we just break even. As far as food goes, try to negotiate some sort of deal with a local restaurant - if you can provide them with several hundred hungry high schoolers, they'll probably be happy to give you a cut of the profits.
4. Running offseason events has absolutely increased FIRST awareness in our school. There's a huge difference between going to our gym and going to an event across town (psychologically at least), and it's been really great for our efforts to make FIRST loud. It's always a fun moment when we're all set up in the gym with the entire field, and the varsity soccer team comes walking into the gym after practice and goes 'whoa.'

In short, I think you should absolutely try to host an offseason competition. It's a great experience for your team, your school, and the FIRST community around you, and on top of that, it's a lot of fun.

I'd be happy to discuss this in much more detail - just PM me and we can set up a time to talk.

[dag0620]

I'm so happy to hear that there is more interest in executing another off-season event in New England, it is a challenging task but definitely worth it. For my High School Capstone Project I executed a VEX Event, so I've been through many of the same hurdles.

Let me start out by saying there is a lot of details to organizing an FRC event, even for an off-season that has a lot of the details paired down. It also takes a lot of work, so while you would be leading it as your project, you will certainty need others help in the planning as well as the execution. I highly recommend reading this guide: http://www.usfirst.org/sites/default/files/How%20to%20Host%20an%20Off-Season%20FRC%20Event%20%28May%202011%20Edition%202 %29.pdf

To answer your questions though:

1. Talk to your RD (Who I can get her contact info for you) and she can help assist in gauging interest. While getting interest in another off-season is never an issue, getting teams to your event will also come down to when you decide to host the event, and what other off-season events in the area are happening at the same time.

2. It depends on whats available to you. Venues capable of hosting FRC events aren't easy to find. Like you mentioned you need to have ample parking, easy access, and you need to have the square footage for a field and pits. All standard Hockey Rinks have the floor space to host an FRC Event, but like you mentioned, you need to make sure it is covered.

3. Costs, vary. Major charges include Field Transportation (Rental typically is free but you have to pay for the logistics), venue rental and fees, paying to feed your volunteers, game operation materials, AV, as well as typically reimbursing expenses for an FTA.

When you pay all depends on your vendors.

FRC events are tricky to make money. Normally teams don't really profit off of the event itself, but can make money off of merchandise sales and food sales.

4. YES YES YES. WIWI is a huge outreach tool for 1071, and is what really helps make our community aware of what FRC is.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to PM me. I've been through planing and executing FRC events many times and am willing to share any knowledge I have.

Wishing you all the best!

[notmattlythgoe]

Here (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/3061) are our lessons learned from hosting an off-season event this past fall.