Chief Delphi - The District System

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Re: The District System

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZehP (Post 1276799)

I might be taking this in a different direction than you intended. I haven't been to a district event, but can anyone who has comment on how they would feel if they only attended a single district event for their entire season? The concept of getting more bang for your buck has been thrown around quite a bit, but I don't see how only attending a single district event all year and then possibly not qualifying for the district championships would in any way benefit international teams. You can't auto-qualify all international (extracontinental?) teams. Some regions could support at least a few district events, but some teams would be stranded if all of FIRST transitioned without adding significant international team growth. Unfortunately, significant international team growth requires more international events, which, in turn, require more teams, which, in turn, require more events, which, in turn...

Pardon me, I didn't mean for to appear that the international teams were only allowed to attend one event. It would be their decision to attend 1, 2, or more events. I simply meant that since international teams have significantly more difficulty in attending events they could opt before the season started to only attend one and then have those scores doubled, or like 383 does simply attend multiple events.

Re: The District System

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZehP (Post 1276799)

The international (OCONUS) teams that already only attend one regional wouldn't be losing anything at all--in fact, you could argue they'd be gaining because with doubling the points, etc, the system could be set up that they're more likely to qualify for Worlds.

This would make sense, since under districts, you can be good but not awesome (what would be a regional's tickets to Worlds) at your first and even second event, yet still qualify for Worlds be winning the District Championships. (<<Us) Maybe hold N slots at Champs for single-event OCONUS teams and invite based on a quasi-points ranking.

I also wouldn't stress too much about the district vs. regional atmosphere (if anyone is). Maybe the ones in high school gyms wouldn't be so great when crossing an ocean, but there are districts at universities. Plus, some big-city regionals could probably turn into double district events in same/similar venues and keep their same "big show" impact.

Re: The District System

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrendanB (Post 1276444)

During a meeting last night to discuss NEFIRST something that was brought up was the timeline for qualifying for St. Louis. This past year our team qualified in week 6 and experienced a massive scramble to organize travel for 42 people to travel from New Hampshire to St. Louis. This wasn't easy. Chasing down plane tickets and group travel (not necessarily for the rate but to have everyone together) was extremely hard to do 2 weeks out with Southwest nearly telling us to forget it.

As the district model expands with NE going into it this upcoming season, how will travel plans to St. Louis change? In 3-5 years down the road we could nearly 50%+ of teams attending St. Louis finding out a week and a half in advance they are moving on to CMP.

For regions that are closer like FIM and MAR its a solid days drive. For places like New England and further out west, hopping on a bus isn't so easy (or cheap for that matter). How will smaller teams who may have just drained their budget and their community resources just making it to the district championship afford registration + travel after potentially traveling to two district events plus the district championship? NE has several teams who for unfortunate remote reasons will have to travel to 1-2 districts plus the district championship and due to their location, there isn't much around.

Following along, how will items like flight and hotel change? Maybe we see places like NEFIRST approaching airlines and bus companies to have buses and planes ready to go for teams who qualify. We could potentially have 25 teams plus the legacy/HOF teams in New England (30). Similarly, will regions begin reserving hotels so their is a place to stay for said teams.

These were just one of the many things we discussed but as the district model expands these issues will become bigger for the areas further away. Our team barely scrapped by organizing travel this year and we aren't excited about doing it with a week to do so!

A question for the current teams in districts: Do you have a good idea of who is already going BEFORE the district championship starts?

I agree with you. The first thing I thought of when I learned of the NE district model was add both the travel expenses and travel timeline and while the expenses increased, the timeline decreased making travel much more complex and expensive. Mentors from several CT teams met just this week to discuss if there are ways we can possibly book travel early as a huge group to be utilized by whatever team needs it. There would be a lot of rules and guidelines we would have to put in place but it's an idea we are just kicking around. I plan on contacting a travel agent soon to see if they have any ideas as well.
BTW, it was great alliancing with your team at WPI :)