2015 MAR Season
 

I made a spreadsheet showing what District/Regional events MAR teams are attending. I'll try to update it regularly.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AizgHBYEeVnwdFVDSDcyRlJ3M1FNa050YWk3bjlrN 3c&usp=sharing

I'll probably make the district standings spreadsheet again like I did last year unless MAR uses the website that PNW used last year to automatically keep track of district points. Does anybody have any information on that?

Anyway, in the first hour of registration we already have 69 MAR teams signed up, including 8 new teams.
Team 2095 appears to be a spinoff of 2234.

Re: 2015 MAR Season
 

Is 265 coming back this year? Considering 223 has already registered and no sign of 265, I would assume not.

Also, Mt. Olive has already hit its initial capacity at 31 teams.

Re: 2015 MAR Season
 

265 is more than likely not continuing this year

Re: 2015 MAR Season
 

265 is more than likely not continuing this year

Re: 2015 MAR Season
 

Over the past year, Team 316 has been working with Cumberland County College and the local high schools to launch a new FRC team in Bridgeton. I'm really excited to see Team #5420 Velocity starting in my hometown, and the opportunities it will bring to our students. Velocity will operate under our parent organization South Jersey Robotics, Inc., but is otherwise reaching a new group of students/mentors.

Re: 2015 MAR Season
 

This is fantastic news! South Jersey has so many schools without FIRST in them. How did you manage to secure funding for the new team? That seems to be sort of an issue down there.

Re: 2015 MAR Season
 

Thanks for this, Antonio. I was wondering this morning if you guys would publish one of these again this year, and you pulled through yet again. I always appreciate the hard work you (and Scott Meredith) have done keeping track of all the MAR data, and I'm sure many others in the region feel the same.

Re: 2015 MAR Season
 

Given the current economy in the area, funding can definitely be an issue. I've been away at college for a month now, so my information may be a bit out of date, but here's what I do know. Cumberland County College is partnering with the city of Bridgeton to place a satellite campus/makerspace downtown (see this press release). The college will be giving the team a workshop at this location, access to the equipment, and some additional funding. South Jersey Robotics will also be assisting with the initial costs, and we'll apply our existing business model and fundraisers to the new team. I believe there was discussion of applying for the Rookie and/or NASA grants, as well as some local grant money.

Re: 2015 MAR Season
 

Sounds like a solid plan teaming up with the local college! Let me know if you need any help or advice with any rookie-oriented fundraisers or want to try to hit up some of the local establishments for donations. Best of luck!

Re: 2015 MAR Season
 

It's been about 12 hours after registration has opened and we're already at 95 teams signed up, (MAR had 110 in total last year). With 8 new teams we've beat last year's growth.

It looks like rookie team 5435, from Hamilton, NJ, is home schooled; does anybody have any information about them? Is there a history of FRC teams that are home schooled?

Re: 2015 MAR Season
 

The last one I recall from 2009-2010 is 2753, Team Overdrive.

I'm curious as to why this team wasn't able to figure out how to work with the local FRC teams in the Hamilton area, or if anyone even let them know how many teams were near them.

Re: 2015 MAR Season
 

New team count now up to 9. Team 5490 from Bethlehem registered for HH

Re: 2015 MAR Season
 

Well, one of the reasons MAR chose Lehigh to host the DCMP was to promote team growth in the region. Looks like it's finally working.

Also, I'm a big fan of 5435's team name, the 'RoboMomoTrufflez'

Re: 2015 MAR Season
 

It certainly surprised me when I saw a new Hamilton team registered. They haven't reached out to us at least, as far as I know.

Re: 2015 MAR Season
 

Second district registration opens in an half an hour, so here's the numbers from first event registration.

HH 31
MO 31
SCH 13
LEN 16
BR 9
UD 5
NB 2

Total 107

We had 110 teams signed up at the end of last year, so we're already pretty close. 12 teams from last year have not registered again this year, although I suspect that a few of them are on wait-lists for Mount Olive or Hatboro-Horsham.


It seems like this year MAR wants all events to have about the same number of teams (+/-4 teams). Last year's smallest event (that's still continuing this year) was SCH with 34 teams. If that event doesn't get bigger then we should expect the other events to be capped at 38 teams. Last year Hatboro-Horsham (40), Lenape-Seneca (39) and Bridgewater-Raritan (46) all had over this amount.

If MAR ends up with 110 teams like last year the average event size, assuming everyone plays two districts, would be 32 teams. If we add in growth, third plays and teams from other district regions then the event size grows a little bit. I'd expect event sizes to be smaller this year than last year. It'll probably end up around 34 or 35 teams/event.