Georgia Districts
 

From an email I received today:
FIRST's site lists 75 teams in Georgia. We'd likely have 4-5 district events and maybe a 40 team championship. I'd like to see us send 12-15 teams to championships with this new model.

Also I'm glad we are finally trying to ditch the 65+ team regional model. I was not at all happy with the number of matches we got, and this district model would fix all of those issues.

Thoughts?

Re: Georgia Districts
 

After seeing how big Peachtree was this year and how few matches each team got to play, I like it.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

As a South Carolina team with rapidly decreasing regional options, I don't like the idea of losing two regionals. But it could be very good for Georgia.

Any idea of when Georgia may move to this model?

Re: Georgia Districts
 

The survey said the move is happening in the next two years. They're strongly pushing to move next year though. I'd personally like to have a district with South Carolina, since our regionals have a lot of overlap in terms of teams. From what I've heard, North Carolina is almost dead set on going to districts next year as well.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

Yes, that would be good. I have this fear that NC and GA will move to Districts and somehow SC will get left behind. I don't think we're big enough for a SC district but it could make sense to lump a couple states together for a Southeast District.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

An Alabama Regional seems to be in the works, but it would be weird if the only options for south carolina teams would be an overcrowded Palmetto Regional, a growing Smoky Mountain Regional, or hop over one state to Alabama. Ideally we'd have SC and NC or GA and SC combine into one district. I'd wager Tennessee and Alabama would both take a while to form districts, and Tennessee would likely split and join up with an established system or have its own district due to the size of its state.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

They announced at the Smoky Mountains Regional that there will be an Alabama Regional next year.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

It's official, the Rocket City Regional will be held in Huntsville, AL next year. Time and location TBD.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

I am in support of GA districts and it's great to hear AL getting a regional now too. With Palmetto, GSC, and Peachtree full this was something I expected soon.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

First off congrats GA for reaching district potential. We will miss competing with you all if things go this way however districts are rather appealing and that is where it is at.

Somewhat off topic I would like to suggest the following....

F.I.S.
FIRST In the South

South Carolina:37
North Carolina:42
Georgia:49
Tennessee:38
West Virginia:4
Virginia:69
Kentucky:12

Total of 251 teams.

You could easily have 12 district events and 1 district championship and qualify far more teams. After a year or two of team growth you could break this large district into smaller ones potentially having one district for each state at some point.

Low registration fees for all, more matches for all, and lower travel costs for most.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

Florida?

Re: Georgia Districts
 

Why Not?

Re: Georgia Districts
 

From what I have heard, districts in VA is likely, but not with NC or one of these other states. It will likely be a National Capital district with MD and DC.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

I love love love this idea! WV will be moving with Ohio District very soon, but I think this is a more viable option, especially because the biggest deterrent to districts is volunteers. If you're pulling from volunteers across the south instead of just a single state, it might be easier.

I think that once districts become more universal, things will probably get re-aligned. Since districts are coming from the region level and not FIRST, sometimes they're not necessarily the best for everyone involved. Once districts are more universal, it is possible that some re-alignment based on team clustering and also number growth will happen. As different areas grow, we might see a new trend - instead of going districts, it will be district re-alignment. For example, as WV gets more and more teams, we might find that staying with Ohio may not be as good as going with someone else. Or maybe we will see districts start to combine together.

I'm excited to hear about Georgia, though! Very cool! Although, I was looking forward to advocating for going to Peachtree next year in our potentially last year in regionals. :(

Re: Georgia Districts
 

There were serious talks back in the fall about Georgia going district with North Carolina next year, but the last update we received up here in NC was that that wouldn't be happening.

I am of the opinion that creating a GA/NC district like this would be much more preferable to separated isolated districts. It would open up the region for travelling and help prevent teams from having to isolate to their own state for the sake of costs and Worlds qualifications. We, as members of FIRST should try to open boarders and promote team's interacting with and competing against as many others as possible.

I haven't been in any of the discussions though, so I don't know if this is still possible. If you GA teams can give the feedback that you want a combined district though, I say go for it. I would like to play with some of you guys in the future again : )

Re: Georgia Districts
 

NC is already pretty much confirmed for a district next year already...three events, plus a championship from what I hear.

But as a Western NC resident who is already burning through all my vacation time with my own team - if you do an Atlanta area event as a Saturday-Sunday, I will volunteer (provided we're not competing that weekend).

Re: Georgia Districts
 

We had good fun in Orlando this year with some great Fl teams as well as teams from other parts of the world. But combining Ga & Fl into one district would be too big geographically.

While going to districts make sense on several levels, loosing the interaction of teams from other places than here is a downside.

When Ga goes to district, that will mean the loss of 2 regionals in the southeast. Will the inaugural Georgia Southern Classic (Goober Pea) be the last?

Re: Georgia Districts
 

Between those states, you already have approximately 10 regionals.

The sheer size of this district would downplay quite a few of the other logistical benefits (reduced travel, deeper penetration of involvement, maintainability, etc.) that the district model traditionally provides.

- Sunny G.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

I would personally love to see districts in Tennessee or in the region. We have a lot of talent around here and the district model looks better to me than the regional one.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

Glad to hear Districts will be coming to the Southeast US in the next year or two! It's a huge improvement to the regional model, imho! You can really see it helping out FIRST teams throughout New England... many teams, young and old, had become stagnant and just hadn't been as productive... now you see many teams really thriving (again)!

My suggestion would be to try to create Districts larger than a single state... while Indiana has definitely proved you can do it with a ~40-50 team state, I think the dynamic really works best when you have ~80-150+ teams. That's large enough to really get the benefit of playing with teams at the DCMP you haven't competed with before, and to create a big group of teams with a strong sense of solidarity.

While the 'Super Southest Region' of everyone south of the Mason-Dixon and east of the Mississippi seems a little unreasonable for a District CMP, I think having 3 or 4 districts that encompass this region would probably be a reasonable number. Obviously if Districts got well above 250 teams or so, they may want to start splitting apart... but then again Michigan seems to be doing well with its 350 team district!

Seems like the 'cores' of some potential Districts in the SE could be:

- Virginia & Maryland
- Georgia & South Carolina
- Florida?
- Tennessee?

- West Verginia would most likely join with Virginia and Maryland (but could perhaps join an Ohio & Western PA district).
- North Carolina could probably join with either Virginia and Maryland or with Georgia and South Carolina.
- Florida could potentially become it's own district, but joining with Georgia and South Carolina would also make some sense (more so if NC were to join VA and MD)
- Alabama would probably join with Georgia and South Carolina, although with plans to host their own Regional in 2016, that would seem to push that timeline out to at least 2017.
- Kentucky could form a smaller district (~50 teams) with Tennessee, or perhaps try joining with TN, VA, WV, and MD for a large district of >200 teams... although spread out across a larger and longer area than the PNW.

A Possible Set of Combinations:

- Capital Region: Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina and Washington DC

- 178 Teams (in 2015)
- 133,300 sq mi

- Southeast Region: Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and Alabama

- 175 Teams (in 2015)
- 209,700 sq mi

- 'Central' Region: Tennessee and Kentucky

- 57 Teams (in 2015)
- 82,600 sq mi

- Mississippi River Region: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi

- 54 Teams (in 2015)
- 153,500 sq mi

Re: Georgia Districts
 

I think creating a district with South Carolina would be the best way to. A GA/NC district doesn't make too much sense geographically, and the culture of teams may be different. We have enough overlap with SC that it would be viable. I'm going to put that as a suggestion in my survey response.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

There had been talks of a NC/SC/GA district for a while. South Carolina was hesitant about the switch for a while, for a variety of reasons, and we here in NC are likely to go solo with districts next year.

In the future, the NC/SC/GA district would be an ideal scenario, and if the model works here next season, I could see South Carolina adopting it as well.

There's an exciting few years of transition ahead for Southeast FRC!

Re: Georgia Districts
 

This timing seems pretty late to make the move for next season. Of course they may have already staked out the potential locations but it is preferable to have the contracts in place before this school year ends. Over summer it is hard to get in contact with the powers that be and by the time they are willing to talk in the fall many schools are already booked.

Personally I think the current 60 teams is a little small for a district. I know IN pioneered the mini district model this year but don't see huge cost savings associated with that small of a district.

On the other hand say 66 teams with some growth so you'd need 132 spots 132/4= 33 team events so make them for up to 36 which is right in the sweet spot. With 4 events needed they can get by with one field have the events weeks 1-4, have a break and the DCMP week 6 which is the ideal set up. Convince SC and or AL to join for 2017 and they bump right into the sweet spot to have two fields and still finish the district events in 5 weeks so DCMP can be week 6. In the PNW district we went to the week 6 DCMP this year and I just can't see us going back. Teams really seem to appreciate that extra week of time to get everything taken care of before DCMP.

For those that are suggesting a huge district with ~250 teams I say that is way too large for a start up district. I'd put the max at around the 150 team district for the first season that leaves a little room for growth. Go much beyond that and you start running up against having the need for 3 events on a couple of the weekends which means 3 fields, 3 sets of production equipment, 3 sets of key volunteers per weekend ect, which is a bad idea for the first season in the District system in my opinion.

For those that have a vote in the matter I'd highly suggest that you vote yes, yes, yes you want to move to the district system for the 2016 season. Having finished our second year and having talked with lots of mentors and students the vast majority prefer the District System vs the Regional System.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

Current plan is for West Virginia to be joining Ohio and western Pennsylvania when they form their district. And the plan is for 2017 las I heard. This actually makes much more sense than Virginia geographically. I hope that eventually western MD could join us, though.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

Hate to see a solid event like Peachtree come off the board, but congrats to our neighbors for seeing the growth to make districts viable. After three years of 60-some-odd-team regionals, I know I can't wait for the change either.

-----------

For those that keep asking about South Carolina: I've talked with Frank Lanford (the Palmetto RD) about this one at length. There has been no down-to-brass-tacks talk about us playing in any district system next year, either alone or as a multi-state region. Judging from how Indiana pulled it off and from our neighbors, my bet is on a one-state district around 2017-2018 once our team count gets north of 50. (We were at 41 this year, Indiana had 49.) The other Good Guy Frank wouldn't flip the switch without plenty of dialogue first.

Re: Georgia Districts
 

I would/will be sad to see Peachtree go and be replaced with a district model. Mostly because I've been attending Peachtree pretty much since the beginning.

The district model gives teams a lot more chances to play, but it also means that we would need a lot more volunteers. For the most part Peachtree is run by an amazing group that comes back each and every year. GSCR (Kudzu) was run by that same amazing group.

I personally also volunteered at the Orlando regional. If we went to district model, had like 4-5 events + a CMP, I would maybe be able to be at 2 of those. 3 events and working full time took it out of me, and my employer wasn't overly pleased. Knowing some of the people who do a lot of the legwork to get the event going (head ref, scorekeeper, etc) they would do ANYTHING to give teams more chances to play and have a great event, but then we also might need body doubles for them to run all the events