Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

OK, that's a fair statement. But the rest of the arguments just don't hold water, sorry.

Try districts for a year or two, if you don't like them you can choose to put your efforts elsewhere. But I bet a 24-tooth aluminum sprocket with hex bore that in June 2017 you will be a huge proponent of the district system.

I have seen the exact same thing in NJ, and others have seen it elsewhere, and it's always the same. In fact, I am thinking of relocating to Atlanta just to convince everyone how great this is going to be :D

Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

I have never been in the district systems.

My concerns aren't with the system itself, but in the details (that we haven't seen yet) such as:
1> Where is the volunteer base coming from (there is a big difference between a volunteer and a team member being told that they must 'volunteer').
2> Where is the growth in the district expected to come from, and how will that growth be handled

Truth be told, the devil is in the details. I'll withhold judgement until I see the system in action. In the end, I believe the district system is the best way to expand FIRST, but it's in its implementation is where the real successes and failures will happen.

Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

Only time will tell exactly how GA implements the District System as far as volunteers go. In the PNW we do not require teams to provide volunteers but we certainly encourage it. There have been a few cases where I stopped just short of begging for Robot Inspectors at one event where I was the LRI to ensure we had enough people to be able to get all teams inspected on load in night.

Fact is that with 10 events + DCMP we had to call on a number of our most dedicated volunteers more than we would have liked to our first season. It got better last season and we hope things will improve more for next season.

Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

This is the transition I'm interested in seeing. On average, each team in Georgia will be attending 1.17 more events next year compared to 2015.



This assumes that, like Indiana, our State Championship event will have about 30 teams and that Georgia will have 5 more teams competing compared to 2015. From data I compiled, it looks like 58 teams competed from Georgia in 2015.

I'm excited for the extra event on average. More plays usually leads to higher quality competition. I expect the biggest challenge to be for the 37 teams that only participated in one event in 2015.

Anybody from Indiana have insight on how all of their 1 event teams handled the transition?



**
"Total Events Attended" is calculated using the following:
All teams attend 2 district events + 30 teams attend district champs + 12 teams qualify for world champs = Total Events Attended

This would only increase with the number of teams going to a third district event.

Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

Won't it look like this then?



EDIT: somebody please teach me how to count.

Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

I think you're counting the "4 event" teams in the "3 event" category. Typically these are tabulated exclusively rather than inclusively. (If I go to four events, I didn't go to three.) Presuming every team who goes to Worlds for GA attends State Champs, which isn't strictly but I think is usually true elsewhere.

Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

Absolutely Daniel. MAR does not require volunteers either, and we also work our key volunteers a bit too much. But everyone knows someone, and we've found that if an expectation of more volunteers is set, we rise to the occasion.I had to cross that line and beg at least once. But it worked :p

The real key to getting volunteers is treating them right.

1. Food must be plentiful and high-quality. And volunteers must be assured they have the time to enjoy it. For a Friday night/Sat/Sun event, volunteers get 3* dinners, 2 lunches and 2 breakfasts. (*3rd, on Sunday, if you help break down the field). Plus soft drinks all day.

2. Enlist students. A whole team of 20 kids can set up or break down a field pretty fast. The host school (almost every event is at a high school) and team has all their students volunteer, and other teams have a few kids volunteer for field reset and so on. And, kids need to know that after they leave High School, they'll probably want to volunteer at events, and this is great experience for when they want bigger roles, such as referee or Robot Inspector.

3. Alumni love to volunteer, make it easy for them to do so.

4. Not every mentor must be with the team all day every day. We went to an event where ALL the mentors stayed out of the pits the entire event. The kids loved it and did just fine. 3 hours as a Friday night RI is easy to do and helps tremendously.

Indeed, the devil is in the details. But one thing MAR made clear: There is no "they" - WE are MAR, all of us, together. Nobody else is going to do it.

Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

Oops, yeah, that was dumb.

Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

QFT. Let's just say that when you run out of food, the volunteers who couldn't break free earlier ain't happy. (OTOH... if you've got a lot of good leftovers after firsts, you got a lot of really happy volunteers!) Snacks also help.

That, and knowing where to recruit from.

Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

Thankfully there will not be a district at the GWCC. Food was not the best. Perry is the right size & place geographically, but Albany & Columbus both have very supportive teams.

Georgia First Volunteers also heavily support the Knoxville regional and presumably the inaugural Alabama Regional.

Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

I just want to say that GA FIRST does an awesome job taking care of their volunteers with lots of good food and a snack bar between meals. It also helps that Coke is a sponsor of GA FIRST and volunteers get free unlimited Coke products. I'm pretty sure that most of the alumni college students come back to volunteer from year to year volunteer due to the (free) food.

Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

This really makes me smile as Don R and I had a very similar conversation on the bleachers of the "pit competition field" in 2011.

It isn't all peaches and cream, and there is a lot of work, and a lot of stepping up required, but it is important to remember that if there is no room up top, then it is difficult for folks to step up. If a space is made, and an effort is applied to fill it, you will likely be impressed who jumps in.

I talk to a lot of people via CD or in person at Championship about districts. I am a big proponent, and most of them know it. I believe that most people are honest with me, and only small percentage (usually 1-2 persons per year) would want to "go back to how it was". With interdistrict play now allowed, it was even a smaller amount of complaints than most years.

Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

#thankyoubasedCoke

One of the best things about GeorgiaFIRST is that we're always expanding our volunteer base in general; we will be stretched thin possibly this year (between our own district, Knoxville, and Alabama), but we're already on our way to finding our counterparts for a lot of the key volunteers. Luckily, Tony and I as MCs can be split apart (not willingly :( ), and we've started to train our counterparts with our off-season events as well with the Key Volunteer positions. Just trained our new MC down in Albany, and we've got a couple people in the works for Macon. I'll probably do any of the competitions in the metropolitan ATL area, as well as doing the State CMP. Connie & our two new co-VCs Elizabeth & Casey won't have a problem getting the needed volunteers. :D Just with this past first year with Elizabeth & Casey, I've never felt more welcomed and loved. Back massages and Dairy Queen? I'm all in.

Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

FYI- Per this past weekend's GA MAC meeting GA districts will be:

3/10-12 - Columbus Convention Center (tentative)
3/17-19 - Albany Convention Center and Dalton Convention Center
4/8-10 - Kennesaw State University
4/14-16 - University of Georgia (district champs)

Re: Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!
 

Just to clarify it for fast readers:


3/10-12 - Columbus Convention Center (tentative)
3/17-19 - Albany Convention Center
3/17-19 - Dalton Convention Center
4/8-10 - Kennesaw State University
4/14-16 - University of Georgia (district champs)

Four events + One Champ.