Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

Thanks for the fix!

I went to the bottom, and found this.

Alaska so far hasn't been a part of the PNW - is that changing?

Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

Congrats on making it to MAR DCMP, on both the fact you qualified and the fact you logistically made it possible to be there. Last year we qualified for the first time. We were very lucky in that we had won a Week 3 event, so we had a feeling we'd qualify, and that there were no Week 6 events in MAR so we had an extra week to plan for DCMP. Even with all this extra time, planning was difficult and stressful. We were fortunate enough to receive a grant from MAR (which I believe was easier to do prior to this year) and transportation was covered by our school district.

At DCMP we seeded much higher than we thought we would and, while we were excited and grateful to be doing well, we started freaking out about the possibility of qualifying for CMP. We ultimately were one single district point away from making it, and while we were all disappointed, there were sighs of relief about not having to raise all the money it would take to make it to CMP on such short notice.

My advice for all district teams: plan on going to DCMP, even if you think you'll have no chance on earth of qualifying.

Best case: you qualify and dodge a logistical nightmare.
Worst case: you have a nice chunk of extra money sitting around.

This year we set aside money for DCMP registration and arranged bussing well in advance and this saved us many, many gray hairs this year.

Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

I didn't find any mention of it elsewhere. But I followed the link right next to that line and found something more interesting ...

PNW apparently was thinking about that problem this summer. Here's what they came up with.

Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

Apologies, that sarcasm was not directed at you. You'd think that was the case, because all forms of logic point in that direction, but apparently that is not the case in some district transitions.

Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

Having a short window to find out about qualification to DCMP and CMP is very tough... it's hardest because it's the teams on the 'fringe' that have the hardest time knowing whether or not they'll go, and these teams are more likely to be less financially secure. One thing that helped in 2014 was NEFIRST assisting in organizing buses for travel to CMP... If the District organizers are conscious of this difficulty a lot can be done to ease it.

Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

Definitely something I'll bring up with our organizers when I see them. We attempted to get them to hold some bus reservations for St Louis this last year and it ended up not happening because other teams were concerned about the ability to pay for them in the event that they needed them due to the unique way that each school system has interpreted NC's laws/regulations for procuring transportation.

Let me tell you though, there is nothing like an invitation to a world stage competition to get school districts to very quickly re-evaluate their policies for procurement. We'll yet again be pushing to see the organizers take on the challenge of reserving buses to St Louis and maybe even for the DCMP event.

Thanks for the suggestion. Good info to know.

Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

For NEXT year when you do go to DCMP/CMP Don't make it part of the next year's robot assembly funding but hold it aside. I know that teams all live a hand to mouth financial life, but you don't want to be in the same situation year after year.

Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

I'm not sure what you mean by "close" travel. Based on what we've heard so far from NC FIRST, it's closer for us to go to Palmetto than 2 of the 3 locations she's planning for district events, and the third is about the same as Palmetto. There has been no comments so far about DCMP, but I'm not holding my breath. It could very easily go from 1 x "close" and 1x "Far" to 3 x "far".

Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

In some thread somewhere (ill try to find it) someone said that (i think) 469 from alaska was coming down to play.

Edit: Aha, i was close. Team 568 from alaska is coming to play next year, according to this post.

Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

I believe the current plan is to keep district events in the West, South, and East NC, and to have the DCMP in Raleigh. For our team, and others in the Raleigh area, that means we have two travel districts and qualify for DCMP before getting a chance at a "close".

A lot of the financially struggling teams (until very recently, us included) that could not afford a second regional are enthusiastic with the guarantee of a second play. We had been a one-regional team who just raised enough money to go to a second regional, but districts is a much more exciting proposition.

Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

Indiana is the smallest state to try going it alone, and they did it with 49 teams in the state this year. We had 41. Get that number to start with a 5, and we might be closer. If any of the regional committees were working closer together, I think it could've happened--but it's pretty clear people wanted to play in their own sandboxes for whatever combination of reasons.

(For the record, I'm all for districts as a competitor. Less time out of school and work is clutch for us!)

This. South Carolina has one head ref, 1.5 emcees that are local to Myrtle Beach, one lead queuer, and with Barry Hudson's retirement one game announcer. (Oh, and don't look down to FTC--I've announced that state tournament the past two years too.) I know I'm pretty game and Terrell Burch literally refs the first and last match of the season, but that's not how you sustain four events.

It shouldn't be discussed at any level yet, because we lack the key ingredients. We need 50 teams (nine to go, if nobody shuts down), we need four venues that can hold 40 teams for a real event (read: no venue SCRIW has ever run--we cram 24 in with non-standard pits), and we either need some spare key volunteers or a cloning machine. Could it happen by 2017? Not impossible, but I'd bet on 2018.

Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

With 41 teams we are close to what IN had when they started districts. And a cheaper model may make it easier to start new teams and bump our numbers. And Greenville, Columbia, and Charleston have hosted regional events before the big show was moved to Myrtle Beach. I can't speak for other cities but I know Greenville has universities and high schools large enough to host a large district event.

What is wrong with discussing how to prepare for districts and how to implement the model NOW? If it takes years to prepare for a regional, it will probably take years to prepare for a district model. If we START the discussion in 2017, 2018 or later, we run the risk of losing teams in SC.

If TN and FL move to districts before we do, every team in SC will have to travel 8-12 hours for a second event (many teams already do). Which means most teams may only be able to afford one event (a large and competitive Palmetto), may become severely discouraged, and see team participation diminish. SC could easily go from 41 active teams to significantly less.

Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

Right, but 41 and no momentum; we've been stuck there for two years, and I don't hear any big pushes underway to grow that number. The past Palmetto Regional venues--Colonial Life Arena, Littlejohn Coliseum, and North Charleston Coliseum--are all their cities' big, hold-a-concert-or-a-sporting-event venues and priced accordingly; you could get one, but you would not get all four without a ton more support (which I'm not hearing about either). To my knowledge, the Columbia area does not have access to such a suitably-sized venue in a high school; even the new-construction schools like River Bluff out in Lexington don't have that kind of room for pits. (River Bluff hosted the FLL state tournament when we went season before last, but it was TIGHT.)

I'd say we're discussing it now. If someone wanted to bend the ears of the Palmetto Regional committee and reiterate how this is a good thing, they're free to do so (I can say with certainty you won't have been the first). In my head, you'd prepare for districts in a state like ours by addressing the deficiencies relative to other states that have or are getting them; team count is just the most quantifiable. When you look at states like Indiana and Georgia, they've assembled the people and resources to organize things far beyond one regional tournament--off-season events, workshops, practice fields, things that are scarce or missing in South Carolina, where the committee stages Palmetto and the Local Kickoff and that's pretty much it. (SCRIW has no ties to the Palmetto Regional committee; we inquired when we started, they weren't interested. When I pressed for us to have field elements at this year's Local Kickoff, they were funded by FRC 4901 and fabricated by help we recruited on campus.) When they decide they want to raise their ambitions, I'll be first in line to offer my support.

Florida will likely duke it out with New York to be the last state along the east coast to go to districts; aside from the frequent international presence and bus-unfriendly geography, they're actually -12 net teams since 2012. (Was 76, now 64. 63 in 2014.) Our team loves going to Orlando, but I'd be happy to see somebody in South Carolina working towards a second official event in either format.

Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

Yes, Alaska is in.

Re: [FRC Blog] New Districts, Frank Answers Fridays, and More!
 

The subset of districts that are interstate coalitions do have an opportunity to defray costs at the administrative level and take the money saved in payroll and use that to acquire assets for the long term.

Or they don't. (:

I'm very very very interested to see how NC is going to do flying solo on districts and wish them luck. Definitely a ship I'd love to even do grunt work on if I hadn't already contracted out my soul to 422. I hope they kill it this year.