Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

The worst thing about a six minute match would be the pain and humiliation of having your team's non-functioning robot on the field for that length of time. The second worst thing would would be the audience boredom that would come as we had to sit through six minutes of non-functional robots on the field. So, no thanks.

Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

I highly doubt MN will go to districts, the leadership of the state doesn't seem to like the idea. My guess is that they'll continue to add regionals in the larger areas out-state, such as Rochester, St. Cloud, La Crosse/La Crescent, Fargo and Thief River Falls. Followed by MN teams and sponsors complaining about the cost per regional match vs. district match. That will force them to try to reduce costs for teams, which could be done the following ways;

• Finding additional sponsor money so all teams can afford a second regional. This is doubtful, as there are only so many large companies in Minnesota.
• Negotiating a reduction in cost for teams attending a regional, to align more with districts. This would be complex, as it would have to go through FIRST and it would affect all areas with regionals. My assumption is that FIRST wants all areas to move to districts and Israel/Austraila would have issues with this as they are single regional countries, making transportation to a second regional uneconomical.
• Moving to districts. From the posts on ChiefDelphi, this seems highly unlikely.

Overall, it seems that things will continue how they have been in Minnesota with an increase in the overall number of regionals. Perhaps with more regionals, team counts at the event will go down and this will allow for more matches. Only time will tell.

Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

Here is one thing to realize. Local leadership fighting districts will certainly delay the switch, but if HQ wishes for it to happen, sooner or later it will.

Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

I am way behind on this thread, but - Ian, I would love to have you join us as an inspector at 10,000 Lakes! We can always use more inspectors. Inspecting is something that would be tough for just anyone (parents, etc.) to jump into without FRC experience, so it's a great role for technical mentors and alumni. I am not sure what timing constraints there are regarding getting the background check and inspector test completed in VIMS, but I would hope there's still time. Feel free to PM or email me!

Edited to add: CSA is another position which really requires some specialized skills and experience. It would be great to continue to build a base of strong volunteers in this role. Mentors and alumni are perfect candidates.

Katie

Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

It would excite the students, certainly. But what exactly are you wanting to inspire them to do? A high-level robot competition can inspire people to build high-level robots, but high-level robots aren't the goal of my participation in the FRC program. I want to inspire students to become (or at least to appreciate) engineers and scientists and advocates for technology. That kind of inspiration is what the Chairman's Award celebrates.

Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

There is no Chairman's Award given out at the Minnesota State Championship. The goal of the State Championship isn't necessarily to inspire students to go into STEM fields after high school, that's the goal of FIRST as a whole. The purpose of the State Championship is to determine the best teams in the state, just like purpose of IRI is to figure out the best teams in the world (more or less).

Either change the name of the Minnesota State Championship to "Minnesota Robotics Exhibition", or change the qualification process. You can't have a state championship without the best teams in the state.

Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

I think this is definitely a good point, and I'll add my perspective based on my experience. The first 3-4 years I was a mentor, there were a total of 3 adults who attended events with our team. My capacity was fully consumed by making sure the team got to the event and put a robot on the field each match. To be honest, I didn't give much thought to how the event was run or where volunteers came from. If we had been required to provide volunteers I'm not sure what we would have done, and it certainly would have added to my already high stress level. It was only several years later, when we had developed stronger parent support and added several more mentors, that when I saw an email stating "we're looking for technical mentors to be robot inspectors" I thought "you know what, I think I could do that." I'm not sure how long it would have taken me to identify this need on my own - probably several more years.

After becoming more aware of the need for volunteers, our team has made concerted efforts to recruit students, parents, mentors, and alumni as event volunteers, and I'm proud to say that it's become part of our team culture. But, we are now a large team with a strong base of mentors, parents, and alumni to draw from. There are many, many teams in Minnesota that are still in the position I was for my first few years - one or two mentors just trying to stay afloat. This is hard, hard work and I commend them for their efforts.

I guess my point is this: for the teams that have the resources to provide volunteers, awareness is important, and it's not automatic. If you're reading this thread and want to help, this is a great place to start. Spread the word! The more teams who are actively involved in providing volunteers in various roles, the better position we'll be in to take that involvement to the next level required by districts. More geographic diversity in our volunteer base is also important if we want to be able to support districts all over the state.

Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

Teams should get a partial refund for every event that they attend that has less than 10 matches.

Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

Regionals should be required to post a "minimum matches played" so teams can shop around for events where they get the requisite bang for their buck. Failure to meet that number results in a refund to the teams. [1]


[1] Scheduled matches. Crap happens sometimes see AR this year. That shouldn't count.

Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

I agree.
We got a lot of scrutiny back when Champs were back in Atlanta. 7 matches for $5000 registration fee.

Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

Wev'e got 8 at North Star this week. I think part of it is there is a 5K tomorrow so the day is starting an hour later than usual. But at the same time the organizers knew about the 5k well in advance, schedule Friday an hour later than usual to make up for it.

Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

No, they are not reasonable, unacceptable.

Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

Friday is indeed scheduled for about an hour later. The public agenda has matches ending at 6:30 tonight vs 5:30 to 5:45 for a "typical" event.

Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

I fully support Midwest districts, but I foresee a problem for my team, as we kind fit between large areas. We are one of only 11 IA teams (+1 Nebraska team) surrounded by 208 MN teams, 57 IL teams, and 50+ MO teams, means we my need two districts. I think there should be two districts, an Upper Midwest district (MN, ND, SD), and a lower Midwest district (IA, MO, IL, NE).

Re: Are 8 play regional reasonable?
 

How can a regional determine the number of matches they'll play when they don't know the game or the time required for field reset? As an example, North Star has 8 matches this year, 10 in 2015 and 2014, 8 in 2013, 9 in 2012 and 2011... It's all highly dependent on the game and what has to happen between the matches.