Re: How do I help my area move to districts?
 

As previously mentioned, FIRST Mid-Atlantic (MAR) also uses PODS to transport and store our fields. In total, we have 8 PODS, 4 for each field. This number grows and shrinks each year depending on the game. Much like PNW, MAR owns quite a bit of our own equipment including pipe and drape, A/V, computer systems, electrical wiring for pits, etc. which is all shipped from official event to event without ever returning to a MAR facility. Offseason events get a subset of the equipment that essentially is just the field and that year's game specific elements. For carpet, we elect to have a new set of field carpet for each event and ship the practice field carpet from event to event. While this is an additional cost, it saves room in the PODS, eliminates the headache of precisely rolling the carpet at the end of the event, and saves time on event setup due to the carpet being brand new. Unfortunately MAR does not have a warehouse or similar facility to use as a central location, but we have been able to use a local school for deliveries of the year's game specific components (usually about a semi-truck full for two fields), organizing and packing, and limited storage. The cost of the PODS is not insignificant, but it is not unreasonable either. I believe you could estimate the cost in tens of thousands for an entire year, including shipments to offseason events and storage.

For field consumables, we have red totes that are larger than the recycle rush totes filled with tape, zip ties, etc. for each event. Last year these were shipped in the PODS but this year we had them ready to go early enough that all the venues had their consumable totes before the end of build season. We also have a spare tote and left overs from previous events that get shipped ahead.

Edit: Also, we do not stack any road cases for safety reasons. We used to but we thankfully stopped the practice before we had any incidents.

Re: How do I help my area move to districts?
 

None of the events that I have worked have a loading dock. We use a fork lift that is sometimes rented and sometimes provided by the venue. This year the trailers do have lift gates which does make it easier to deal with that huge cart that FIRST created to carry most of the defenses. However other than that we still use a forklift for unloading. I consider this a neccesity because to get everything in a 53' trailer a lot of cases are double stacked and using a forklift to do that is infinitely safer than having 6 or 7 people lift up a case while someone else rolls the bottom one in or out. Having a forklift also makes dealing with the carpet a much safer proposition because we own 2 carpet poles that travel on the truck. Stick the pole in the roll lift it off easily and place it on top of one of the 8' long road cases. It can then be rolled to exactly where it is needed. No need to have a bunch of people trying to deal with such a heavy and awkward item.

Yes renting forklifts cost money. For the first two seasons we payed standard retail prices from a couple of companies depending on the location. We now have a rental company that covers the entire area and gives us special pricing on the forklifts and generators that are needed at certain events. The drop them off Day 0 and then pick them back up the following Monday. The first two seasons the schedules were such that we only needed a generator at one event each week and we rented it for the entire 6 weeks and one of the volunteers towed it to the events and back to the Fieldhouse for storage during the week.

All of this points out just like there isn't only 1 right way to build a competitive robot there is no 1 right way to handle the transportation and production of the events. There are now several different methods used by the various existing districts that you can look to for guidance and of course you can pick and chose the different elements that work best for your area.

Re: How do I help my area move to districts?
 

OK,
I have done some research.
Partly because I want this to die and partly because it is Easter and we should think about more important things...
The MN doc was a draft of an idea shown to the leadership of one team and a small group of U of MN Minneapolis students who were asked for input more than a year ago. As others have stated but no one has really picked up on, it was not made public, it was not widely distributed and it was never published until now. It was never edited, and never morphed into another document. For all intents and purposes it never saw the light of day for FIRST in Minnesota.
Now that that is out of the way, please consider the title of the thread in your future responses.

Re: How do I help my area move to districts?
 

That is interesting that you do fresh carpet for every event instead of using it for two as we do in the PNW. Personally I'd rather start with a used set of carpet as I find it saves at least a 1/2hr since you don't have to cut off the selvedge and if you line it up right you have the basic chalk marks and tape ghosts to go by. That is not to say that everything isn't verified but it is easier and quicker in my opinion.

I wouldn't say that you have to roll the carpet precisely, I know it doesn't happen at most of our events and have not had a problem using the carpet pole to move them around. The only time there is a problem is when someone rolls it up w/o the cardboard core, or if they damaged the cardboard core. I've had a couple of nightmares dealing with how to move a roll of carpet with no core and rolled with no room in the middle for the core, or a broken core.

For us the trailers have tracks for load bars so we place a number of them at the top for the carpet to sit on. With a forklift and carpet pole this works nicely.

Yes we have a forklift at the Fieldhouse, a newer one was donated this year to replace the ancient one that was originally purchased.

How big is each POD, I'm having a hard time imagining just how many sq ft of floor space would be needed if cases weren't stacked. I certainly understand not stacking them if you don't have a forklift to stack/unstack. I was always scared that someone could be seriously injured doing it that way.

Re: How do I help my area move to districts?
 

I'd guess that you have better results than we did with used carpet. It seemed that used carpet would require much more kicking out/work to get it flat due to kinks, etc. from the way it sits when shipped when compared to a new carpet. We keep the offseason carpets from event to event and not once have I tried or been able to use the same chalk lines.

Rolling the carpets precisely is a requirement of the PODS. The PODS we use are 16ft long and when rolling a 15ft wide carpet, you only have 1ft to play with for the carpet to "pencil" out before it wont fit anymore. Not an impossible task, but it can be frustrating at times, especially at the end of the event when all you want to do is go home and sleep.

The 16ft PODS are roughly 8ft wide by 16ft deep and 8ft tall (interior dimensions are a bit smaller). With 4 PODS, this is about 512 square feet per field. This year we need almost every last inch of space in the PODS.

Re: How do I help my area move to districts?
 

Yeah if you have to stick it in a 16' space that extra 1.5' from a quick rolling could be a real nightmare.

Another benefit from the shipping containers is that the ones we used had a 102" inside width. The trailers are slightly narrower but still wide enough to slip a 20 or 21 in a row with 3 "standard" cases. You can also spin a standard ~8' cases to load them width wise if that works better.

Re: How do I help my area move to districts?
 

Kevin covered how MAR logistics work, but I figured I can add info about costs to those who are interested.

A PODS container rental is roughly $230/mo. We have negotiated it down to $150/mo. This is a flat rate regardless if the container is stored in their "conditioned" warehouse of left in a school parking lot all summer (yes we do that sometimes).

Delivery of the containers is based on mileage and distance from the PODS depots. In the MAR region, there are 2 major hubs: one outside Philadelphia, PA and one outside of New Brunswick, NJ. We stage each of our fields in these two locations so the mileage is reduced. A container delivery can be anywhere from $80 to $250 and pick up is free. A trip between depots is around $300-500. For these reasons, we try to limit moving our containers across the river. Another example: to ship a container from the MAR region to FIRST HQ (which we do to return the FMS and game specifics each year) costs $1000.

Re: How do I help my area move to districts?
 

That underlined line needs to be bolded, italicized, and underlined in bigger font. If you have the maturity for a given position that you would like to be in, but aren't in the position you want, talk to someone who is there to shadow them when you can, while still attending to your actual position. Trust me. I've been there. I know someone else who is there currently. (As I was reading this thread, I had the exact same thought. Age != Maturity. No matter what the creators of the '07 Algorithm of Doom might think...)

By the way, more on the original topic... One reason I started expanding my volunteering was because I recognized that to go to districts (or simply more events, period--either one badly needed around here), volunteers and key volunteers would be needed, the more experienced the better. I simply volunteered (though doing inspection and reffing in the same event can be pretty rough, as I found out the hard way--was better-ish this year though). Want to help your area move? Start making moves that can help. I've done field reset. I've done field setup AND field teardown. I've done Spare Parts. And I've done reffing and inspecting (and, for that matter, I plan to keep doing those for quite a while). Start somewhere, and once you find your niche, work your way up. Had a good laugh when I couldn't log in to the inspection tablets because I was listed as an LRI--I'm not, but couldn't resist telling the LRI that someone thought I was after his job--as a joke, of course, after that got straightened out!