NY Districts - POA
 

Ok, so we have talked about it for years now and stuff needs to happen.

There is a lot that is going to happen and none of it will happen if we continue to only discuss this on Chiefdelphi.

I have talked to many teams from LI, and NYC and have yet to find one person that does not want the district model. Many teams including ours only did 1 regional (The NYC Regional) which was week 2, and now our season is over very early. Despite having the best season our team has ever had it is still saddening to see it go so soon.

There has been many people saying NYC can not do it because of all the low resource teams to which I say that is incorrect. To start the odds of many of these low resource teams making DCMP is pretty low so, they will most likely have 2 local events. These events will probably not be in Manhattan due to the high cost but, Queens, Brooklyn, The Bronx, and Staten Island can accommodate all of these inner city events just fine. Even a LI event would not be too hard as long as the venue was close to the LIRR.

The Upstate teams already have to travel as most teams are not very close to the 2 upstate regionals so, I see them having no problem with the model.

First before anything we need to figure out what we want.

There is a couple of options.
1. My favorite is a centralized NY district with a NY state championships. How cool would that be?

2. We split NY into 3 put
NYC + Long Island and a few of the more southern counties (Westchester, Rockland, Orange) in MAR.
Eastern Upstate everything to the right of Syracuse joins New England
Western NY (Primarily Rochester, and Buffalo stay with the regional model with FLR, and Pittsburgh supporting them until Western PA, and Ohio go to the district model)

The next many different ideas are basically just modified versions of number 2.


So, after we choose the right path we need to contact everyone and form some sort of committee. I do not think I would be welcome as I am 16 but, I would happily help.

If we are going with the 2nd option which would sadden me a bit. We first need to see whether the Surrounding districts want it. I am going to guess no but, we will have to see.

Lets all start here and contact the RD's. That is the first step. Someone mentioned Ana Martinez helping to make NY districts by 2019 which is unacceptable. Yes I am aware moving NY to the district model is hard and will take time but, there is no reason it needs to take 3 more years.

Now, who wants to contact the RD's? Volunteer and do it otherwise it may not happen.

No one wants this change more then the Teams and if we are silent nothing will get done.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Keep working at it, but you need to get in contact with the RDs and see what work has already been done and what is in the works already. You're far from the first person in New York to push for districts, and you don't want to fracture different groups of people by duplicating work that has already been done, if it has.

You should do this! Be the change you wish to see, otherwise it may not happen.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Chris has it right. Sam, I'm very glad that you're taking the initiative to get NY into the district model. However, it's very likely that some of the questions you've posed have already been decided by the various directors/committees involved. The only way to know for sure is to email your RD and find out what has already been done/decided, and what the next step is.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

I emailed Ana and Paul this morning to see what the status of districts are in NY. I will update when I get a response.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Alright, I will email Mrs.Winters and Mrs.Daly and will report what they say back here. This is some progress. Although, we will need to get together as a community to make this happen.

Edit -

As of 3/24 I have emailed both my the local RD's

Mrs.Winter had an automated response come back that she wont be in her office until Next Tuesday which makes sense since she is the Superintendent of a local school district and currently we are on break.

I will post results of these emails as soon as I have them.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Thanks and please do! I meant to ask one of them about it when I was up for Tech Valley, but they were busy, I was busy, and it slipped my mind...

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Depending on the responses we get and what the current status is, it may be valuable to propose a conference call or some town hall meetings this summer so the decision-makers can update the community directly and maybe start some dialogue and receive some feedback.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Please keep in mind that what works for you and your team might not be the solution that works for everyone. New York is an incredibly diverse state, both in general and in terms of FRC. Different groups of people may have different goals, or different ways to achieve those goals.

That being said, I'm encouraged by the initiative taken already, and I think Phil's suggestion of some sort of a more formal forum is a good one.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

FIRST Mid-Atlantic (MAR) did this while transitioning into districts, and continues to have update meetings at events throughout the year, in addition to their open Board meetings. It's done wonders for transparency and understanding. 10/10, very helpful. :)

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

I heard back from Paul and her are some details of the move to districts-
- It is going to happen, its a matter of when
- It is possible NY could be split into 2 districts upstate/ downstate (this is not set in stone or finalized it was just part of our conversation)
- Before districts happen NY may add 2 more regionals to help build up the capacity of teams/volunteers to pull off districts

- The hardest part of changing from regionals to districts is that you have to start your own non-profit. With the current setup FIRST supplies the field, AV, schedule down to the minute, truck arrivals/departures, and field rental. With districts we would need someone (God bless them) to organize all of this yearly for 5 districts events. We discussed that it would probably have to be a paid position. So far no one has stepped up to the plate to take this on.

The people who already volunteer to keep FLR and TVR running already feel "stretched" to their limits.

- What I took from it is that we need someone or a group of people with some experience running a non-profit and doing events to really get this running? If anyone has any suggestions or willing to take this one (It could possibly be a paid position) contact Paul or Ana with your desire to help.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

The most confusing thing I take from this is why do we need more regionals? TVR and FLR are both already pretty small and we have enough teams to make IMO a perfect sized district. Creating more smaller regionals just sounds like a very expensive district.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Finding someone to do run events exclusively as their job is going to be rough. Hiring freelancers to come in for part of the year to organize your events, is something doable. An idea to consider.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Well, there are already full time paid employees that work at NYCFirst and SBPLI. So, I would assume they would transition to running district events instead of becoming unemployed.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Yes thats a possibility. The thing to keep in mind is that RDs etc. are often hired for their expertise in organizing non-profits, growth, and fundraising. NOT event planning. These are two entirely different sets of skills, both of which are needed though to successfully run a district.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

One way to help grow your volunteer base is to run offseason events. It also helps to prove to the organizers that there are other groups in the area capable of running an event.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Agreed. Currently there is only 1 offseason event throughtout all of NY and LI.

We will be most likely hosting a free week 0 event next year but, we have not spoken about an offseason.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

The idea here is that more events of any type will create a larger volunteer base, as there are more opportunities to train key volunteers, a better gauge for how many volunteers the state can support, etc. Going from 4 regionals to at least 8 districts requires many, many more volunteers, so adding 2 extra regionals the year before helps ease that transition and create a larger base.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

This is extremely important. Unfortunately NYC has no offseason events (closest ones are in NJ) that can be used as "training centers" for young volunteers eager to try positions that might otherwise be filled at regionals. There used to be one in 2010 at Francis Lewis High School but I have yet to find out why that was never repeated. It's a shame but this ongoing discussion makes me very excited for the future of NY Districts.

I would love to help if needed.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Well there is one a little closer now.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hreadid=146206

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Looks like we found an offseason to go to! Thank you 5123!

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

So, I will say that this has been on the Regional Directors radar for a few years now (as you heard in the email). I want to echo the important point of everyone being on the same idea that districts _will_ happen sooner or later.

The reason why they have not yet are the insane amount of logistics needed to transfer to a different system like this. Things like how to split up the district locations (Putting upstate NY and NYC/LI together makes no sense) as well as figuring out who is hosting the competitions, how many are needed, if we have a volunteer base and the teams to go.

To the point of TVR and FLR being small: TVR had 36 teams this year out of a 36 team limit, FLR has 49 teams this weekend out of a 50 team limit. I think you would see a slight increase in size if venue was of no objective.

I'm not saying "don't have this conversation", I'm saying: these conversations are and have been happening, so if you're interested and pushing the region to districts sooner rather than later, do what 1493kd did and contact the right people to see how you can be a part of it.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

The best solution right now is to introduce more off season events. Long Island had Deer Park, one of the oldest off season events until it went away a few years ago. The district model is cumbersome to implement, off seasons are a natural transition and the logical step for the area.

If anybody in the Southern NY/LI/NYC region needs assistance in developing an off season, I would be willing to help get you off the ground and rolling. Feel free to private message me.

I might add that I have heard from the NYC committee and they are exploring the feasibility of a Westchester County regional. I don't know about the current situation, but volunteers are a known concern.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

This is really interesting news to me - I'd venture to guess they're considering the Westchester County Center as their venue.

If the powers-that-be would like help making something like this happen, I'd be happy to join their efforts and help plan a regional in my backyard.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

I've seen most of the teams if not all the teams in New York and can say there is much variety in the whole upstate vs downstate with how things are done. Upstate is very well connected the capital area and Rochester both have great communities that are well connected. I'm pretty sure Rochestor helped a lot with setting up Tech Valley.
I know all the teams up state in my opinion is very well communicated and connected better than Long Island.

I'd be willing to help out if people need, I know people mentioned in the other district threads about setting up an event in our area and we can try and work with our school.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

One thing was when the deer park one went away Half Hallow Hills immediately stepped in and picked up where they left off and continued the tradition.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Here is a link to the Half Hollow Hills FIRST Team 3624. They host the HHH Invitational every November.

http://team3624.herokuapp.com/

It would be great if some of the NYC teams could attend.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

As far as 'training centers', I know this doesn't help with the need for local NYC events - but if anyone wants to come out this summer to MidKnight Mayhem and train in a new role they're interested in, please reach out to me. (June 25, 2016).

We are pretty easily reached from the city - direct train from Penn, our train station is ~2 miles from the school. We frequently have NYC/LI teams come down to the event, so we'd love to invite volunteers as well.

TVR also had a waitlist - I know we were on it, and I'm guessing there were other teams who didn't make it in as well. If venue size wasn't a factor, my bet is TVR would have a similar team count to FLR.

My question that came up, as I was typing this ... if the NY events are in Districts, where does that leave a lot of the international teams who have traditionally come to East Coast events?

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

This is definitely something that the RD's are aware of and solving this issue will not be as simple as anyone quite likes.

There have been some talk of creating a European district but that creates complications of travel and visa's. For some countries, due to the political situations the countries are in, it is easier to get a visa to visit the US than it is to get a visa to visit some other European countries.

Another option that has been talked about on CD is that International teams could "Opt in" to a district but that creates a whole other issue of what happens if they make it to DCMP.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Is it a possibility to continue to host one regional in the NY area alongside a district or possibly in NE/MAR alongside districts (since they are a bit more experienced) to allow for teams that want to travel into the US or from other US cities to compete near NY? Or is there a rule that disallows regional events in district-sanctioned regions?

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

I don't think there's anything inherently against that. However the rules forcing teams that live in district boundaries requiring them to partake in the district system still would apply.

It's an interesting concept. While NYC has been THE event for international teams, I know it's not a cheap event to put on. Having a regional in NE or MAR for those teams would certainly be a cheaper alternative.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

As far as I am aware there is no hard-set rule against it but I don't think it is feasible. By having both a district model and a regional in the same area that means that you are relying on the same group of sponsors for two very expensive enterprises. If you then take into account that Teams in Districts have last dibs on Regionals then you have an event that has little to no "local" Teams.

If we start asking for sponsorship for a event that caters mostly to international and "visiting" teams, then I think we will lose out on a lot of sponsors for the Regional to the District. One of the selling points that is used to gain sponsors is that these students will be looking for work in 4-8 years and they would be good assets to invest in. If those "assets" are no longer local then is the desire to invest in them still alluring?

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

I strongly encourage ANY area considering a District transition to openly communicate with all stakeholders (including sponsors, teams and volunteers). Town Hall meetings, conference calls, newsletters, emails, etc are all great ways. And don't just communicate once, keep the dialog on going throughout the transition.

As we made the transition in New England, we held a number of Town Hall meetings - some went smoothly, others did not... but we wanted to hear from our teams, and to share with them what we knew (and what we didn't), and what our plans were. Based on the feedback from these meetings, we made some changes to our plans.

And don't forget about the event sponsors. We spent a lot of time talking with our major corporate Regional event sponsors. This went a long way in ensuring they were there to support us during and after the transition to Districts.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Here's an excerpt from a white paper I published here about this topic. I really don't think the issue is as difficult to solve as many seem to think. We are problem solvers; let's work together to find solutions.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Just going to echo some problems that we might encounter when trying to organize a shift of New York to the district model.
1) Hosting district events in NYC would be hard.

On the other thread about NY districts, there was a lot of talk about how NYC has really large schools, citing Townsend Harris, Stuyvesant, and Brooklyn Tech as examples. As a student at Stuyvesant, I can testify that the population numbers are deceiving. Even though our school has over 3500 students, the building is 10 stories tall. Unlike large schools outside the city, our school is not really a suitable venue for a robotics competition. I have also talked to members of team 2601 from Townsend Harris who have said about the same. Brooklyn Tech is probably the largest school building in the city and might be able to host a district event but that would probably not be enough.

2) New York is the go-to regional for international teams

Due to a myriad of reasons, NYC regional has become a regional with a high international attendance. It's part of what makes the regional so special. While many people say that international teams could just get automatically invited to DCMP, this places them at a severe disadvantage to teams that have gotten practice at their district events. It would be an unpleasant experience for teams that are often already at a resource disadvantage.

3) DCMP would probably be in NYC.

This is a more controversial point, but the NYC regional is a large publicity, helping NYCFIRST pick up sponsors, as well as hold robot demonstrations for sponsors. NYC regional has lots of competition tours as well as special robot demos for the sponsors. Having a big show event in the city is pretty important. This issue is easier to work around, because it is possible to hold the district champs in NYC, however, staying in NYC can be really expensive, and a lot of the teams that are pushing to shift to districts, want DCMP to be held upstate. Obviously this isn't make or break, but it does take away from one of the primary incentives for the district model: saving money.

I don't mean to be a wet blanket but a lot of people on this thread seem to have their head in the clouds. These problems need to be addressed before NYC can shift to districts.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

1. I agree schools like stuy and thhs can not host an event. THHS in particular has a gym that is way too small and no real place for pits. However, the schools hosting district events will probably not be the bigger schools and may be smaller ones in less populated areas of NYC. Francis Lewis comes to mind immediately. There are plenty of schools in Queens, The Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island have room for events. Not to mention it would not be too hard for teams in the city to come to Long island Events as long as there is easy LIRR access.

2. The First International scene will continue to evolve. Eventually people like the ASL teams will have regionals in their home countries where they will compete. Once NY goes into districts (I have talked to some RD's now it is happening) they will have to either compete at another international competition (Israel, Australia, ect) or start their own. Countries like Brazil, China, and Turkey are probably not too far from stating their own regional (Although you would probably know more about China). Many of these teams already only do a single event so it is not too big of an issue. I do enjoy the international teams but we can not treat them as our responsibility.

3. DCMP would be cool in NYC. It very clearly has the infrastructure to allow it but, its expensive.

There are not too many obvious places to host an event other then the Javits center which is too expensive. Theres the Manhatten center which may be big enough, and of course places like MSG and Barclays both which probably will never happen. A long island DCMP however would not be too hard and would allow NYC to attend easier then a more centralized DCMP. The Nassau Colliseum comes to mind with it being vacant often now that the Islanders are gone. And, that would be a very cool place for a DCMP.

NYC definitely presents challenges but I do not think they are as big as challenges like finding more volunteers.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Hey Sam, thank you for bringing this topic up again. As a team administrator, the value add of the district model is certainly appealing. That being said, this has been a subject that I have kept tabs on for the last few years, and I do not expect NY to go District any time soon and am unsure if it even should. You are 100% correct that the hardest part of being a NY Metro team is the difficulty in participating in more than 1 event without travelling a great distance. While travel is not uncommon for many teams, it is particularly difficult in the NY Metro area as teams often struggle to find funding, and frankly it is impractical considering we have one of the densest concentrations of teams all of FIRST (something like 127 teams in a 35mi radius).

Honestly, at this point a 3 Regional event makes the most sense for the NY Metro area. Yes, it is unfortunate that this means that NY Metro teams will be spending $4000 more dollars to participate in two events than in a district model, but there extenuating circumstances that limit our ability to make that transition. KrazyCarl hits the nail on the head with one of Metro NY's most important considerations, we are one of the most popular regional events for international teams to attend. For example, we had the honor of hosting 12 international teams this year. This is an important opportunity for our students to interact with their peers from the world over, and it should be something that the NY Metro teams work to maintain.

Moving to a district model in the Metro NY area complicates this matter though there are a couple options. The simplest option in this situation would be to reserve a number of slots in the NY Metro Championship for international teams, though to my knowledge this is unprecedented and I think would create issues if not discontent among teams on the cusp of qualification.
A second idea could be to have a separate NY Metro district, while maintaining the NYC Regional. In this situation teams could choose to compete in either the standard NYC Regional at the Javits Center, the district events with a smaller district championship held separately from the Javits event, or both if they so choose. Oddly this actually becomes even more expensive, totalling a full $14000 for a team that participates in both the District, District Championship, and NYC Regional for a total of 4 events. I expect that in this situation, the NYC Regional would become more of a travel event, expanding its international and out-of-state participation. The Regional would probably lose some of its New Yorkness as lower funded NY Metro teams moved into the District. The problem here would be finding space, as there are few buildings with rooms large enough to host events. Furthermore, the district events would want to focus on spaces that have bleachers pre-installed, as their rental and assembly is one of the most onerous costs of an event.

Frankly, a third Regional Event would be the easiest option at this point, and preferably one north of the City. We are slowly building interest here in Westchester County, but to my knowledge there are no NY teams between Ossining and Hudson, NY, a distance of 85 miles. This means that there is only 1 team in the 9 counties between Albany and Westchester. Luckily, this as been taken into account with the work that is being done to bring a 3rd Regional event to the NY Metro Region. Yonkers, has just announced the first area offseason event, and Ossining and we here at New Rochelle have been talking with the RD's on more concrete ideas. As mentioned before, the Westchester County Center was considered, but recent research has shown that it cannot fit our needs.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

You raise some good points however I should add Districts in NY is happening.

At this point its a matter of how soon. The regional directors are already working on it as First continues to push districts and cycle out of the regional system.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

A lot of these points were covered last year in the other New York Districts thread.

Champs on long island or the city would be more expensive than say an area just north of the city. Say poughkeepsie (im not sure if it has an actual venue that would work) as it is not far by Amtrak. Teams in the city can go home at night and its just far enough out of the city teams can get good rates on hotels.

The big thing hurting teams in downstate NY is they never really have to travel much for competition. Upstate has been used to traveling because before Tech Valley, to attend a second regional you had to head to Canada, Ohio, Pittsburgh.

With that being said it obviously would be in everyones benefit to have the least amount of travel possible. But some teams will get screwed over. I'm pretty sure 229 has come to terms with always having to travel.

Another problem as others have said is venue costs. As I noted with Champs maybe even some schools just outside the city can be used to host districts.
Cost and Volunteers is the biggest factor stopping NY from going to districts.

As it is currently SBPLI is having trouble still continuing. It's lost some big sponsors over the years and as i recently learned, they get a huge discount when it comes to running the event. It in one of the cheapest regionals in terms of set up and running costs.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

My feeling has always been simple, I want districts for my team as soon as possible. The reason FIRST exists is for students to learn, if you play 8 matches a year, you aren't going to learn much and that unfortunately is the case for so many New York City teams.
For my team, we pay more than teams in districts for less matches even though we attend 2 regionals. Something about that feels wrong to me. The fact of the matter is that if tomorrow you told me that 694 was folded into MAR and that we had to take a 2-3 hour bus ride to our events, I would be ecstatic, because it would mean all the advantages of being in districts including unbag time, getting to attend 3 district events at a lower cost, getting to have a district championship, weekend events so that more students and mentors could attend, and much more that I am currently forgetting.
We don't even need to have that many events in NYC for districts to be worth it for our teams, 1 or 2 districts and teams have to travel a bit for the other ones they attend and they are already getting way more matches, way more experience, and way more learning.
As for the international teams, there are still plenty of regionals for them to attend, NYC just happens to do a good job getting them to come. If they did do a different event that is more inland the expense would probably be less because hotels in NYC are a nightmare and they would probably get a better experience from being exposed to fiercer competition.
I don't have all the answers, but I think the main issue is that not enough people want this yet. Once enough people want it, I think it will be easier to make happen.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

There's been a lot of talk about venues (one of the more difficult aspects), either for a new regional, district events, or a district CMP. I'm going to quote a few aspects from the Official Regional/District Planning Guides, as a set of minimum requirements (notwithstanding scheduling).

• The suggested venue cost is $10,000 (district planning guide, page 19), so this is the ballpark we're operating in. For a regional or district championship, the average is about $37,000 (regional planning guide, section 4, page 4)
• General space recommendations for a district event:
  
  Quote:

  Originally Posted by District Planning Guide, page 21 Competition area: The designated playing area must be at least 80’ x 100’ with a ceiling height of 25’ minimum and un-obstructed viewing for an average of 50 spectators per team (so for a 36 team event, that's about 1,800 seats) Pit area: A space of approximately 100 sq. ft. per team is needed in the pit area, preferably in the form of a 10’ x 10’ square. Additional space is needed for aisles and pit administration/robot inspection facilities. Each team pit will require 110 VAC drop and a 72”x30” table. Access between the pit area and the playing field should be short, level, at least 6’ wide and preferably is not also utilized by spectators. The pit area should have direct street loading access (so for a 36 team event, that's at least 4,000-5,000 square feet for pits). Judges’ meeting room: The judges meeting room should encompass 500-750 sq. ft. and be within easy walking distance of the field Chairman’s Award interview area: approx. 300 sq.ft. for interviews. This area should be quiet and free from distractions Dean’s List interview area: approx.. 300 sq. ft. for interviews. This area should be quiet and free from distractions Volunteer dining area: The volunteer dining area should provide seating for 50 and space for food buffet service First aid area: The first aid area should be within convenient walking distance of the pit and competition field Machine shop: The inclusion of a machine shop is optional Parking: The site should have access to as much free parking as possible and plans should be made for overflow parking VIP lounge: If the District Leadership Entity decides to actively engage VIPs at district events, a VIP lounge with an unobstructed view of the field is recommended Media/Press Room: Optional

• Read the District Venue Selection Checklist for a brief overview of all the things required. For a Regional/DCMP, there are even more requirements.
• This doesn't even get into the logistics of planning district events and the manpower required. There's a nice flowchart on page 14 of the District Planning Guide that illustrates many of the positions that are involved.

Overall, these requirements can be pretty tough to meet, especially for high schools in NYC because it's not just the size of the school that matters, but also the physical layout of its space. And it's often difficult to find enough pit space that's an easy walk to the field, since many schools in the area don't have a second gym.

The most likely venues then are basketball/hockey arenas (for completeness, the parent category), and I'm willing to bet that even many of those don't fit the requirements.

Over this week I am going to go through every NYC team, find their High school and figure out if they have space. The scenario I feel as if we will see the most is the event in the gym with pits in the cafeteria but they have to on the same floor and decently close.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

I think the point people are trying to make. This is only one step of the matter. But honestly this isn't the lead to take right now. Right now should be focused on trying to get more people wanting the district model. As it is volunteers can be hard to come by. Most rents have a lot of volunteers coming from teams but with districts it might need more volunteers. Tech valley and Flr share a lot of there volunteers, refs and judges. Adding more events would mean they have more tiring work to do. Not everyone would be available for every event

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

(Apologies for a bit of thread Necromancy)

Now that the season is over, I've posted an updated FRC team map for NY state teams:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Hg...PU&usp=sharing

Note: The map is 1 pin per location and for locations with multiple teams (eg "New York, NY") the label is prefaced with the number of teams in parenthesis. This is culled from the TBA data for 2016 events, so only "active" teams are listed. (I believe "active" in this case is registered, but if a team did not play despite being registered, they are listed... but I don't think it applies to any teams here.)

Some stats on this data:

• 150 Teams in NYS for 2016
• 53 of those are Upstate (North of Kingston)
• 97 Downstate (furthest northern team is 5943 Carmel)

Of the upstate teams:

• 21 are within 30mi of the Finger Lakes Regional
• 10 are within 30mi of the Tech Valley Regional
• Only 9 teams are beyond 30mi away from I-90/NYS Thruway. (Sorry Clarkson teams.)

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

I have never been part of this transition (and have never been to a district event), so this is just supposition, but it seems to me that even a small district requires at least as much volunteer time as three regionals.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

FTFY. Maybe let's let folks who have actually been to/run districts share their experiences and not post garbage?

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

I figured if we are going to necro I figured I'd post what I know.

To start there is Most likely going to be 4 regionals in NY next year.
Sbpli, NYC, tvr, flr, and the Hudson Valley Regional. That's 31.7 teams per regional if a team would only do a single regional and NY regionals only had ny teams.

My estimate is NY would need about 10 district events plus dcmp. I'd also say you need about double the volunteers for a regional but about the same amount of qualified volunteers (refs, inspectors, fta, ftaa, Csas, ect).

So yes even 4 regionals doesnt simulate the right number of volunteers. But as I've seen district board members post before. When the volunteer spots are open volunteers come.

Also I can very much verify NY is going districts in a few years. But other then that I couldn't shake much other information out of the regional coordinators.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

So much this.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Is there a better way you could have said this or do you want CD to have the reputation of not being the most welcoming place? If I'm a student or newer mentor and I see posters with a lot of green dots, calling posts "garbage", I'd think twice before posting and joining the community.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

+1,000,000

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Do you mean 4 or 5? (SPBLI, NYC, TVR, FLR, and HVR make 5)

The rest of your numbers make sense - the difficult part is location distribution.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

I am great at counting.

It's 30 teams per event also... man I Need some sleep.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Probably. There's also a better way to spend time on the FIRST web learning about things instead of just vomiting opinions poorly disguised as facts on to the internet repeatedly. It's a quandary.

On the topic of the thread, I had heard that New York was losing the Javits Center. Could that be a short term impetus for 5 regionals and a long term shift to districts?

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Where did you hear that? If we lost the javits center it would be due to lack of funding for NYC first. We actually only fill 1 hall. There are about 8 more halls that the event could be hosted in 4 others of similar size. It's never even close to fully booked during the regional so I doubt this. I believe I'll see Patricia tomorrow so I'll ask her.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

I could think of a few other reasons.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Is there some districts in NY 2017 thing I don't know about?

Otherwise I don't see any other reason. And if it wasnt lost funding there are a few other smaller venues that would work just fine.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

When I semi-necro'ed this, I didn't mean to devolve it into a vitriol-filled thread. (We have plenty of others for that already, thank you. :) )

For those teams potentially affected by this change, I think we know it's coming, "soon(tm)". Whether it be next year (I think unlikely in the extreme), or something along the timeline of Duke Nuke'em Forever, who's to say?

For now I'm looking at this as a long term planning and budgeting item. (Eg as we enter our second year do we look at a 2nd regional now, where would we go, what kind of cost are we looking at, etc.) Having an idea of the team geographic distribution is helpful to us to make educated guesses about locations of future district events, and help in long-term financial planning.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Let's do a deal:

You guys stop telling everybody else that they need to go to districts ASAP, and we'll let you guys share your experiences. As tired as you guys are of hearing folks not in districts say how districts should be run, WE'RE tired of hearing how we should be in districts! We're working on it, but FIRST didn't reach 3K teams in 2 years!



And, if you'd be so kind as to actually do some basic math as to man-hours required so we can see just how badly off GeeTwo was, rather than simply dismissing his post as "garbage", while you're at it? Or should I do that for you?



For anybody who doesn't want to read the spoiler, I can see why the district folks are upset (the assumption was off by a factor of two if my assumptions are anywhere close to correct). But you can be civil while you're upset--please do so.



Back towards the main topic... I'm not from NY, haven't heard any rumors. But if a big regional loses its home, that is going to hurt. But... it'll help the district situation by forcibly identifying possible sites, so it's not all bad (I hope). We're looking at that situation out here, too.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

+1

I hate to be that person who just comments +1 but I honestly really have no clue how to better respond to this.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Has it been confirmed that there will be a new regional next year? If there is, has it been established where it would be?

A Hudson Valley Regional somewhere on the Hudson would be advantageous for a lot of teams in both the NYC and capital areas. For capital region teams such as 2791, the nearest second regional that has any realistic chance of having openings on the second round of registration is 3.5 hours away (FLR). Another regional would give us a considerably closer event and also make it easier for downstate teams to find a second play.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

Oh. I don't care how much the garbage smelled only that it was dumped all over the floor.

See, this is an engineering competition. We should strive to not pull numbers out of thin air. It's not a management competition after all.

Re: NY Districts - POA
 

I don't know the exact venue but I do know the reason for the Hudson Valley Rally (an offseason going on now) has something to do with regional planning.

I also hear the reason for the regional is o attract schools to make teams in the area between NYC and Albany. There's a really weird gap in teams in the Westchester area.