POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Do you prefer competitions/events scheduled Friday-Sunday or Thursday-Saturday?

The reason I ask, and that I personally voted Friday-Sunday, for the record, is because as a college student who mentors and volunteers a lot, it is difficult for me to miss that extra day of classes on Thursday, and I'm afraid I won't be able to make it to day 1 of Thursday-Saturday competitions in the future. Certainly if I'd be missing the same classes 3+ times for 3+ competitions, which is almost guaranteed with the district model. I'd like to hear both sides' opinions, so please comment your thoughts!

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Don't forget that missing church on Sunday is a concern for many. Also, I prefer Thursday-Saturday competitions because I invariably have a conflict on the weekend of my Regional, so it helps to not have the entire weekend blocked out by a competition.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

For me, having a day before the work week to recover and rest is far better for my health and productivity than the negative impact of missing another day of work.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Honestly, Thursday-Saturday events are horrible, especially given the part of the year they are in. My AP United States History teacher gave me the dirtiest look when I told him I would be missing those two days. Apparently they were the days we were going to be learning how to do a DBQ. I made up the work, but it's such a shame to be missing two whole days of school during crunch time.

On the flip side, Friday-Sunday events leave me no time to do my weekend homework. Thankfully, my teachers have been willing to give me extensions on this work, but I'm sure other students are less fortunate than me in that regard.

Overall, I've had a better experience on Friday-Sunday events. I thought they were the norm when we were just doing the NYC regional. I was shocked to find out that the opposite was true.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

My AP Lang teacher when I was a junior always scowled at me when I would miss days for regional's and champs, thankfully she gave me extensions for all the work and essays, but I feel you here. :yikes:

I don't know which is worse for me, but I'd probably take Friday-Sunday events cause I'm planning to volunteer at regional's next year from college and rather not have to deal with missing lectures.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Being that we are going into our fourth year in districts after two years in a regional system I can say as a lead mentor the Friday-Sunday works way better for us. With Friday to Sunday we miss no school for the district events, 2 days for district championship and 4 days for Worlds for a total of 6 days of missed school and work as well as 5 half days of work for mentors. With the Thursday to Saturday events the count now goes up to 9 days of missed school and work plus the 5 half days. Most working people get 2 weeks(10 days) of vacation so the second option literally uses all the available vacation days. The only exception is if the traveling mentors are all school teachers or sponsor employees that get paid time off for the events. Our team has no mentors that can get these additional days off from work with pay.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

CD,

If Sunday events became typical, I would immediately stop doing FRC as a coach/mentor and go to church with my family like I go every week as an example that this is my priority over FRC.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I only missed one Friday because of an event (coupled with an ISEF affiliated science competition the day before) and one of my teachers freaked out that I was absent for so long. It was emotionally draining and caused so much tension between said teacher and I that we had to take it to the principal to sort out.

She refused to give me extensions while I was unable to do any work for her class. My grades weren't as high the ensuing two weeks.

Given all of this I would prefer to have Friday-Sunday competitions. I miss way too much school in the Thursday-Saturday model, and think I'd be too tired Sunday to do any work anyways. I tried to do most of my hw after we were eliminated on Sunday which worked (except for said teacher's class of course).
(s/o to those kids that helped me with my AP Bio homework :D ).

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I could go either way. Having to take one less day off work per event would be nice. But on the other hand, some of those events leave me so exhausted that I need Sunday just to recover.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

+1

--Michael Blake

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Cool. I don't think you should need to demonstrate your priorities to anyone other than yourself, you don't need to impress anyone. Do what makes you happy. I happen to disagree with your decision, but that's what makes me happy.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

For me, personally, Friday-Sunday events are a dream. I'm a young, non-religious mentor/volunteer who currently has few obligations outside of work and robotics. It would be nice to have a day between robots and work on Monday, but I'd rather be at a full event and just need a lot of caffiene to get though work on Monday, than only being able to attend one day of all of our events and being well-rested on Mondays. That extra day of rest would be nice if I had the vacation time to spare, but I don't.

I know many others who need that recovery day to spend time with family/spouses, go to church, and/or study, and I can imagine Friday-Sunday events are not as good for them.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I think I have to vouch for the Thursdays-Saturday competitions. Whether you're part of a team or a volunteer, you NEED a "gap day" before heading back to school or work! These competitions are exhausting (especially if you have to travel)!

For people who hate missing school, I totally feel you. But, after surviving my senior year, I learned that you shouldn't underestimate the value of a day of rest. Just be honest and open with your teachers about how much time you're having to put towards robotics. Then, hopefully, they'll be more understanding if you have to miss days or if you need to extra time for assignments.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I'm very happy that FiM uses the Thursday-Saturday layout, or else I would have never been able to join robotics. Missing one day of school every other week wasn't really ever a problem at my school. If FiM had competitions on sundays, my parents wouldn't have been ok with me joining, and I would have missed out on all the awesome experiences I have had in FRC. I definitely understand that competing on sundays would make life easier for many people, but I am very thankful that FiM doesn't use the Friday-Sunday layout

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I'm split on this one, and due to this I'm glad Indiana does both.

One one hand the F-Su layout is better in terms of how many vacation days I destroy per event. However, that also means I miss a week of Church, which isn't a major issue since it's usually no more than two weeks lost (and I have a backup for my church role as AV operator). Pro's and con's both ways.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I'm happy that we had a 1/2 and 1/2 mix of events in NE this year. Several teams, notably 1519 for NE, do not compete on Sundays do to their religious background. However, many other teams prefer Friday-Sunday District Events so that they don't miss as much school. I personally don't mind either, and I think that the decision comes down to the priorities of the team members, and having the choice is best.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Sorry this is a bit hard to follow. Did you accidentally mix up the event types?

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I voted Friday-Sunday before realizing that it was ok for me to miss school for events, and I can't retract my vote.
After considering that I would rather have the Sunday off. That also lets traveling teams have a bit of wiggle room.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

At least you HAVE a backup! Count your blessings. (I technically have a backup on lighting, but that means I'm pulling from the streaming, sound, or multimedia crew, so somebody else has to be filled in for.)


If I have a robotics event on Sunday, I take Monday off of work. I need that gap day to recover, refocus, and take care of stuff I normally take care of on weekends. I've noticed when I don't have that... So I prefer Thurs-Sat events. Vacation time, neutral; dealing with other "stuff", it just works better that way.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

No; Thursday is a Load in/Practice day here in Michigan. Friday is the only school day missed. Because districts.

No school would be missed in a Fri-Sun model, but FiM does not do that.



I also prefer the Thurs-Sat model because I need a recharge day before I start the work week.

100% Friday-Sunday. Teachers give more tests on Friday (at least at my school) so I just have to make up the test, not new material.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I had voted Thursday-Saturday, but I've actually changed my answer. The former student in me preferred TFS events because, well, missing school, but the college student in me looking to volunteer really prefers FSS because it will make it a lot easier for me. I will say that the day of rest from TFS events is not just nice, but really important. I've found that if I don't take the one day after the event to recover, I will need to take that time eventually and it will usually become a lot more than one day.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Friday - Sunday is strictly better to me.

Even though going to work Monday morning after a Sunday event is terrible, I can just take Monday off if I need that day to recover. Friday-Sunday events force less time off if you don't need the day after to recover, and they require the same amount of time off if you do. So I don't get this "I need a recharge day so let's do Thursday - Saturday" - is it just that you feel guilty about taking a day off when there isn't an event, or something?

I understand religious reasons people prefer not to compete on Sunday, so some events have to stay Thursday-Saturday to accommodate them. But I hope at least half of events eventually become Friday-Sunday events.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

It's also worth nothing that Sunday isn't the only holy day. Some religions have it Friday, others Saturday.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

And there is exactly one competition in the entire world that does not include Saturday (also true for Friday depending on how you count day 0) and its in Israel.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

For me, not missing out on Thursday helps with my productivity at work, and I'm not one to always be looking for excuses to ditch work :) But having had supportive managers in the past, I haven't always had to take vacation days for my volunteering. So the option between a "free", fully paid day to volunteer versus a vacation day (that could be used for other things, like visiting family) for recovery is a pretty clear one. It has nothing to do with guilt!

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I agree that that mix would be ideal. Unfortunately, of the 10 NE district events, only 3 were Thu-Sat, and two of those were the same weekend (Easter weekend). It makes me wonder if those would also have been Fri-Sun in a year when Easter is after competition season, as it (almost) is in 2017 (April 16th, 2017 - only the 2champs are after Easter). In NE, only the Pine Tree event was Thu-Sat on a "normal" weekend, and because of the double on Easter weekend, had to be the 2nd event choice for teams needing a Thu-Sat event. I hope next year there are a couple more Thur-Sat events to choose from in NE.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

This. Not every major volunteer needs a day off, and if you need it, take it. Also realize that the sample on CD will be biased toward active volunteers and taxing jobs. Friday-Sunday is much better for filling the many shorter- and smaller-job volunteer slots, not to mention attracting other community engagement. I certainly understand the religion-based desire for some Thursday-Sunday events in each region, but that doesn't mean they should dominate for that reason. Just given the churchgoing habits of the entire United States, it should be significantly less than half, and that's assuming all those who report going weekly would be unwilling to miss a couple for this. (Unless there's reason to believe the FRC population is more churchgoing than the country at large.)

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

What about taking the Monday off as a rest day instead of missing the day of work the week before?

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

This is a fairly complicated question for me. If it's Fri-Sun I probably take Monday off. Otherwise I take Friday off to attend the full day.

So, either way I'm taking a day off work if I attend the full event.[1] The hard part for me is if it's an a actual day of competition I can use what's called Civic Time and not use vacation whereas if I take Monday off I can't [2]. But there's also the option of simply flexing the time across our time reporting window. Which is entirely dependent on when in the billing period the event falls.








[1] I'm in the District system so the first day is typically after work anyway.

[2] There's some fairly restrictive rules around when I can use Civic Time but I'm really glad my employer is so supportive.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

This is something interesting that has not been brought up yet in this thread. From my personal observations (I'd be interested if anyone has actual data on this), Friday Day 1's are a lot quieter than Saturday Day 1's. It seems that for the most part, the only people there on Fridays are teams (and many teams do not even have their full team) and maybe a few non-mentor parents. However on Saturdays, there are more students from teams, families, friends, and local spectators. The vibe on Friday day 1's also just feels a lot more laid back whereas Saturday day 1's, it feels like competitions get off to much more of a running start (when there isn't 45 minutes of connection issues before the first match). I know that all competitions still have day 2 on the weekend to "make it loud," but 2 loud days are louder than one (maybe?) and matches are just more exciting when there is a large crowd.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

As much as I enjoy the rest day after a Thursday/Friday/Saturday competition, I went with Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

Unfortunately, while each individual competition is not a big deal, the missed days add up and all happen very close to each other. Missing five days over the course of the year is inconvenient but can be dealt with, but missing five days over the course of three weeks right before AP tests for DCMP and CMP definitely caused some concern at my school this year. If I were pulling my students out of school for two or three Fridays (and potentially Thursday if we travel to an event) in the six weeks before that, we'd be pushing the limits of what our students, parents, teachers, and administration would accept.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Venue selection has a lot of facets to it. Many of the venues used in New England are extremely busy, with many sports, concerts and event schedules to work around. Many events fell to Fri-Sun due to scheduling constraints at venues. In an ideal world we could satisfy every requirement, but unfortunately last years cards landed heavy on Fri-Sun events.

Its quite a balancing act to schedule all of the events that satisfy 1. Budgets 2. Competition season schedules 3. Geographic requirements 4. Volunteer breakdowns, etc.

-Brando

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I certainly don't want to suggest that it's easy! I was just making a hopeful statement that next year will have a more even split. Please know we are all very grateful to the volunteers for all the work that goes into these events, not the least of which, I'm sure, is the planning phase that lays the groundwork!

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

As a college student, I am 100% in favor of Friday-Sunday events, primarily because my GPA cannot afford to miss the extra day of class. While a rest day on Sunday can be nice, I much prefer to suck it up on Monday and not get behind on class material or lower my grade by missing a mandatory class, and I feel like most college student volunteers can agree with that.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Yes. Also, I get away with taking time off for events without really taking time off. I don't feel good about doing that on the following Monday.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

This comment sums up my views when I was a student pretty well, considering I was one of jgerstein's students.

1257's school is a challenging all-honors/AP school. With the block schedule system they use, missing a day of school meant missing an hour and a half in each of four rather difficult classes. On top of the baseline onslaught of homework, it was a hassle to catch up, and when AP classes with AP exams mere weeks away are thrown into the mix, missed days become a real PITA. My senior year, a TFS event could have easily cost me four or five hours of AP class time.

FSS events help keep students sane, especially ones with a challenging courseload. I am very glad MAR ran FSS events my senior year and that MARCMP fell during my spring break.

Last semester, I was fortunate to only have two hours of class on Fridays. If I had the schedule I have this upcoming semester, I would have missed a total of 21 hours of class due to events (7 hours of class on Fridays, and three TFS events). As a conscientious student who hates missing class and having to play catch-up, I would much rather have the choice of skipping all/some/no classes on Monday than be forced to skip all of them on Friday.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

A point that need to be considered here with a TFS event schedule.

Most of these competitions are held in high schools. In our area, all visitors need to be checked in through the main office. A Friday event of qualifying rounds would essentially require the school to be closed. You couldn’t secure the school with all the spectators. There would aslo be nowhere to park because the lots would be reserved for buses, teachers, and students.

Our school districts would never allow it.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

There was a discussion on this somewhere in the California District thread. Apparently FIM and PNW have most of their events TFS in high schools. I thought the exact same thing as you, but it has been done before.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

It is a regional thing. Maryland public schools typically do not allow this to happen due to how the schools are booked for "extra curricular events" that FIRST tends to fall under for their purposes. Like most things it boils down to liability and how a locality deals with it.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

+1.

I always plan to take the next day off from work if it is a Monday because I'm too old for this. My body needs a day of rest. So I either take a vacation day on Thursday/Friday (with District events even when they start on Friday we don't actually need to be there until 5ish)... or I take a vacation day on Monday. Either way I am still using that vacation time to ensure that I remain a healthy and functioning member of society. :yikes:

On the other hand, I do worry about our students not being allowed to take the day off on Monday if they need it. This is explicitly not allowed per our school rules. However, the more days we take off as required (ie. a TFS event) also makes it harder to get approval to take the team to the events, so again both options have their up- and down-sides.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Agreed. Some of our school board members (Director of Science, Director of Math, Superintendent of Technology) all came to stop by our pit at NYC on Saturday and Sunday with their families and young kids.

After getting feedback from them, they not only understood FIRST a lot more by being able to come to watch, making them more likely to work with us on things like funding, space, and more events, but their kids (around age 6-9) were so inspired and wanted to do FIRST in their districts. Apparently 2 of the 3 kids of our Superintendent of Technology said that they want to be engineers now, after being able to come to watch the competition for two days.

Some of my family was able to come watch over the weekend, and they understood FIRST a lot more as well. Having them come watch meant a lot to me, and made it just that much better.

Seeing the crowds full on the weekend during events really gets the atmosphere a lot more energetic and makes me want to compete even harder.

All in all community and personal involvment in FIRST has increased a lot thanks to FSS events, at least in my experience.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Monday is a FAR too important day at my work. Everyone wants to start the week out right, so much happens.
Half of the Fridays are uneventful anyway.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I have a family. I need that Sunday to devote to them, and to recharge before work.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

It's split 50/50 right now. Excited to see which way it'll sway :p

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

... I was about to say... are you all voting just to keep it 50/50?

I voted Thursday-Saturday mostly for selfish reasons - I really don't like traveling home right after a long day of roboting. My team almost always stays at the hotel the 'extra' night after a travel event. It feels safer because we aren't driving back dead exhausted, it's great team bonding (board game night/pool time/team movie with no pressure to go to bed), and it's the kids' reward for going to sleep at a responsible hour and working hard the previous three days. And as a bonus we aren't on a schedule if events run late (MSC anybody?). Friday-Sunday events would mean we'd be compelled to head out right after finals/awards.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I voted for Thursday-Saturday because for me, the free Sunday is more valuable than the extra day at school. I can see how this could be different for others, though.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

The fact that as I type the poll remains at 89-89 tells me that events will likely stay Thurs-Sat or Fr-Sun and not really change. I think this is the only poll on CD where there isn't a huge majority/minority that I've seen.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Now, let's throw a wrench into the discussion...

Other than Israel*, what would happen if events were held mid-week? M-W, or something like that? Just to throw out a possible example, using Kettering 1/Kettering 2, it could theoretically be possible to use the same field for three events over a 2-weekend span with enough downtime to make repairs in between (T-S, M-W, F-S).

(Cue angry CD mob with pitchforks and torches for such heresy :yikes:)


*Because they are already a "midweek" event, by U.S. weeks.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Not worth it. Too inconvenient for the students, and it makes the events almost entirely non-conducive to spectators coming and watching. May also make it harder to find college-student volunteers for a mid-week event.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

While that may be practical set-up wise, if some people are put behind hours of work by only missing one day of a block schedule, I can only imagine what this would do to them. I'd likely see a drop in student participation at events. A lot of the volunteers are college students too, who may not be able to help. Heck, even I think I'd need to think seriously about my desicion of school or competition if it were mid-week (like the example you gave).

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I feel a mid week event would also be harder to get approved by schools. We are allowed 10 travel days over the year for robotics and it would be difficult to have a few outreach days, go to 2 mid week events and also travel to champs.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

While most of my teachers are more than considerate enough to give extensions on work if I have a robotics event that weekend etc. I have had a couple of teachers so far refuse to give extensions. So a friday-sunday regional would have left me no time to do my homework. I personally don't need the "relaxation" or "down" time that people have stated they need the day before a work week, but I definitely do need a day to do my work. Especially now, coming into Junior year. Coming back home from a regional at midnight or 1am, and being expected to go to school 4 hours later is impractical.

While the Thursday-Saturday model does aggravate some teachers, it is the lesser of two "evils"

Also interesting note, the poll is at a dead tie at the time of posting this, 89 to 89. How peculiar.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Well, it's effectively a tie for what teams prefer*, but that is just one factor of event scheduling. Probably the largest factor is venue availabilty and for high school events in most of the country, TFS events are just not an option. So expect events to continue to shift towards FSS regardless of team opinion.

* I think this poll may have some CD bias and I suspect the opinion of all of FRC leans towards FSS to some noticable extent.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I don't have physical labor to do on Monday, so a Regional Fri-Sun works best for me.

For World Champs, Wed-Sat works best. Drive teams and pit crews do a LOT of walking.

I used to burn between 40 and 56 hours of vacation a year on competition season alone. With the move to districts, this year I burned ... 0 hours. It's like I actually get vacation time now.

As a mentor, easy answer: Friday to Sunday is much preferable. Taking work vacation for the Thursday to Saturday events is tough.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

In general, I like Fri-Sun events for reasons already said (less class/work missed, etc). However, I do not like them when I volunteer at a Thurs-Sun regional followed by Wed-Sat on back to back weeks (NYC -> Tech Valley). That's once case where that extra day is really nice, and I sure missed it after the second event.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

as the mentor that drives the equipment trailer to/from regionals I have to say I like thur-sat events better. That way I can come home on Sunday and only have to deal with traffic to the event rather than both to and from.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Fri-Sun for me; I'd rather sacrifice a day of rest than a day of classes.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

One of the largest considerations needs to be the ability for participants to have a day to do homework, as there is very little downtime at first events, we need time to complete assignments that have inevitably piled up.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Depends if I'm at a district event or a regional/traditional District Championship.

Competing Friday-Sunday at a district event is great. Of the seven events I've competed at since NE moved to districts in 2014 four of those were Friday-Sunday. The main benefit here was no one needed to take off time except for a few of us mentors had to leave work a little early on some Fridays to transport kids and equipment to the venue for 5pm load in. Some students stayed back from load in and this is a great time to have some kids catch up on homework before the weekend. With districts putting events closer to teams it meant we only had at most a 1 hour drive to get home. So far I haven't found myself as exhausted on Sundays after competing all weekend but its a different story for volunteers. Making two of our events Friday-Sunday allowed us to go to three district events.

In 2014 we went to a Wednesday-Thursday event which was really cool. Two full days off of school/work but we had a nice long weekend to recharge. It was also our first event of the year so it doubled as our end of build season rest.

Friday-Sunday is really popular in districts because it is only two full days of competition with an evening the night before. Under regionals/DCMPs where you have three full days of competition, plus load in/inspection the night before, and the event requires more time to commute to a Sunday finish sounds brutal and I'm glad they have kept it to Wednesday-Saturday.

It is nice to have committees working to keep a balance. This year NE saw more Sunday events due to extreme situations but we know they work hard to keep Saturday events on the table for teams.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Friday-Sunday regionals generally have load-in on Thursday evening, rather than Friday. District events are two day events, if you don't include load-in.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Correct. In districts we include the load in night more in our discussions because it involves load-in, inspection, and practice time starting at 5pm. It typically is called Day 0 on schedules.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Having done several Saturday-Sunday District event and then going to work on Monday and having to OD on Mt. Dew, I would prefer Thursday - Saturday.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Totally surprised at how close this poll is given that anyone who wants Sunday events with a Monday commitment's opinion is wrong :rolleyes:

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Someday you too will have a job and limited vacation days.

I can confirm it's really quite a miserable Monday to go back to work, but the extra day of time off that I actually get to spend relaxing, later in the year, is worth it.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

Sunday is getaway day for me (because FIRST events are a physical, mental and emotional drain I like to stay overnight, if possible, to get a good night's rest so I can travel home safely) so I need the traditional model otherwise I would have to use a vacation day for driving home.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

The answer is different when you are in the district system. Our first year in districts we took five days out of school for two district events and district champs. This doesn't count load in days which meant some mentors had to leave 3x slightly early to make it. We are also pretty centrally located in the region but for many teams, load in day at a regional or district means a full day of travel so that adds on another three days.

Then Champs takes another 3-6 days depending on how you travel. In 2014 it added another 5 days to the out of school/no work days.

Its a whole different story when you bump from 1-2 events before Champs to 3-5.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I voted Fri-Sun, as if I have to take 2 vacation days I would rather take a Friday and Monday off then a Thursday and Friday. A Monday off is far more relaxing then a Sunday.

Also flights are cheaper on Monday.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

For me personally, I would love for FiM to have Sat/Sun districts with Friday load-in. My team does three districts a year if we can swing it, plus DCMP and CMP. That's a day of school missed for each district, two for states, and three for worlds. My school allows ten absences a semester before credit is lost, so I basically have to pray that I don't get really sick between January and June.

I understand the concern with Sundays off for churchgoers and recovery, but I'm personally more concerned with people like my poor father using all his vacation days at work. Add in other misc. events throughout the year that require him to take the day off, illness, or an actual vacation, and he's left with little wiggle room. (sorry dad, love you!)

My idea of a "solution" would be a good mix of events. In Districts, each event's days could be decided on by the Event Coordinator or host team based on venue restrictions, attending teams' thoughts, and any other regional factors. I think a "day of rest" is a lot more valuable for longer events like DCMPs and CMPs, but for a two day district I think it's worth it to struggle through a post-District Monday if it means you get an extra absence/vacation day elsewhere in the year.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

In general, it looks like students have a tendency to favor the Thurs-Sat model where mentors favor the Fri-Sunday model (IMO)

The vacation days are super valuable for a mentor and missing work for a competition takes those valuable days away.

For a student, missing school seems to be a bit less of a problem. Personally, missing school for a competition taught me how to be responsible for my own learning and how to arrange study groups outside of the classroom. My fellow teammates and I would study and work on missed class work together and I actually learned quite a bit from these external study sessions. Now this might not work for everyone - some students may learn 10x better in the classroom. At the same time, I really needed Sunday as a rest day. Most involved students are on their feet for days, using their brains constantly, and get very little sleep. If I didn't have Sunday to recover, sleep and do all of my homework, my grades would have drastically dropped.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I have to agree. We did one Friday-Sunday event this year and two Thursday-Saturday events. We had to travel about 4 hours for our Friday-Sunday event so we didn't get back until about midnight. Going to school the next day was absolutely brutal. While our two Thursday-Saturday provided plenty of time to rest and recover. It made going back to school so much easier.

Re: POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events
 

I definitely have to agree. Being a senior this year is going to be a challenge with the Friday - Sunday events which leaves me all wiped out. Hopefully there will be some lenience from my teachers:yikes: