its all about the MONEY!!~
 

the major problem is not about the travel arrangements is about coming up with the 5000 dollars at the beginning of the season -especially with fundraising and what not-
with no idea weather or not you will be able to do well in the regionals or if you are going to have a bot that you feel confident engough about (and not uneasy and worried-as we were with our first robot in 2000)

I think there should be a protocol set in place that allows registration for nationsls to fall in the last two-three weeks of the build phase- instead of at the beginning of the season


whew!!!!
thanks for listening

dahl
team497

Re: its all about the MONEY!!~
 

The registration money for Nationals (well, whatever second or third event you want to attend) is not due until February 15 (I believe that was the date). The original registration money ($5000) is due by December 15. We used the February 15 date to our advantage this year; we didn't have the money to go to nationals until about week 4 of construction or barely in time to send the check to FIRST.

Matt

What would be interesting to see is how many teams register, pay, and then back out at the last minute due to robot or funding issues or for whatever reason. I'm sure that there are teams who regretfully are forced to do this.


:(

OK, but is that Feasible?
 

While on the surface, this sounds like a good idea, you also have to look at the extra logistics involved with setting up the national event. My understanding is that around February, Disney is starting work on setting up the competition area for April, so that would mean that they're planning it out on paper much before that, which means they need a number of teams attending(or at least close to it - I know there's always last-minute changes) so they know how much space they need. If they didn't even have the number of teams registered until just before they started building the arenas and pit, that would make things that much more chaotic. Disney already does so much for us, do we really want to say to them, "OK, we've got this big competition coming up in April that we need pit and arena space for, but just one problem...we don't have any idea how many teams are coming yet. Oh, by the way, you've got 2 months..."

Rather than sending in the check teams could tell FIRST that they plan to attend. If it turns out they cannot go the place could be given to some other team. It's better to have extra room than not enough.
C~ya,
Carolyn

i plan on winning the lottery to help fund our team next year. Then i can just work on robots for the rest of my life

Ooookaaayyyyyyyyy...

Ooookaaayyyyyyyyy...

Actually, what Carolyn said makes sense. Say they initialy have 400 teams sign up. Disney builds the lot for 400 teams. Let's say 25 drop out (or don't pay). Then you have 25 extra pit areas. Whereas you plan on 350 teams going, and with registration deadline very late, 25 more than expected turn out. Now you're 25 pit areas short, and no way to expand.

then if they say they are going to cap at 400 then that is it-
if 350 pay and show up so be it

if 425 sign up (which is highly doubltful)
then the last teams to sign up get axed

it hurtful and unfair but here has to be some hard and fast rules-

remeber FIRST is about fun and learning ans sometimes learning it getting your feet trampled upon


dahl
team497- who has no ideas where to come up with the $$ to get the nationals

rather than get axed...
 

The teams who sign up after the limit go on a waiting list. Then they still have a chance. As for hotels, the team they replace should have already made arrangements so call the hotel and change the name the rooms are in. No prob.
C~ya,
Carolyn who like to hear someone say she's got a good idea every once in awhile.

What if a small team signs up, but a large team takes it's place?

if FIRST is fair, that shouldn't happen.

And if it isn't?

Ever heard of a bathtub or a cot? Myabe take sleeping bags with you. The point is, do you care where your sleeping if your at nats? I'm sure there may be other teams who might be able to work with a team in that situation, being Gracious Professional and all...
C~ya,
Carolyn

It's not as much an issue about what people are willing to put up with but instead what hotels are willing to put up with. If FIRSTers don't behave at hotels (read as follow occupancy restrictions), then we will be asked to not come back. Second of all, it's probably illegal to put more people into a hotel room than occupancy allows. As to other teams helping, the main problem would be that there's a need for students and teachers to be close together (school regulations and all) so just sticking them with other teams or whatnot won't particularly work.

Matt who really thinks the various bizarre plans relating to nationals should stop...

I don't necessarily mean put the extra kids in a room with another team. If another team could possibly trim down the number of rooms they need, i.e. putting more students in a room legally, they could give up a room. Does that make more sense?
C~ya,
Carolyn

Actually, you can't
 

<<As for hotels, the team they replace should have already made arrangements so call the hotel and change the name the rooms are in. No prob. >>

Actually, just a logistical note. You can't do this with Disney owned hotels. The reservations must be kept in the original name or they are cancelled.

That's why we went to Kissime. You can add people at the last second if availible.

Given the circumstances...
 

I think Disney would understand and be happy to keep the reservation. They are such supporters of FIRST that I think they would make an exception.
C~ya,
Carolyn

Keep in mind that despite them being big sponsers of FIRST, rules are rules.

One thing my team does is pretty much camp out somewhere. The adults that have trailers bring them and the kids get to sleep in tents. We have found it is a lot cheaper to camp out than it is to get a couple rooms at a hotel.

That's awesome!
 

Where did you guys camp? I didn't know there was a campground near-by. Camping would sooo be the best way to be at nats. You wouldn't have to worry about bothering people and you could throw a party for teams who want to come. I like that idea.
C~ya,
Carolyn

I don't know about nationals because we didn't get to go to them this year but there might be some rv place or somethig near by. I have never been in that area so I can't really say.

Re: Given the circumstances...
 

I'm wondering what teams don't fill their rooms to capacity now. We could barely afford the ones we got this year (and when I say barely, I mean RIT had to kick in some extra money after the bill came....).

Matt

One problem with camping in Florida: no AC.

*starts singing*

Koombya my friend, koombya.

-Ed "Hopes he spelled that right" McDonnell

AC?!
 

You don't need AC. The weather isn't that bad at night there anyways.

campsites and planes
 

You know, I was looking through this thread and the thought occured to me..... it would be rather interesting at the least to try to fly with camping equipment.... meaning a lot of teams would then need to drive. Now, depending on where you are from, that could take anywhere from a few hours, to 4 DAYS each way. Meaning even more days kids would be pulled out of school. For some teams this would work, but I doubt for the majority it would. Anywho, just a thought!

~ lora

Shipping.
 

We always have 3 alumni travel with us to nats., and they drive. From RI to FL, it's 19 hours. So east coast teams could do it pretty well, as well as a lot of the non-coastal eastern teams.

too bad we don't have those trains that they have in germany. they're really fast.

Amtrack is installing a highspeed rail service between Boston and Washington, DC. That happens to be about the only place in the country where they can do it because it happens to be one of the few sections of track Amtrack owns (much of the rest is owned by CSX, Conrail, etc.). And as far as bullet trains go, I know France has a good deal of them. They call it the KGV and Alstom (look over to the left ;) ) makes them.

Matt who's hoping France orders some more KGV's ;)

Amtrak's Acela trainsets are already running along some of the Northeast Corridor after months and months of problems during testing.

They were having issues with things like the 800 lb. coupler hood flying off at 100+ mph and stuff.

The Acela trainsets will only run on the Northeast Corridor right now because it's one of very few stretches of electrified mainline in the country. That is, it's wired to deliver electricity to the locomotives via an overhead catenary system.
Finally, the Acela trainsets are a bit different from their European and Japanese counterparts because of the way they're designed. In Europe and Japan, many of the rail lines are newer than those over here (The US has let rail service die, unfortunately). All of their curves are superelevated, or banked, which obviously allows trains to take them at higher speed (just like in racing). Acela trainsets actually use something that's a bit like a motion simulator base to tip the cabins over while the train goes through a curve. It's the only way Amtrak could maintain high speed service along the Northeast Corridor.

At any rate, passenger rail service in this country is dead as a doornail, and the Acela's probably won't take off.

And Matt, Conrail doesn't exist anymore :-) It's all owned by CSX or Norfolk Southern these days.

Yes it does:
http://www.conrail.com/

But it is owned by CSX and Norfolk Southern. It exists as much as Chevy does as a subsidiary of GM. :)

Matt

Well, cars are still being made with the word Chevy plastered on the side of them.

All of the old Conrail equipment was relettered for their new owners . . . sort of. They were actually relettered for the New York Central or the Baltimore and Ohio (I think). . . but, alas. . big blue graces the rails no more. At least, it's not supposed to. . .one day the lazy railroads will get around to repainting their equipment, too.

I've never been one to understand business and mergers and things, though, so I'm probably just talking out of my, uhm, well, you know.

And, Carolyn. . . I think you're referring to the Mag-Lev trains that have been tested in Germany and other places. Regular European rail lines share the same type and gauge rail that the US uses. The bullet trains (like the TGV, though that's older) use regular rail, not the mag-lev beamways. The Mag-Lev trains are capable of sustained speeds of ~ 300 mph, though, but the beamways are very, very, very expensive.

Not all of it: http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe...ain/index.html

TGV is just French for high speed train. So any high speed train in France is the TGV.

Matt

tgv=train de grande vitesse=very fast train

the midwest may be getting a high speed train system in a few years.

http://www.indystar.com/print/cityst.../trains25.html

Well-rounded. . .
 

You expect me to be able to build robots AND speak french? Come on people. . . I think that's asking just a bit much.

The only exposure I've ever had to the TGV was the little models I had years ago. They were orange and had TGV lettering on the side.

Me llamo Miguel. Yo hablo espanol.

Re: Well-rounded. . .
 

For some reason I was talking about with my friend who speaks French pretty well and she told me that. I had no clue until then. ;)

Matt

espanol es el mejor lingua en todo el mundo.

~Tom~, who really likes speaking spanish.

every time i see spanish i cringe...


David- who just about failed spanish this past year.

Espanol es muy facil. :)

Okay, this thread is getting off topic (like WAY off topic) so I'm going to make a new post about foreign languages. Might even have a poll! Look for it in chit-chat.

~Tom~

Someone a way's back asked about campgrounds near Disney. Depends want you mean by near..I know that there are quite a few in and around the Orlando and kissimee area. Also, Disney owns a camping places (which I think has cabins and also spaces for tents and such) called Fort Wilderness. I've never been there, so I may be wrong about tents. Just thought I'd share my limited knowledge.

~Angela who should know more about Orlando than she does, seeing that she lives less than two hours away

Translations please!!!
 

I'm really lost. I don't know much spanish, I hated my teacher so it turned me off to spanish. I kinda regret not learning it though. :confused:

first of all, ive never taken spanish so my translations could be wrong. but i think this is accurate:

Me llamo Miguel. Yo hablo espanol.= My name is Michael. I speak Spanish.

espanol es el mejor lingua en todo el mundo. = Spanish is the most used language in the world.

Espanol es muy facil. = Spanish is very easy.

that last one is probably true if i got these all right cuz i really have never taken a spanish class in my life and am just sort of guessing.

it's not that easy. i'm someone who about failed it.


David- who wishes "American" would be our official language.

languages and traditional language classes are very different things. traditional language classes, imho, spend too much time on the rediculous details of conjugations and what not, and not enough time teaching you to speak conversational [insert language here]. so doing poorly in a language class doesnt really reflect how hard or easy it is to pick up and understand that language. it more reflects how much detail the language has to it and stuff.

our whole class was practically baised on conjugations and i have never done well at that stuff. so thats prolly why i got a D-. some people are good at that stuff so i guess i'm not one of them.

im the same way. conjugations suck. even worse then set screws. they dont even make sence.

amen brutha!:cool:

i dont know how they do it in spanish, but i know that french has like 20 different tences, all of which are conjugated differently, and that each tense has a different conjugation for each of the 6 basic subjects. and then sometimes they have agreement too but othertimes not.

Almost. I believe that would translate as "Spanish is the best language in the world."

Matt

oh. well i was close. i got spanish, language, and world.

You're exactly right. Geez I said it again, me thinks it's becoming a habbit (note to self: STOP telling Mike he's right about things). Anyway, I can communicate with almost anyone in German. I say almost because Germans mummble naturally so sometimes it's hard to understand them and there are "sub-languages" in German. They aren't dialects just different languages like Spanish in Mexico and Spain except within the same country. Anyway, the point is that different people learn differently and it seems more iportant to learn to speak so that someone can understand you than to be able to recite conjugations and tense charts.

German and French are very simmilar. I know the pain of these things, strong and weak verbs.:mad:

german sounds cool though cuz whenever you hear someone speaking it it sounds like theyre within seconds of going completely insane and causing severe harm to anyone or anything nearby.

yummy

nothin but the best

...and silver

USA USA USA USA USA USA!!!!!!

<sarcasm>I see we're on topic here</sarcasm>

so we are eddie, so we are

Sometimes I wonder why my post count isn't as high as others..... and then I remember. ;)

~Tom~, who was really tempted to steal Eddie's sarcasm tags but decided not to.

he decided not to cuz he remembered that stealing isnt cool

i've said this to you before but, Amen Brutha!!

oh my god! thats what...like twice in a week?

Tired yet?
 

Question:

Is anyone getting tired of this inane drivel yet?

ummm...the last post in this thread (before you jeff) was 5 days ago...so apparently we did get tired of that inane drivel...

yeah,.....
 

yeah.... well..... guess so.....

good point
stale thread

...closing...