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Competitions and Holidays
I decided to start this thread to point out some of the dates that FIRST chose for this years regional and National event.
First off there are these regional competitions: Regionals: OH, CO, IL, NY, PA, SJ, WAT March 24, 2005 These 6 competitions fall on Easter weekend, and some of the teams that go to these regionals from far away would return back home on Sunday which is already easter. The other religious conflict is National itself: Championship: Atlanta, Georgia April 21, 2005 This falls on the first two days of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The first two days are the most important where jews are supposed to go to synagogue and have a seder at night which is essentially a meal involving a lot of different religious aspects. Also during this time one cannot eat food with yeast in it like any bread products, and i wouldn't assume the Georgia Dome to have all the proper kinds of food that we can eat. I'de like to see how other people/teams are dealing to this predicament, and to possibly find out who i can write a letter to from FIRST about this. |
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Now that I know the nationals are during Passover, I agree that FIRST seems to have picked some lousy dates this year. I'm going to follow this thread to see what people find out. *shrug* I think there were budgetary concerns for a second regional anyway. I'm not sure. |
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As I said before, we were going to go to Philly Easter weekend.. but plans get changed. Dumb holidays.
Now we are going to Rochester, and back to Jersey to defend our 2004 title. |
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I had the same thoughts. Why pick what to some is a very sacred holiday? It would seem that FIRST has inadvertently alienated a whole group of participants this year. And for our school district, the weekend before is the beginning of spring break, so our choices were even more limited.
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Holidays, AP tests, this is nothing new. FIRST is on a very tight schedule they they have looked at all the options and this was the only one that worked. No matter when you hold the competitions you will run into some scheduling conflict, it's reality.
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We're not going to any of those regionals, and I really doubt any of the people on our team would miss Nationals for anything, seeing as it's less than half an hour away. :D
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Have your team officially contact FIRST, preferably with the support of other teams, and tell them about your situation. PS: If I sounded offensive towards any religion, please forgive me, it is definitely not my intention. :) |
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Now, since it's my first year away from home for Passover, and there's pretty much no way I could make it to the Seder at my grandparent's house, it doesn't affect me much, especially since it'd be hard enough up at school alone to not eat bread (doable, but not exactly something I'd look forward to). Of course, I'm not thrilled with FIRST's pick of dates, but to be honest, for Championships at least, the amount of Jews going will most likely not be a significant portion of the crowd, and it's unfortunate, but FIRST has to pick the best date for everyone, and sometimes it's a horrible date for others. To the people who are affected (which, I suppose includes me), all I can say is that this year you either have to bring your own matzoh/matzah (we could make it something cool, BYOM!), or just pretend you're extremely reform for a year. Yeah, it sucks, but short of paying FIRST enough money to reschedule, I don't think you're going to be able to change it. The only thing I can think of is if you're not a team that "needs" to go to Atlanta (competition winners/chairmans/etc), just don't go this year, because you'll move up (down?) a tier and you'll definitely be able to go next year. Ohhh, one more cool idea. We can have a "FIRST Seder", if someone seriously tried to organize one, it could have interesting results. If I go to Atlanta this year, and there was a FIRST Seder, I'd definitely make it a point to go. Someone should send FIRST a letter about organizing that, and possibly setting up a special area for "Kosher for Passover" food. |
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You can write all the letters you want to FIRST, but the fact of the matter is they won't change anything.
Believe me, FIRST does all they can to accomodate religious holidays and such. There are only so many weeks they have to work with though. Administartors and teachers already think that the FIRST season is too long, and FIRST ABSOLUTELY cannot extend into May when there are AP tests. FIRST does the best job they can with things like this. Let's not hassle them for something out of their control. I'm Jewish, but I wouldn't be celebrating Passover here at WPI anyways, so if I go to Nationals, I won't have any problem :) |
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As someone trying to organize a regional on the Easter Weekend, believe me, it's frustrating! Especially since Good Friday seems to be a bigger deal up here than it is in the US. Not only are we having our rookie regional on Easter, but it's also March Break for our biggest catchment area, AND the only weekend in the season with 7 regionals!
As a result, we have the smallest regional going, but it's going to be great anyways! :D I agree with other posters, though: it's not FIRST's fault that Easter comes so early this year. And since events are always on weekends, whenever Easter comes early it will coincide with a FIRST weekend. I'm not sure what drives the choice of the Championship weekend, but I'm pretty sure FIRST would take into account religious holidays if they could. Rob |
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Yay! Jersey regional lands on St. Patricks Day weekend!!
:D <-- Green Grin! |
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Elgin you beat me to the punch on that one. :D
FIRST didn't really make any big schedule changes from the last to seasons to end up having these holiday's occur during the competitions. They have the competitionthe same time every year it was bound to happen so if it's really an issue schedule around it for your team. There will always be some kind of conflicts to schedule around and appeasing everyone just won't happen. On that note they could be more considerate on asking the food vendors to be considerate of religious issues. As a catholic I hope they actually provide some adequete vegitarian meals at competitions that occur during lent. Also for myself and my fellow Irish for St. Patrick's day they could, nevermind. :rolleyes: |
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FIRST is aware of these issues, but has so many issues on so many levels to deal with for scheduling. It was discussed during the Senior Mentor meetings in NH. I sure wouldn't want the scheduling job they have to cope with and obviously they are not trying to purposely alienate anyone.
That said, I have a couple of suggestions. I think there will many students and adults at the Championship who celebrate Passover, which is a major Jewish holiday and starts on Sat. night, including, hopefully, some of the Israeli teams. This could be a great opportunity to at least do a little Seder. I'm sure that FIRST would be willing to work with anyone who took some initiative. Any ideas? If the group can put together some realistic ideas and suggestions, these could be presented to Bob Hammond. I'll help you deliver the message, if you come up with what you would like to do. |
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For the absolute minimum, you'd need a lot of matzah (I suppose that's a given :-p), and a few "symbols" for lack of a better word, to be placed on the "Seder Plate" (it's basically things to remind you of spring and the whole story of Exodus, as Passover is an agricultural festival as well as religious). It really wouldn't be too hard to plan, but just make sure that people would go to a Seder before someone goes and plans it all out. |
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Robomom and Ian, you beat me to it.
As far as having a Seder goes, I know I would attend. However, all I think you would get from FIRST is a room in which to hold it and a broadcast email about it. Think like the confrences last year, which were run by volunteers. Ian, I am sure there will be enough people to have a Seder, the real question is on what scale will there be a Seder. Wetzel |
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I would probably attend, as along as it wasn't as long as a traditional Seder... my family's "Seders" all last a fraction as long as a real one would.
Then again, I'm not even sure if I'm going :) |
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Our team is from a Catholic High School, but we're still going to Drexel over Easter weekend. The only people who seem to have a problem with this are my parents, who will simply have to deal with it because robotics is more important than an extra couple days at the shore. Not to mention Nationals, which are on our school's junior prom. Now I'm not a junior so I really can't speak for them, but I know our driver is going to nats over the prom. I mean come on, who wouldnt? :D
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I know that Passover fell during Nats in 2001. I also know that I heard that there was a seder that year. I would contact FIRST to see if they have the names of the people that organized this during that year for more information.
I would also contact the area's Hillel groups. Community outreach is a part of most college campus organizations, and not everyone is able to go home during each break. As a result, Hillel might be able to help FIRST with a seder. indieFan |
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FIRST competitions ARE holidays, or they should be at least. :p
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One of the major issues with a FIRST seder, is for many Jews the seder is as much about family as it is about Belief in G-d splitting the red sea, and I dont think that bringing my entire family to Atlanta is a reasonable idea.
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Out to the teams soon re: Championship seder.
>> A mini-Seder is being planned at the FIRST Championship on Sat. April 23, 2005 from 6-7pm (after the closing ceremonies and awards.) Although FIRST is assisting us by providing space, this event will be organized and led by a group of volunteers from the FIRST community. This Seder will last up to an hour and will allow team members to then walk over to the all-team social. It will not include a dinner, but will include all the ritual foods and elements of a Seder including reading from the Haggadah, the Seder plate, the four questions and singing. We may need to charge $5-10, to be collected at the door, depending on numbers attending and on donations. Those desiring a more traditional Seder will be referred to local families. If anyone on your team is interested in attending this mini-Seder, please send your team number, names, and email to jbeatty@usfirst.org before April 5, 2005. << |
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In all seriousness, I think there were a few turned heads about going on easter weekend. It is difficult to focus on the outside world when a 3-day competition is going on. (and I must admit, I felt the urge to wake up at 5 in the morning on Easter and head out to Drexel...) |
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BMR was the weekend of Palm Sunday, unfortunately, I could not attend mass with my parents the next morning at 7:15 (for fairly obvious reasons, we got home at about 11:30...or maybe it was 10:30, I don't rightly remember anymore. Cursed time zones...) The next weekend, however, our team was very lucky to be able to return home from MWR by about 8 p.m. Saturday so that we all could get a good nights rest and attend Easter services (if that was an obligation for their family). And finally, Nationals fell right over the weekend of my confirmation :ahh: . Luckily, my pastor is willing to move the date to some time in May. Nonetheless, I have to agree that the dates this year have been awful. Spring break and Easter fell much too early for my comfort :(
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