Re: New Zealand Regional
 

i would second that

Re: New Zealand Regional
 

That'd be so awesome....

Re: New Zealand Regional
 

i heard that pink and the poofs are the founding teams of the new zealand regional and were the ones that brought it to FIRST's attention... so if that is true, I believe that they will be going.

and as the money goes.. teams better start the 09' season right now and fundraise their butt off if they want to go!!!:)

Re: New Zealand Regional
 

Maybe if we worked our way over on a tramp steamer, they would take the robot for no additional charge?

Re: New Zealand Regional
 

Epsilon Delta won the NYC RCA (partly) because of this, so I'd assume that they would be one of the North American teams going.

Re: New Zealand Regional
 

Well I can dispel that myth right now. We only found out about the New Zealand Regional when we went to Hawaii, after FIRST requested we host some Kiwis in Atlanta. I only know that, much like the Hawaii Regional, NASA had a large influence.

That being said, we had a great time with all the New Zealanders and hope we might see them again next year. ;)

Re: New Zealand Regional
 

I don't know where these numbers are coming from and nothing is set in stone until teams ACTUALLY register and stuff, but one of the observers that was with the Robonauts said 24 new teams. Maybe I misheard?


Pavan


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Re: New Zealand Regional
 

We had two of their representatives with our team. I only got to see them on Sat as I was reffing FLL on Thurs and Fri, but it certainly was a pleasure working with Tim. He wanted some pointers on strategy and such - I think he could give some tips to teams himself.

The NZ government is very much behind the regional, and is providing funding to both the event and to teams. They expect to have at least 24 teams there. I mentioned it would be best to have at least 30, so that after alliance selections those not picked would have other teams to comiserate with.

I asked him specifically if they were going to allow teams to come from the US to NZ, and he said he didn't know if that had been decided. I mentioned that there were a few teams with budgets that might allow consideration of going.

Someone else I was talking to said that the Hawaii regional opened up Chairmans to rookies, because most of the teams were rookies. Is there any truth to that statement?

Re: New Zealand Regional
 

I wasn't there, but I would say probably not. The RCA is defined as a non-rookie award. (Now, for an all-rookie event--that's another story. Maybe one of the Israeli teams could say what happened there during the pilot year, when the closest veteran team was in England.)

Re: New Zealand Regional
 

Going to this regional will make the team easy to go to national because most of the teams in this regional are rookies

I don't want say that rookies are bad, but their are more chances

Re: New Zealand Regional
 

The first Israeli regional had all the usual awards except CA and EI. Only the rookie all star and winning alliance captain were eligible for Championship (2 teams).

Re: New Zealand Regional
 

The principal that we hosted also said 24 teams, also mentioning that FedEx and NASA had a lot to do with it. The NZ regional sounds fun...too bad it'll probably be wayyyyy too expensive for domestic teams to get to.

Re: New Zealand Regional
 

Or I misheard. Point is that they are interested in existing teams from the western hemisphere coming.

Re: New Zealand Regional
 

Ed, that would be the regional i would go to and the whole team would want to go to.... its because we'll have some friends there

Re: New Zealand Regional
 

1676 discussed this as a team, and again by the mentors, and we decided that attending the 2009 NZ regional is well within the realm of possible. I agree, cost is a huge factor, but we have about a year for fundraising.

We also very much enjoyed speaking with many of the NZ folks, they were full of good questions.

I think that having a few experienced teams there - no, not trolling for an easy RCA - would really be a benefit for all the rookies. Team 1676 has been recognized more than once as a team that reaches out and gives to other teams at regionals, and we all think that giving to the NZ teams would be twice as much fun.

Don