Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

I found a dozen such teams.

• 5 Melvindale – Detroit
• 322 Flint – GLR
• 468 Flushing (Flint) – Midwest
• 858 Wyoming – W Mich
• 894 Flint – GLR
• 1023 Bedford (Temperance) – GLR
• 1025 Ferndale – Detroit
• 1254 Lawrence – W Mich
• 1528 Monroe – Detroit
• 2474 Niles – Boilermaker – Rookie All Star
• 2591 Detroit – GLR – Rookie All Star
• 2604 Capac –W Mich – Winner and Rookie All Star

The 3 rookies were all at Kettering, so it's debatable to say whether they went to 1 regional or 2.

Jim is correct, all the other teams that were in one regional got to Atlanta on the "pay the way in" method, not by direct qualification.

Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

Does anyone know where the 7 events will be located? Hopefully, they will be spread out as to be easy for all teams to get to.

Also, what is the purpose of the 16 regions?

Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

As far as I can gather the 16 regions are for the purpose of easing growth within the state and don't actually have anything to do with competition sites. As for the 7 events, the only ones I can find are that West Michigan and Detroit are going to be sites of district events, along with one at Kettering. Great Lakes is going to be the site of the State Championship.

Hopefully there will be at least one district competition a little farther north for our friends in the UP.

Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

I think that we all can agree that we need to try to increase the Return On Investment for teams.

In 2001 I was on a rookie team (688) as a senior in high school, the following year I was a mentor on the same team. But the team folded because we did not see the cost and time justification to go to only one event a year.

As for the the Kettering Rookie Regional, our team (2337) attend and thought that the event covered 90-95% of what a typical regional consist of. Granted there wasn't a big black curtain or large flashy lights, but it was still as exciting as any of the other regionals we attended (KRR, DET, WMI, and Championship). I think that you can still keep the excitement and flash in a High School Gym by having the correct "mood" lighting, by turning off certain lights (dim the stands and light the field).

Jason Monroe took a bunch of great pictures from the Kettering Rookie Regional last year and can be found on his website. (KRR-Pictures)

Also there are a lot of High Schools (Grand Blanc) in the state of Michigan that can handle more teams and have better layouts then the current regionals (DET). Grand Blanc's gym can seat twice as many people as the Detroit regional and also has an adjacent gym that can be used as the pits. But then again I might be bias.

I like the idea of bagging your robot and getting certification that it was bagged and sealed on the appropriate day, rather then spending the extra cost to ship the robot just <30 miles away.

Finally I can not agree more with Jim Z. during the practice day there are way to many people upgrading or changing their robot. I have seen people bring totally different manipulators and spend the whole day modifying their robot. If people are going to do this wouldn't you want to do it at your own facility? With the new pilot program teams will have an 8 hour period to do so, after each event.

I am looking forward to the 2009 season.

-Oris-

Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

I still don't see what's wrong with upgrading/changing the robot design.

Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

Also, if awards like Chairmans or Engineering Inspiration are awarded only at the state championships, will only one Michigan team be able to represent the state at the championships? (right now three teams from Michigan-or who attend Michigan regionals- are able to present their Chairmans presentation to judges)

I think this will be good for rookies or struggling teams or teams with very limited supplies and members but I still have mixed feelings about this, although maybe because the competitions will be closer more people (parents, friends, family members, teachers) will attend? That could ultimately increase the interest and knowledge of FIRST helping the program grow and gaining more school support. I guess we will all see how it works out. :)

Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

While I can sit here and post about 1,000 whats ifs on the subjuct and pros and cons here is the bottom line. Kudos to Michigan teams for trying something like this its probablly one of the only states that could pull something like this off currently. Also remember this is a "pilot" a experiement no more, no less if it turns into a diasaster FIRST can and will stop it. I will agree that there are many details that need to be worked out to implement this all over the country, but as someone stated previously in this thread FIRST has been using essentially the same regional system since 1992. So I do think it's time we've at least tried something. As a Florida firster I can sympathize with many of the struggling and rookie teams in MI as Florida has plenty of extint teams and teams that need major support to keep going. Finally, we should try to increase the return on the invesmesnt for everyone isn't that a good thing, last time I checked it was in my book.

Thats what I think Mr.Lavery :] ,
Drew

Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

I guess I have more problems with people that do a complete redesign at the beginning of their first event.

-Oris-

Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

The top 3 Chairman's and Woodie Flowers award submissions from the state championship will move on to the championship pool. So there will be the same number of Michigan submissions as last year.

Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

Please keep in mind (as a couple of other posts have stated) that this is a PILOT program. There seems to be a lot of jumping on the negatives - instead of giving a negative, how about adding a possible solution? I did notice one post do this with a possibility for inspection process. I realize that many of the possible negatives being brought up are done so with the intent of helping to point any potential pitfalls, but I think we need to try to be a little more positive and open-minded about this. Change is not always bad - it's okay to get out of your comfort zone a little bit once in a while. Otherwise, how would you ever learn anything new??? I'm sure there will be some difficulties, but at the same time I'm sure they will be corrected as we go and the events will go on without anyone being seriously maimed or worse (at least not because of this change). At the end of the season we can step back and look at how things went and see if this is something worth pursuing. What worked well, what needs to be changed, etc. Individual teams do this with their robot when implementing changes throughout the season - now FIRST is doing the same with the overall competition.

I, for one, am excited to try this and will maintain a positive attitude throughout. MI teams have a chance to possible steer the direction of FIRST (hopefully for the better), but it will only work if everyone goes out with their best effort to make this work or figure out what needs to happen to make it work (if it will work at all). Again, we will never know unless we try. Let's try to keep this a positive thing.

Just my $0.02

Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

Sounds like a really good idea
:)

hopefully this can be enacted elsewhere eventually, though, this would stiffle meeting teams from other states

hopefully this will help reduce the cost of events allowing teams with smaller budgets to spend more money on the robot and training material.

Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

The neat thing about change is that we never know what initiatives will develop or come from the change, be they small or large in concept. Teams will continue meeting teams from around the world but this could also be a possibility for helping countries and large states develop ways of coping with their size and distances while expanding the program.

Teams are full of surprises and innovative ideas and many are willing to share what they've experienced and learned. The off-season could become a wonderful time for travel, training, sharing knowledge, and fun. I often think where one door closes, a window opens. That goes along with the glass 1/2 full approach to things and could be applied to this pilot program.

Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

Possible upside- no longer will our bots be tucked inside some truck,moving from regional to regional. Time to buy that trailer you wanted. Paint it up with sponsors and watch the roads fill-up for acouple of weekends. Maybe buy one of those suvs people are giving away and put it away till next season. Wonder if you can buy trailer stock?:)

Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

Ooo, I like that. We've been debating about buying a trailer...I guess we need to now.
Another upside- no longer worrying if your crate will be overweight... We came just a few pounds shy overweight at GLR, and THAT gave us a scare.

Re: New FIRST competition structure in Michigan
 

Not to mention the those crate gremlins won't be able to get at your 'bot. I wonder if the bag gremlins and trailer gremlins are just as bad?