Thanks for a good thread-starter Jane.
Oregon hasn't seen nearly as much growth as Washington has in recent years. There are only a couple of 'powerhouse' teams that come to mind in Oregon. Washington teams have a tendency to come down here to our regional and beat us....heh...of course, I also remember the year some Oregon teams won a California regional...but I digress.
The Portland metro area [2 hours north of my team] has a lot of teams and at least one of them regularly hosts off-season events, pre-season training events, and the rookie-training event BunnyBots [Team 1540, the Flaming Chickens].
Team 1432, Mahr's Metal Beavers, was in the news several months ago, regarding the high-press dispute with their school district. I understand that teams working within the Portland SD have difficulties with fundraising [the SD takes a cut out of any funds they manage to raise] and so on.
On a much more micro level, we have a great support network here in the Mid Willamette Valley. There are 6 teams located within a 20-mile, mostly-rural radius out of Corvallis. The three high schools [public and private] in Corvallis all have FRC teams, mostly 8-10 years old. Unlike Portland, I do not believe the schools take a cut out of a team's own fundraising, but they do not provide much funding to teams. The regional-winning team last year had to do all their own fundraising for their trip to Championships, and I understand the SD does not provide them any funding at all.
We hold a Week 0 scrimmage, organized by one of the local high schools, that attracts 8-12 teams. I think Oregon State U and the accompanying engineering firms have a lot to do with the plethora of teams in the area. Oregon State's robotics club started an off-season event last year, which was very successful [even more successful for my team, as we were top seed on a winning alliance, for the first time in our ten-year history
] and they plan to continue that this year.
There have been a lot of rookie teams starting in rural areas of the state [Eastern and Southern Oregon, where it is a four+ hour trip to the Autodesk Oregon Regional, Week 0 scrimmages are out of the question, and mentoring is done by veteran teams via email]. This year my team is mentoring one of those rookie teams, but because they are at the extreme far edge of the state we had to mentor them only by email.
I am personally very interested in a 4-year-old team that started in my first year of robotics. They're based in Eugene, which is also a college town, but without any engineering focus. My theory about Oregon State indirectly providing a lot of our support is supported by this: Eugene, a much larger city than Corvallis, only recently started an FRC team, while three out of the three high schools in Corvallis have teams. The Eugene team almost couldn't afford to compete this year: finding corporate sponsorship is terribly difficult in a city with little technology industry. [Of course, we have our own financial troubles on Corvallis teams, and my team almost tanked this year...] As a friend of their team captain, it was heartbreaking to see them on the verge of financial collapse this year.
I don't think there are any Championship banners in Oregon, although Washington may well have some
But we do have the opportunity to travel easily to several West Coast regionals, unlike teams in the more central West.
There are never any certain winners of the Autodesk Oregon Regional, although one can be pretty certain of half a dozen teams that will place in the finals. Makes it rather exciting for us mid-level teams, I like to think.
I think we have a great network of teams here in Oregon: there just aren't enough of us. I know the old saw 'Success breeds success': perhaps our teams need to win more regionals and Championships in order to attract the hordes of new students that well-established powerhouse teams in the Midwest and East Coast seem to be readily supplied with. I think we need to do a better job at educating our schools about the importance of FIRST. People at one of the schools I attend [I am homeschooled, and take classes at two high schools, and have participated on two FRC teams] too often just don't know about the robotics teams.
Starting FLL teams is another way to feed new students into the program. I personally started seven FLL and Junior FLL teams this year, at our school and in the homeschool community, and hopefully in a few years we will see that pay off in the form of FIRST-minded incoming freshmen.
There is a sentiment I've heard mentors express, that Oregon focuses too much on FLL and FTC programs at the expense of FRC. I do know of at least one non-profit organization which supports and promotes FTC and FLL but doesn't even mention FRC....rather disappointing. But they do have great resources for the FRC team interested in starting FLL 'feeder' programs
I suspect I have rambled somewhat! and this is more focused on my very local region, but hopefully there is some bit of useful info here. Thanks again Jane.