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Unread 06-05-2011, 11:19
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JesseK JesseK is offline
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Re: Bills Blog- Yes, I’m already counting down to kickoff 2012

This doesn't really address Bill's Blog, but perhaps it adds some objectiveness to the discussion.

I love the idea of a 'qualifier'-'regional'-'championship' model; it solves more than the FRC overcrowding issues (more engineering iterations for the money). Yet it's just not sustainable in many areas of the country simply because large quantities of FRC teams aren't sustainable in many areas of the country. If we really wanted less FTC at the championships and more FRC of higher quality at the championships, we'd figure out how to drive the costs down so we could have that model in more areas of the country. Yet so long as FIRST is hung up on having their Regional events at $250,000 venues, we shouldn't hold our breath expecting lower registration fees to ever happen.

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I don't understand how anyone can think, from a black-and-white perspective, that FTC is better than VRC, or vice-versa. Yes, VEX parts and avenues for innovation steamroll those of TETRIX. Yes, the value for VEX is higher, part for part, event for event. Yet experience-for-experience is just about the same from a student perspective. At least regionally, I've asked the many VRC kids I mentored and their responses are just about the same as the FTC kids I've mentored that never did FRC. The only real differentiator for mentors is value, which isn't a student issue.

Yet, from what I've witnessed, the unstated dichotomy of FRC mentors who argue about "value" between VRC and FTC is that we throw "value" out the door when we talk about FRC (see the 1st paragraph). Simply put, the overall FRC program is THE BEST QUALITY for its age group. That is why we don't care much about its dollar value. FIRST seems to understand that part very well, which is why they don't have a goal to lower the entry costs of FRC.

Thus, I think we should focus the discussion more on FRC and how FIRST is going to impact FRC with decisions made about FTC rather than make the discussion about the coolness of either FTC/VRC. Since that sentence is hard to read in one breath:

We should guide the discussion based upon how we are impacted in FRC rather than based upon how much we can squash FTC.
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Last edited by JesseK : 06-05-2011 at 11:30.
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