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Unread 07-10-2013, 18:03
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Alex2614 Alex2614 is offline
Scapegoat Mentor
AKA: Alex Stout
FRC #2614 (MARS)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Rookie Year: 2008
Location: Morgantown, WV
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Re: Championship Location Announced

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rosiebotboss View Post
With all due respect, you have NO idea what you are talking about! I am one of those persons of which you speak. These people arrive on Monday and leave on Sunday, working 12, 13, 14 15 hour days. And many of them are VOLUNTEERS....Yes, that is a pretty full week, so you can have the top quality event you are complaining about.

What specific ideas would you bring to the table to improve the event? Email them to frcteams@usfirst.org or me directly and I will forward them myself, unalderterated. And post them here so all can see.

Be careful what you wish for, you just might be asked to be on the committee!
I would love to be on the committee! There are so many aspects of the championship that could be much better for the participants, that I have voiced to FIRST a number of times.

I understand that a lot of these people are out there on the floor. I'm talking about the logistics of organizing a rather large group of youth and parents, and keeping them together in the extremely cramped venue in St. Louis. While Atlanta had fewer teams, it was still exponentially more spacious and open than St. Louis. With the big wide foyers, the glass walls, the huge lawn, open concept dome concourse layout, and nearby open and spacious venues (such as Centennial Olympic Park and the CNN Center). Not to mention a huge airport hub that is actually cheaper for most teams to fly into than STL. The St. Louis facilities are cramped, small, filled to the brim with people, and stuck in a place where there is no outdoor space but a tiny concrete "courtyard" and sidewalks next to the streets. Plus, crowd management in St. Louis (from the event staff of the venue and the science center both) was absolutely terrible. This is something has been said numerous times that will be fixed for the coming year, and never actually does.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Flynn View Post
You've said this quite a few times now. As someone who hasn't been to Atlanta can you please elaborate as to what makes St. Louis so much more difficult?

It seems to me that the FIRST staff organizing, 400 FRC teams, 3 different levels, FLL, FTC, and FRC, plus multiple divisions of each, plus VIPS, plus vendors and sponsors all while making sure that the teams have a good time and don't have the issues you are alluding too would have a much more daunting task than keeping a team together, So I'm sure that they understand the difficulty with organizing.
You're kind of comparing apples to oranges here. Yes, I know they have first-hand experience with organizing. But organizing a group of high school kids (that don't know the area or venue) multiplied by a hundred other teams that never seem to actually know what is going on, in a venue with such a convoluted layout is a little different. Maybe not as daunting, but just different. I understand the daunting task that they have. I'm just saying that we have a different kind of daunting task. Maybe it's not as horrible as it seems. Maybe my particular team has been particularly unlucky with this. Who knows. I'm just sharing my personal experiences.

Again, stay tuned for my response letter. This will also be complete with pictures and personal stories from the participants and those of us mentors who have had to deal with them. You may be surprised at how horribly we have been treated by the event staff in St. Louis over the past couple years.

Also, I will say this. Even if St. Louis was a great place, I feel that it needs to move around the country more than every 7 or so years. Not only does this give the kids experience in different cities, but it also gives these different regions the excitement of hosting championships and seeing what FIRST is all about. Give the west coast a chance at it for a year or two, then move it to the east coast, then to the midwest, and so on. Maybe this is impossible or not feasible. I don't necessarily have all the facts. This is just my $0.02. You can take it for whatever it's worth to you.
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2016 season in memory of Phil Tucker
We came to be inspired. We stay because we are. We will become the inspiration.


2016 Championship - Newton quarter-finalist, Hopper-Newton Gracious Professionalism Award
2016 Regionals - Finalists (x2), Chairman's Award, Gracious Professionalism (x2), Industrial Design
2015 Championship - Hopper Finalists
2015 Regionals - Chairman's Award, Regional Champions, Gracious Professionalism, Woodie Flowers Finalist
2014 Championship - Innovation in Controls Award
2014 Regionals - Chairman's Award, Champions, Finalist, Entrepreneurship, Gracious Professionalism, Dean's List Finalist, Creativity
2013 Championship - Entrepreneurship Award
2013 Regionals - Engineering Inspiration Award, Entrepreneurship, Dean's List Finalist
2012 Championship - Woodie Flowers Award
2012 Regionals - Champions, Chairman's Award, Finalist, Innovation in Controls

Last edited by Alex2614 : 07-10-2013 at 18:09.
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