Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian Curtis
I would love to hear Jim Zondag (or any of the Michigan district folks) chime in on the merit of the Rookie and 2nd year team points.
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Great dialog:
I worked on this committee for most of the summer with all of the members listed in Frank's Blog. This was a very interesting, challenging, and fulfilling experience. We had representation from many regions of country, and numerous very experienced FRC mentors and leaders. This was much like our original FiM development in 2008 only bigger: We started with a diverse group of leaders with differing backgrounds and priorities, we combined everyone's input into an action plan, and then we did a lot of analytics on every aspect of all the various proposals using many years of District and League wide FRC back history as a reference. The result is the system as it was presented in Frank's Blog. It is a derivation of the system we have been using in FiM/MAR for the past 5 years. IMHO and by my analyses, the changes are improvements to the original design and will improve the overall FRC competition experience for everyone.
To comment on a couple of points:
Rookie Bonus: I like this item and it is a great addition to the overall district promotion system. As big as FRC has become, we still have a long way to go to reach the penetration levels of mainstream sports. Growth needs to remain a priority and sustainability remains a big concern. League studies show that FRC teams are most likely to fold in their early years of existence. Providing young teams with improved opportunity for success is important to the long term health of FRC. Many young teams will tell you that the hardest year in the FRC actually the 2nd year. There are many advantages for 1st year teams but in year 2, you are just like everyone else. We collectively decided to soften this transition by spreading this initial opportunity over 2 years.
Operationally, the 10 point rookie bonus equates to about a 15% competitive opportunity for rookies in their first year for a 200+ team population like we have here in MI. Other new district regions will be similar in size. This bonus is significant, but not huge. Rookies still have to perform well in order to capitalize on this opportunity. Last year, no Rookies made it to the Michigan Championship. With the modifications, 3 would have made it (5%). All 3 of these team were also Rookie All Stars.
All 3 made Elims at both districts were very close to making the cut to MSC even without these adjustments. Historically, FRC had a fixed rookie promotional opportunity to CMP of about 17% for RAS. The district opportunity we are providing is less than that, in that it still requires young teams to perform at above average competitive levels in order to advance.
Compromises: While there were are few compromises made in this process, most of them were pretty minor. The main thing I saw through my experience on this committee was a growth of understanding by the various team members as to how a District system works. Initially, there were large difference in opinion amongst some of the team members but this gradually changed as we all worked together on this project. The big differences are that focus must shift somewhat when you move from a system in which most teams play only one event to a system in which all teams play at least two events. Accomplishments which are notable in the original context are not necessarily so in the new context due to the much larger number of instances. This can be hard to see from the outside. With Districts We are now playing a season, so individual event accomplishments are less important than . It took some time for everyone to come to a full understanding of this, and in the end, I did not feel that any of the committee members felt that we had made significant compromises for the sake of consensus. I think everyone on the committee is quite happy with the result and have a better understanding of what it expect as they transition to District play.
To echo Frank's point, this is an
Iteration of the District promotional design: it is not the first and will not likely be be the last. As our sport grows and evolves, the dedicated people who work to make the FRC what it is will continue to adapt to the new challenges which will come with future growth and success.
I have been glad to have been part of this so far.