Quote:
Originally Posted by AdamHeard
Whoa. Not saying this to be mean or cause trouble (and we're not eligable for your event anyway) but those power restrictions would keep a team like ours from signing up for the event if we knew about them. Furthermore, we'd be real upset if we showed up and had those restrictions with no prior notice so that we had no time to make an effective plan.
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Well those are going to be the restrictions at all of our events with the possible exception of the one held at OSU.
Teams have had the chance to learn about this in the webinar that Joe posted the link to the recording of. Unfortunately on that webinar there were only about 30 some odd attendees, despite the fact that there are over 150 teams in the district. Unfortunately at least 6 or 7 of those were people who are behind the planning or are otherwise involved in the switch to the District system. The main team contacts will receive at least a couple of emails detailing the important changes and instructing them to watch the webinar on youtube and to share it with their team. Note the pit power slides are at the 22:45 mark though I suggest watching every minute of it. At about the 27:00 mark you'll find out just how much Century Link field charged for the power set up and consumption for the last tradtional Regional held there, the cost is staggering.
I strongly suggest that everyone in the PNW district that reads this to pass along the link to that video to everyone they know that is involved with FRC in the PNW.
As I mentioned before if this proves unworkable then changes will be made. Not sure where the funding will come from but I know we will make it work somehow. Hint: more teams signing up for a 3rd event would certainly help as those funds in their entirety go to FIRSTWA and not to FIRST headquarters.
The costs of getting everything needed for the first season have been substantial. Some things just had to be purchased such as the fields and materials for the road cases to transport the fields, though we built those cases with volunteer hours. Items where the cost of renting was near or in some cases more than purchasing it, often thanks to generous discounts for being a non-profit that supports the future of students in our state, we purchased those items. For items where the rental cost was much lower than purchase or just aren't practical to purchase the choice was made to rent.
Going forward FIRSTWA will continue to invest in equipment to produce the events. I just don't see purchasing generators, as large ones are quite expensive, require periodic maintenance, storage space, and aren't really happy about sitting unused for 46 weeks of the year.