[Michael Blake]

Originally Posted by Paul Richardson

I definitely agree that districts need to roll out to Texas soon. For 3320 that's basically an entire extra competition for free, since Austin would likely have a local event. Not only does two chances help, but you're also more likely to make eliminations at districts because of their smaller size. The other bonus to local district events is that it's easier to recruit students when you can guarantee they'll be able to attend at least one event regardless of extra funding (a kid on the fence probably won't commit to the team if only the core team members can go compete). You can also easily show your local sponsors what their money went to, or hook in a new sponsor in an afternoon.

3320 is firmly in your "B" category, although relatively well funded (the present issue for the team is recruitment and attendance). I'd also agree with how much making eliminations means to this team. Last year I told the students a few times before competition that I'd be surprised if their robot wasn't picked. Every time I said it they were noticeably excited, and packing up the pit after being eliminated wasn't a somber, defeated affair for once. If the team wasn't almost entirely seniors it would have been perfect.

There's even a pretty neat situation that demonstrates this "elim-boosted virtuous cycle" phenomenon quite well. Look at my old hometown of Calgary, AB, home of teams 1482 and 4334. By now there are plenty of teams in the city, but for years and years 1482 was the only team for hundreds of miles until 4334 popped up in 2012. 1482 only ever appeared in eliminations occasionally, and attended Champs a few times. For 4334's rookie year, their rookie team didn't build anything far surpassing what 1482 or any team had built before, but it was the right robot in the right place at the right time that year and they nearly won Champs. Not too long after that 4334 had jump started tons of local teams and their own local regional. It seems highly unlikely that this outcome would have occurred without their eliminations and Champs experiences.

The really important part is it also relies heavily on having the students and mentors who are capable and willing to put that momentum to good use. A lot of people thought 4334 was crazy for wanting to start a regional in a city with two teams during their second season, but I think they knew exactly what they were doing. When attending their planning meetings, I always got the feeling that they wanted to get as much done while the excitement of their last season was still fresh in everyone's minds.

We need that sort of thing to happen on a smaller scale to get teams over the initially steep difficulty curve of running a team.

Paul... I agree 100%.

We need State District model in Texas no later than 2017 season. I don't know inside details but from what I've been told those who run the show haven't raised enough $$ yet that's required in advance of detaching from USFIRST and there aren't enough reliable teams to justify the move.

It's my understanding when you move to District model all USFIRST supplies is the game field and all revenue responsibility is solely on the state entity that runs the district. I'm assuming that'll be FIRST-in-Texas, but maybe another entity will be formed for that?

It's not clear if the potential UIL partnership, whatever it may morph into, is pacing moving towards district... but I believe it a mistake to take the foot off the gas if that's what's happening.

For the Alamo-FIRST region I'm working on developing a working-group of adult FRC team leaders to form ALAMO RISING which will be chartered with fact-finding and developing recommendations to USFIRST for sea-change caliber initiatives and programs so that Alamo region can provide a BIG chunk of success toward getting to Texas District... and maybe could be implemented in the other Texas regions too.

--Michael Blake