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Originally Posted by Michael Blake
The last season things started to come into focus for me as to what is and what works in FIRST FRC and I've concluded that there are only 3 types of teams:
A - Teams that are a _program_ with reliable and continual support and funding. Same as football and marching band.
B - Teams that exist because at least one adult _wills it_ to exist.
C - Rookie teams that may become either A or B or die pretty quickly.
The key thing, I believe, for teams to achieve at least B status is some early support and guidance from Tier-1 and Tier-2 teams that can lead to them playing Saturday afternoon Elims _instead_ of sitting in the stands after early-packing their pit.
I believe that even making it to the Quarters changes a team's "chemistry" and leads to create passion and anticipation in the returning students and energizes the adult mentor(s) who have to _will it_ to exist.
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I caution against making assumptions with viability and teams. Our team meets your conditions A and B, and as far as accomplishments, you can look at Jeff's post above. All that considered, our team folded 3, that's right THREE times between the start of this current school year and Kickoff, in spite of the fact that we had met conditions A & B, and in spite of what we've been able to accomplish.
Every year I make connections with people on other teams that leave me awestruck when they tell me details about how their team operates, and that goes for both established teams and rookie teams alike. My experience has taught me that as many different teams as there are active, that's how many different sets of conditional statement situations exist for what makes a "type" of team, regardless of how big or small their team number is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Blake
I think getting to State District model is a BIG priority--because it means more competitions for the same current single-regional $$ and provides more opportunities for these teams to play Saturday afternoon and have that positively affect the team's trajectory...
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As mentioned previously, if all teams had to pay were registration, that's true...but when you factor in travel, food, lodging, those numbers look different for some teams...especially when it comes to paying for two events, and then possibly having to travel to a state championship, and then to world championship.
In all honesty, I haven't been a big proponent of the district model, or UIL for that matter. As it stands right now, my school is a separate school from the main comprehensive high school in our district, and our students participate in UIL programs at the other high school in our district. We have concerns about how the UIL situation would affect our team. In terms of the district model, I can remember scrambling to secure money for champs the year we qualified, doing two scrambles for two championships does not sound appealing to me, particularly after this year, in which we've lost teacher mentors and lost significant sponsors...I'm not saying that I'm out picketing, or threatening to throw all our efforts into another competition or anything like that, I'm just saying that I have legitimate concerns.
As with most aspects about this experience, the UIL & the Texas District model talk further confirm that while I love the FRC competition, I love the people in the FRC community more.