[juchong]

Alright everyone, first off, I want to mention that these are my opinions on the situation. In no way is any of this anyone else's point of view but my own.

A little history about my years in FIRST: Started off on a rag-tag FRC team back in 2008 numbered 1817. This team, even though it's located wayyyy out in the middle of nowhere (West Texas) is still around today. I eventually made my way out to south Dallas (3730) and eventually a bit farther north of downtown Dallas (3005). Last year I moved up to North Carolina and am working with a team (2655) up here.

From what I gather (and heard), the financial stimulus provided by JCPenney and The Texas Workforce Commission was not allocated wisely throughout those years (2011 ~ 2013). Think of it like a contract created between a corporation and the government. An estimate is drawn up, money is allocated, and work begins. If the contractor finishes the job with money to spare, then the money should be returned to the government. This almost never happens, and usually leads to massive (generally unwise) spending near the end of the contract period. I'll leave translating the metaphor to you, but I'm sure you have an idea of what happened.

This had the effect of creating LOTS of teams that were well-funded (temporarily), but did not have the leadership to create a good robotics program. They were just started to boost numbers! All entry fees paid, free KoP, and some teams even received a travel stipend! I see lots of discussion about finances in this thread, but nobody mentions some other needs that teams have. Things like: knowledgeable mentors, corporate sponsors, school district/community support, parental support, etc.

Let's be honest here guys. Lots of teams started in Texas during those years did little more than build the kitbot frame. Go back and watch the Lubbock, Dallas, and San Antonio regionals. It's clear that the kids didn't get anything out of the experience, teachers were volunTOLD to run a robotics program, school administrations "lost" money provided to teams by the grant, there was no technical guidance to speak of, and both mentors and students became overwhelmed with the amount of work needed to keep the program alive. If you don't have technical leadership OR financial support OR mentor motivation, teams WILL NOT SURVIVE!

Allow me to pick on 1817 for a minute. They're out in the middle of nowhere, yet they're thriving. Why is that? The reason is that a very driven set of individuals laid out the groundwork for the team many years ago. Couple that with extensive support from the university/faculty, and you have a great robotics program! (Technical Leadership + Financial Support + Mentor Motivation!!!!)

Why are other programs winning out over FRC? Fact of the matter is that FRC is expensive in more ways than one. It takes time, dedication, skill, and money. If you start a team in a tiny town hundreds of miles away from any sort of metropolis, force the team to travel to an obligatory regional when 80%+ of the kids are using food vouchers for school lunches, and expect the kids to fund-raise when they have to go work out on the farm after class (I've mentored kids in this situation), you're crazy. I'm sorry, but any robotics program with requirements similar to FRC WILL FAIL!

This is why programs like VEX, GEAR, BEST, FLL, etc. are taking off. They're CHEAP (both financially and technically)! They don't require as much of a commitment or investment from teachers! It's not as intimidating! Kids don't have to participate in competitions to get something out of the program! A parent/teacher can run the entire thing out of their classroom/garage! You can get a team registered for an event, a single robot kit, and the playing field for VEX, GEAR, and FLL for well under $1000. If I recall correctly BEST also falls well under that $1000 cap, if they have to pay anything at all. Compare this to the ~$6k registration fee + $2k for the robot in FRC and it's easy to see why teams in rural areas are moving away.

None of this is a secret. Any "northern" model DOES NOT APPLY to Texas. The distances are too great, the cost of travel + lodging for three days sometimes doubles (or triples) the regional registration costs, rural communities in Texas are sparse and primarily agricultural-based, technical mentorship is extremely difficult to come by, and school districts are very reluctant to allocate resources (money, transportation, teachers, CLASSROOMS) due to restricted budgets and heavy sports influence. By no means is this a catch-all. There are lots of school districts, mentors, and companies that are willing to help out teams, BUT they tend to be located near areas of industry and development (Read: Cities). Now on top of it all you want to impose district competitions where it's unlikely, but possible that teams from (for example) El Paso may end up being forced to compete in Houston? Come on...

Let's play a game:

Try this: Without using any search tools, name 5 Texas teams that have qualified to attend champs in the past 5 years and are not located within roughly 30 miles of a city with a population greater than 150k. Tough, eh? Here's a list of cities to get you started. (I'm purposely leaving out instances like Woodlands vs Houston.) I can name two: 148 (Greenville is 40ish miles from Dallas) and 4063 (not counting Acuña, Del Rio's sister city in Mexico - Pop 145k)

Bonus round: Once again, without using any search tools, name 5 Texas teams that have qualified to attend champs in the past 10 years and are not located within 30ish miles of a corporate sponsor which provides technical knowledge (Boeing, NASA, L3, TI, TTU, etc) I can't name any.

I see some sort of correlation here, guys.

I applaud teams like TrixR4Kidz. They're definitely an outlier. I grew up in Eagle Pass, (40 miles from Del Rio, 15k residents, 120 miles from San Antonio, on the border with Mexico) and I hope that they continue to participate in future competitions given their proximity to other teams. I have no idea how they're doing it, but I'm willing to bet that a large part of their strategy is mentor and parent motivation.

TLDR: Don't treat Texas like Michigan. I can drive across your puny state in less time than it takes me to get from Lubbock to Dallas without traffic. You guys have it easy. Instead of trying to shoehorn FRC into schools, try starting FLL teams and build the FRC program from there. FRC teams are failing in Texas because of much more than money.

Maybe by the time those kids are in high school, we'll be able to mentor via the internet or something? I'd love to see a heat map of active teams in Texas.

P.S.

Originally Posted by Michael Blake

WHAT'S up with Lone Star?! 118, 624, 1477, and 3847 missing from the roster seems really odd at this point in time.

I have my theories... Some involving Houston being... Houston, and the regional being located on the other side of the state (10 hours from Lubbock, 11 hours from El Paso).

-Juan