Quote:
Originally Posted by EricH
And I've already mentioned about the volunteer problem of how people are doing 2, 3, 4 events and there often aren't enough--that part can be worked around, given time and people who want to step up.
|
If someone was exclusively volunteering at FIRST events and not double dipping into their life force to mentor and volunteer, going to multiple events should not always be considered a huge barrier. I think most people who love this stuff and don't have insurmountable life priorities keeping them at bay wouldn't hesitate at picking up at least 3 weeks of work in a 9 week season.
EDIT:
Quote:
Originally Posted by EricH
NE events are how far apart again, by time? See, out here, that's a minimum of 2 events that are a 2-hour drive away (overnight stay), and that's for someone in the middle of the four SoCal ones. In NE, I'd imagine that there's a bit more events that are closer than that, so it's a fair bit easier to do more events.
I find that folks from the East Coast tend to not be accustomed to the large amount of distance/driving time needed out here. San Diego teams are far enough away from any other regional to need hotels. Ventura, same thing if you don't like traffic (it's doable, but it'll be a long day). L.A./OC are pretty close to each other, and more northern teams could probably commute to Ventura, but beyond that, it's overnight stays required. NorCal teams have a similar issue--SVR/Sacramento/CVR are just at that edge of "overnight or not" from each other, with Sacramento in the middle of the arc.
And again, we're still in regionals. So TFS volunteering... with all associated rush hours for those that commute.
So let me rephrase that:
You've got volunteers doing 2, 3, and 4 events, with all associated driving, vacation days, and hotel stays, and there still aren't enough in key areas. Now you want to tell me that there isn't a problem?
Let me be clear: I don't have a problem doing that. I have a problem that not enough people are stepping up to do those jobs, which makes it necessary for those volunteers to do 2, 3, and 4 events as volunteers. And if CA goes district, those same volunteers will probably now be asked to do 5 or 6 or even 7 events.
|
In the regional system in VA, you would need a hotel for at least 1 event if you wanted to do 2. For a lot of teams, they needed a hotel twice. Now, there are 2 that I can pretty easily do in a day's drive, plus a potential third, plus the district championship, all without needing a hotel. Without knowing exactly where venues would land, you can't confirm this, but you likely would not need overnight expenses outside of a DCMP if you are in a population that has 20 teams within an hour of a central point. If you do need overnight travel, volunteer positions outside of the FTA, CSA, RIs, and supporting roles that are filled by host teams or local teams would only need 1 night stays.
You can also argue that California, in the vacuum of a regional model in perpetuity would be better served with 1 or two more regionals in the state.
Outside of the FTA position and one or two others, the bounceback from an FSS event won't really hit you that hard unless you are volunteering on consecutive FSS events.
It's a lot easier to commit to multiple weeks in the district system (I went from 2-3 to 6 this year without much of a fuss) The discussion is inevitably going to circle back to "you will get more volunteers when you switch to districts" which is anecdotal and speculative. The district model was speculative in 2008. Dunno what else to tell you.