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Originally Posted by Derek Bessette
You also asked when we thought it gets out of control. I think we are at the limit now. I would find it very difficult to go to four teams with identical robots. We are getting another school in the area started with some of our kit materials that we haven't used over the years. They are going to build a robot using this years rules for the off-season competition in Wonderland. This will give them a chance to learn the heartaches of FIRST at a much more relaxed pace. They will have a lot of the advantages of being in NiagaraFIRST without having the same robot. We'll see how it works out.
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I think this is the most important aspect of the partnership. That it is NOT cast in concrete for all time, but that it is part of an evolution. And that it is not envisioned as uber-alliance. That is my biggest concern with alliances - that they grow to encompass too many teams. We don't want to see alliances with 10 or more teams dominating a regional.
Do the triplets always compete in the same regionals? Perhaps because of your location Toronto and Waterloo make the most sense; but do you consciously choose to be at the regionals together?
Perhaps in a year or two there will be two sets of two teams, making two sets of "twin" robots. 1114 can collaborate with the new team, 1503 and 1680 can collaborate together. Or whatever works for the situation. In a later year, another team can be added to a partnership to create another "triplet" - which can then divide and spawn off another partnership in a few years.
1188 came into existance by being mentored by 65 a few years ago. Then we struck off on our own as rookies (the same year 1114 were rookies). We didn't organize as two teams during the initial mentorship, because there weren't enough students associated with what became 1188 to make it work. Or because no one thought of doing it.
Last year 1188 mentored a student from another HS in the area - it was going to be more, but only he was interested enough to join. This year he moved to another school that has a team, so there was no one left from his original school left to participate. There is another school in our area that I would love to become involved in FIRST. I have broadly thought out a possible long-term relationship, involving both FIRST and the local OCCRA competition in the Fall - it's still so nebulous that I haven't even discussed it with our main mentor. Perhaps dual-designed FIRST robots would be an option if that partnership comes to pass. This year wasn't the year to pursue it, as we have so much on our plate with our association with South Africa.
I was initially against this concept, but can see how it can work in the right circumstances. If it serves to get more students involved in FIRST than would otherwise be possible, it is a good thing.