[J@GMFlint]

We're of the opinion that you should leave it in August, as stated in a prior post, the late June suggestion is too close to the one of the biggest family vac. times of the year. Plus, June is almost always full of graduation activities thus making preparations, repairs and practices harder to fit in. Having it in Aug. as you did this year fit right in the time gap between wrapping up Summer vacations and just before preparations for the coming school year began. Based on our experience, we are now more likely to seek an Early/Mid-August event than a June or July event in the future.

Unlike WMRI, MARC actually got off the ground (No disrespect in any way intended to the fine folks who tried to get WMRI going) - so be careful not to break your event's momentum by taking them too heavily into account for August. Certainly trying to work with WMRI is a good thing, but at the same time WMRI should recognize that MARC was a success and not want to put your event at risk either. Maybe a combined effort is something to consider? If WMRI and MARC are both scheduled in August our first choice would be MARC because of our established experience and closer proximity. However, with the current MARC date in June and right before the 4th... it's uncertain that we'd be able to get enough support to attend inspite of how much we want to go back.

No question about it, we really enjoyed the Indiana Robotics Invitational in July-04 and were trying to get in there this year, but we found that the Michigan Advanced Robotics Competition in August let everyone take a Summer break from everything in July and was actually a more economical primer for the coming school year that was then followed by the single day Kettering Kick-Off in Sept. (In it's 8th year this was the first year it was at registration capacity of 36 teams.)

Remember, growth is a process that takes time. More teams are starting to figure out that "smaller" local events are just as much fun and as rewarding as travelling to "larger" events - for a whole lot less $$$ & logistical challenge. The more FIRST grows, the less we'll probably see of large singular off-season events like IRI dominating interest as other geographical areas will begin to have events that lighten the economics on teams and provide increased competition opportunity for everyone. IRI will always deservedly be "legendary" in it's own right, but look at how many teams didn't get into IRI this year and how they (IRI) had to adjust to cram extra people in. I think there were almost as many teams who were turned down from IRI than we had in attendance at MARC. If you give these people another option to plan on next year and only half of the IRI uninvited go to MARC (Currently, the only other OH-IN-MI two day summer event) then you've almost doubled the MARC attendance from 2007 and will probably end up well in the black and grow each year. The inevitable growth and transformation of the off-season is happening and MARC has the potential (location, base of area teams, facility) to be an important a part of that growth in the Michigan, especially being a two-day event.

Speaking from personal experience, I'd advise against bouncing the dates around so dramatically from 2007. I've seen this type of date shuffling in other kinds of activities and events, and like it or not people are creatures of habit. Aside from being well timed away from obvious holiday's etc. an event that people can count on being in a certain month, every year, seems to develop much faster and last longer than one that tends to float around or is not so well coordinated with things like big travel holidays. I'm sure you notice how many large events are almost always held year after year on a given date or certain weekend of a month etc. How many times after a fun time have you heard people say "Let's do this again next year, same time, same place!" ?

BTW: Thanks again for putting together a great event this year!

Thoughts from Team #1243