[IKE]

Some initial Data from the build season:

I helped out with a rookie team this year that was lead by others that had some FIRST experience. They liked the new format as they were able to sign up for two events for less than the cost of 1 traditional event. They also liked that the events were close enough that they didn't have to pasy for busses and hotels (typically the largest part of the traditional budget).

As the events are just starting, that is all I can talk about. I will discuss more details once they are made available.

IKE "the YES man"

P.S. Michigan had to do something different because with 120 teams and only 120 comp slots, many Michigan teams had to travel out of state in order to get to play at all(other out of state teams would sign up for MI events because they knew "their" local events would not fill up until later). Many less organized, lower budget teams would miss the 5 minutes that were available before MI events filled, and then blow their entire budgets on Out of State Busses and hotels.

While I do not think this structure model will work everywhere (Katy finds many of the reasons), I made a counter proposal in the last thread that would work as a transistionary step.


All-
Also, the reason that you will not see a lot from FiM people is the attacks from a vocal minority showed them it was better to take their work off CD. This is the same reason why there are not a lot of official FIRST people on CD. While many say that words should not hurt anyone, these comments have made the people organizing the events stay away for CD which I personally think hurts all of us. These are Woody Flowers Award winners and FIRST outstanding volunteer winners who are tired of stones being thrown at them for "trying" something new. As Lil' Lavery stated in another thread about mean statements on CD, these are volunteers trying to help make things better. Nice post Katy as these are good questions instead of acqusations.