Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Ketron
I currently have to teams at Monroe High School. 1528 and 2719 (rookie team). However, to get classified as a rookie I had to submit a request for review of our team. I stated that 2719 is a classroom team and is not a part of the 1528 team. I have 2 students on my team with FIRST experience. When the decision came back to allow us to be a rookie team, it was clearly stated that we were considered a rookie team because we only had those two students with previous FIRST experience. I was told that we could have up to a total of 5 experienced students on my team to be classified as a rookie. If 2771 has a total of 9 experienced students on there team, then they should be stripped of there rookie status and any awards they received with it. You are absolutely correct in stating that 2771 should show some gracious professionalism and report the change of status and return thos awards.
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Steve,
2719 should definitely be considered a rookie team. The argument that 2771 use to justify themselves as a rookie team is that at the time of kickoff they only have 4 students with FIRST experience. The other 5 students with FIRST experience joined their team after the kickoff. How many days after the kickoff did they join is not even the question here? This is what FIRST says as criteria for rookie team.
1. A new team that starts in a school/organization/alliance that has never run an FRC team before (most teams are formed within a single school, but some comprise two or more schools, or are organizations such as Scouts, Boys & Girls Clubs, home schools etc.)
2. A returning team may qualify as a Rookie, but in order to do so must not have been in a competition for three years. That is, going into the 2009 season, they cannot have competed in either seasons 2008, 2007 or 2006. Teams whose last competition season was 2005, or earlier, can return this season as a Rookie, OR, they can continue as a veteran with their original number if they wish to do so. Teams that choose to register as a veteran would not be eligible for the above listed Rookie incentives and recognition.
3. Where multiple schools were combined into a single team, and that team now wants to separate into different teams, or any single team wants to separate into different teams, the new teams do not qualify as Rookies unless the requirements set forth above in 2 are met. These teams will need to register as a new team and contact FIRST at
frcteams@usfirst.org for further instructions.
4. Where multiple existing teams want to combine into one team, the new team does not qualify as a Rookie. The combined team can select to use one of the existing team numbers, or can apply to FIRST for an unused number from the rookie year of the oldest team. In either case they should advise team support which teams have combined by emailing
frcteams@usfirst.org.
5. If a mentor, or teacher, from an existing team leaves and starts a team at a new school, that team does qualify as a Rookie team.
6. If individual students who have been involved in a team leave that school and start a team in their new school that team also is generally considered a Rookie, providing it meets condition 1, and does not involve sufficient students to be considered a version of condition 3. As a maximum, the number of students in the new team that have competed in prior teams must not exceed 5.
FIRST did not state at what point in time that the number of students in the new team that have prior FIRST experience must not exceed 5. My interpretation, based on the spirit of the rule, is that from the time of kickoff to the end of that season, so that it is fair to other rookie teams. 2771 chose to use the letter of the rule and picked the date of kickoff only for meeting that criteria.
This is from their website.
Code Red Robotics was started by students who left Team 288, The Robodawgs, after a leadership change.
After the initial
four former 288 team members planted the Grand River Prep team,
five more former Robodawgs wanted to join without even being asked.
Code Red Robotics now has eight freshman from Grand River Prep,
nine Grandville Students, plus students from four other Grand Rapids area high schools.
You be the judge.
Ed