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Unread 24-10-2001, 18:59
Jay Lundy Jay Lundy is offline
Programmer/Driver 2001-2004
FRC #0254 (The Cheesy Poofs)
Team Role: Alumni
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Rookie Year: 2001
Location: Berkeley, CA
Posts: 320
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Quote:
Originally posted by nick reynolds
Matt. Your assuming a lot.
We 'dont' have three weeks to beg $30.000 + we only have 19 days. and thats if we wait untill the first day of the Nationals. You dont address how all the Adults get the time off from work to escort the students who would go, unless your assuming the students go to Florida with no Adults. That wont fly.
You make it sound so easy to go out and just knock on doors and stick out your hand for $30.000+. We could do a can and bottle drive all we need is 600.000 units. Where did your team get $30.000+ in 3 weeks, I would love to know how you did it.
Your also assuming that next year it will be the odd teams turn? can you guarantee that, or will some unforseen problem change the Tides of the game.
If last year you told me that only the even # teams would be going to Florida next year plus a few selected teams I would have thought you were nuts, but it happened.
I think Students look at things differently than the Mentors, we not only have to worry about our selves and our families and our work, our home's and will the plants be dead when we get home, but we also worry about "you".

As new rookie teams join what will happen when there are the same total of even or odd teams that equal the total of all teams today. will we get the chance to go to Florida every 4 years???
If you're having trouble making a last minute flight out to Florida, then instead of planning on not going, start planning this year like you are going. Make sure all the adults have enough vacation days to make the trip, and try to get sponsors to pay for the trip. Make an arrangement with a sponsor that they will only give you the money if you actually do qualify for Florida. It might even be easier, because the only way a non-prequalified team can make it to nationals is by winning, and all sponsors love to give money to a winning team. This way, if you don't end up going to nationals, you have 3 weeks to tell your coworkers that you will in fact be working on the days you normally would have been going to nationals.

As for the problems of dying plants and your other concerns, 3 weeks is plenty of time to arrange someone to take care of them. Don't forget that the students also have to tell all their teachers they are going to be gone and get all the make-up work (which can be quite a lot!) 3 weeks is plenty of time to arrange all these small details.

And yes, I think it is completely valid to assume that next year the odd teams will get first come first serve. FIRST doesn't have anything against odd team, as hard to believe as that may seem. It's just a coincidence that the year they absolutely had to do something about nationals was also an even year. It probably took them several months to make this decision (I know I heard rumors about the even/odd and the point system as well as other possible solutions as early as last June) so this most likely will not change for many years.

Lastly, yes, you are entirely correct that this system will not work when FIRST gets even larger. Eventually, Nationals will either (a) have to be ENTIRELY qualifying or (b) be spread out over several locations. However, if either of these were instituted this year, people most likely would complain even more.
The problem with (a) is obvious. Rookie teams would rarely be able to attend natoinals and some of the less successful teams might drop out. FIRST obviously could not make this decision.
The problem with (b) is that it just doesn't make sense (to me). The "nationals" would no longer be nationals, but instead would be regionals. There would be the western regional competition, and the eastern regional competition. Now it is possible to structure the championships like many other sporting events where the winners from each region come together for one final game, but then there comes the problem of time constraints (could run into school finals) and money (2x the trips = 2x the money).

Last edited by Jay Lundy : 24-10-2001 at 19:24.