[artdutra04]

There's always something about the Michigan district competitions that makes me chuckle a little bit inside.

Three or four years ago, a group of people was started in New England to find ways to improve and strengthen the FIRST experience within New England. The group mostly included those who were student alumni from FRC teams, which meant that most were in their teens or twenties at the time, and all have remained highly active in FIRST as team mentors, key volunteers, and so forth.

One of the original ideas this group had was to create "The New England Cup". Small, localized, low-cost [offseason] competitions would take place in which the winning teams would be awarded points, to which they can use to be invited to the culminating New England Cup competition. Sound familiar? The only catch was that all of this would occur after the Championship Event, because if there is one thing New England FIRSTers love more than defense, chowdah, and the Red Sox, it's off-season competitions. (In fact, the very idea of off-season competitions was born here in New England, back at Rumble at the Rock).

About this time, the particular name of the group really struck a nerve within the FIRST community. Honestly, to this day I still don't know why there was so much public backlash against the group, but existed it did. And with this backlash, most of the groups activities began to fade, although the members of the group remained as dedicated as ever towards FIRST in New England.

Now the idea lives on as FiM, although I honestly have no idea if there are any direct connections between the two other than coincidence. But what I see here is probably one of the most important lessons I've learned about FIRST, and that is that different regions in the country really focus on completely different aspects of FIRST.

Some areas of the country really focus on being ultra-competitive. Others have a ton of teams that exist from late December until late April, then lay dormant the rest of the year. And then there are places like New England (actually, the entire northeast in general), where we compete really hard in the competition season, but then put an extraordinary amount of effort into creating an amazing number of off-season competitions which honestly are just to have fun. There are literally dozens of off-season competitions within an eight hour drive of southern New England, which really started my train of thought.

I'm beginning to wonder if a FiM-style competition structure in New England would detract from the resources and efforts of off-season competitions, many of which are at least partially sponsored by the colleges and universities who would be likely candidates* for FiM-style district events. While it may sound like a 1-for-1 trade at first, remember than many teams in New England use off-season events as one of their fundraisers to better help fund and expand their own programs, while providing pre-rookie teams with a great experience prior to their first official year in FIRST.

Right now, it's not very hard for a team in New England to compete at 50-90 matches over the course of a season (competition and post), while building an identical practice robot, for under $25k-$30k per year. Which makes me think: perhaps there is something to the New England Cup after all, and perhaps FiM-style district-level competitions may appear in different forms throughout the country, with each region altering the idea to best fit the "personality" of the region.

At least within New England, as long as an off-season event has good marketing, a well-run event, and doesn't conflict with other important dates (such as finals, graduation, etc), most have waiting lists by their third or fourth year. Want waiting lists sooner? Have other fun activities, such as team social, side competitions, and great food, and the event will sell itself. And depending on how it's implemented, a two-day event can draw even more in.

So don't be disappointed if your event is not as "popular" as IRI. Concentrate on your event and your region, and you will build a loyal fan base of teams that will return year after year. That's what's important.


* Another thing that may be lost if the collegiate support from off-season events is transferred to the competition season, is that the Admissions office at many of these schools views these events as marketing events for the students. By the time March rolls around, most of the decision making for seniors is already over. But in the spring, summer, and fall, that's when a particularly good off-season event might help sway the decision of students towards a particular school.