Quote:
Originally Posted by Beth Sweet
In short, for those teams with significant resources, it was beneficial. For teams without access to trucks and trailers, it was somewhat nightmare-ish. I know of teams who had to rent a U-Haul for every competition they attended. There are, contrary to seeming popular belief, teams who benefit from the Fed-Ex shipping.
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In most parts of the country you can rent a U-Haul or similar truck for less than $50 a day. Even if you need to do that four times a season (to and from two competitions), $200 is a whole heck of a lot less than the true cost of shipping a robot-sized crate with Fed Ex (and remember, you only get one free ship and back). Or, find a nearby team who has a crate and ask them to take your robot too. 217 did this for their neighbors; likewise we brought 365's robot to IRI in our trailer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Beth Sweet
I wanted to make 1 point in this thread that seems to be overlooked. For those teams interested in having the district system in their area, please be aware that you are required to provide volunteers (kinda takes away the meaning of volunteer doesn't it...) to every competition you attend. Whether you are a team with 100 people, or a team with 5, you must provide "volunteers" if you wish to participate in this system.
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If this is one of the compromises that lets us get twice the plays for less money, then so be it. As it is, most of the volunteers at regionals have/had some affiliation with a local team. Moreover, for larger teams, it is often challenging to find a competition-day job for many students (what should our CAD team and animators do? There is a limit to the useful number of scouts). Event volunteer jobs give these students a meaningful task for the day. As for teams of 5 having to give up a volunteer, I believe that exceptions for these situations could probably be made. Larger teams can more than make up the difference. Just because FIRST accepted the district system doesn't mean that every single rule must never change from the pilot season.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Beth Sweet
In general, I am very disappointed that the BoD has made this decision. I think that it is a big step away from FIRST's values, its mission, and its spoken intentions of the purpose of the program. Many statisticians have quoted you numbers above supporting their invalidations of what I say, I'll leave statistical interpretations up to the individual reading them. The district system invalidates many non-robotic contributions and truly turns this organization into a robotics competition. For many, that's all it has ever been. On a personal note, my contributions in the district system, and what I am able to bring to the table in it are so limited, I will have to seriously consider if I will continue to participate in FIRST.
I wish FIRST the best of luck in its undertaking of this program.
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I, and many other FIRSTers, also agree that culture changing awards deserve fair recognition. Again, who is to say that 2009's point structure is the only way that this will work?