I have been a part of FIRST since 2005 when my son was a freshman in high school and have always enjoyed reading Chief Delphi for as many years. But, I have never officially registered or posted. This is my first, so please go easy on me
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My team, 910 really enjoys the playing time we get for our money with FiM, but we too have really missed the opportunities to play and get to know other teams from outside of our state. We do not have the extra money required to pay for both travel and registration for an out-of-state regional in additional to FiM.
Right now in FiM, when there are open slots available at a district event, teams can register for a third district for $500. Registration for these open slots occurs after regular registration (your first two choices) is closed. Last year we were able to play in 3 district events. This year we were not.
I propose that a team’s third event (for that same $500) can ONLY be for open slots in district level events outside your home state/region (which operate in the same or similar format as FiM). This would go in both directions, thus providing teams outside Michigan to compete within Michigan, as well as essentially reserving the extra slots for only outside teams. Only your 2 district events within your state/region would count toward your qualifying points for your state/regional championship event.
In terms of off-season events to get in extra play... The mid-west has many off-season events also. Our team tries to attend as many of them as we can for all of the reasons stated in earlier posts. I would encourage all teams to participate in them. But I do not feel that it replaces or takes away from all of the positive aspects of the FiM structure.
In response to State lines not working for all states, I do not think that ‘conferences’ (to steal a word from sports) has to be based along single or multiple state lines. It might be more cost effective for some of the teams in the upper peninsula of MI to play in a ‘conference’ out of Chicago or the North Central US. Or maybe, for teams in northern CA to be a part of a Northwest US/Southwest Canada 'conference'. There is no reason why the lines couldn’t change and/or the district format evolve as FIRST grows… continuous improvement
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Getting excited for Atlanta... see you there!