|
|
|
![]() |
|
|||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
Thread Tools | Rate Thread | Display Modes |
|
|
|
#1
|
|||
|
|||
|
holes in hole poking
Posted by Joe Johnson, Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 4/6/99 7:18 PM MST In Reply to: Re: Some reasons to go to more than one regional posted by Chris on 4/6/99 11:26 AM MST: . . . : Reason #2. Everyone gets to see these well funded teams at nationals. They don't need to see them at the regionals. Teams make notes of who performed well at the regionals and make it a point to see them in action in Florida. *** Not everyone goes to Nationals. . . . : Reason #3. A season of events would be great if the costs were controlled. Here in the Detroit area it would be great since we have around 40 teams and no one would have to travel. I would be all for that. *** I have been involved in serious conversations with serious folks who think that it is not out or the question that Detroit could have its own regional next year. I have also heard that Grand Rapids may have another regional next year. Now your talking SEASON! Between Ypsi, Detroit, Western Michigan and Chicago, you could have a serious season of events within a 4-5 hour drive of Detroit. Let me at 'em :-) . . . : In the second part, you completely agreed with something I said earlier. The people writing the checks want to see a good result or the checks will stop being written. The 'less fortunate teams' (PC term) in the long run will do poorly and all of their sponsors will stop writing the checks. In the end you may up with only GM, Delphi, Chrysler, Motorola, and a few others left. Shouldn't we do something to keep everyone competitive? Granted, someone is going to finish last every year, but funding is hardly ever pulled due to one bad year. It's a trend of bad performances that is noticed. If the field is not level, the less funded teams will be on the bad end of the trend and will get their funding taken away. *** Beatty Hammond! What more can I say? They have a 60 person tool and die shop and a community with a heart of gold. They beat up the big three year after year. Are you telling me that there is no such great engineers at TRW to compete with the likes of Beatty the Elder and Beatty the Younger? You know that there are. FIND THEM! . . . : It's also hard for a team to feel inspired when the cards are stacked against them. Some people start to feel discouraged. Sure, your team may feel more inspired, but at whose expense? *** There are teams that do very well with little funding. Harrison RIT were national champs in our first year. They bragged that they spent a TOTAL of $19K on their entire FIRST effort -- including travel! Next year, Beatty won. The next year Delphi won, but a not super funded Naval Undersea Warfare Center finished second. If you will allow me a personal digression: At one point, I was considering moving on from Delphi. Before I would leave though, I was polling my brother, sisters, and misc. relatives to see if between us, we could come up with enough dough to fund a Team Johnson. You can bet that I would not have just tossed up my hands and just said, 'We can never compete with the Delphi's & GM's!' I was planning on kicking my former team's behinds ;-) And believe me, my family couldn't come up with a 10th of the budget a typical Delphi team has. Would I have done multiple regionals? Yes, even if we had to stay at the KOA! My point is that I reject the idea that money is the only or even the major limit to competitive teams. Joe J. |
| Thread Tools | |
| Display Modes | Rate This Thread |
|
|
Similar Threads
|
||||
| Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
| Attending Multiple Regionals | WakeZero | General Forum | 11 | 19-11-2003 16:23 |
| Hey FIRST - We're going to need a lot more regionals! | Raul | Regional Competitions | 41 | 08-11-2003 18:10 |
| 3 teams win multiple regionals! | archiver | 2000 | 0 | 23-06-2002 22:38 |
| VCU and KSC regionals | Manoel | Regional Competitions | 0 | 25-09-2001 13:44 |