California District Proposal, Rev 2

[Michael Corsetto]

Hello FIRST Community,

As promised, here is Revision 2 of the California District Proposal.

Some highlights of Revision 2 of the CA District Proposal include:

• A preface on the topic of Change
• Revision of Goals and Objectives to align with FIRST’s stated Strategic Pillars
• Team Growth, Retention and Performance Data comparing Regional to District structures
• Addition of Unofficial CA Key Volunteer Database
• Revised budget estimates based on an assumed District transition in 2018, $1,000 kickback from FIRST per FRC team registered, and doubled staffing budget to $400,000

All sections with major changes have a comment “Rev 2” next to the title of that section.

Last month, we released the first revision of this proposal. See this thread for Rev 1 and the discussion that followed.

Thank you everyone for your feedback and discussion so far. I’ve personally been overwhelmed by the community support.

A special thank you to all the Key FRC Contributors listed in the proposal, you’ve been incredibly helpful through this process, I cannot thank each of you enough.

Best,

-Mike

[bkahl]

Anyone interested in an over/under style pool for 199.9 replies on this thread?

All kidding aside... To my dear friends in California- I'm rooting for ya.

[rsisk]

Updated Key Volunteer pool for the Sisk family

Must say, this is a very well put together proposal.

[Thad House]

Originally Posted by rsisk

Updated Key Volunteer pool for the Sisk family

Must say, this is a very well put together proposal.

I updated my info as well. I'm so glad someone has taken the time to put this together. It is an amazing proposal, and coming from districts myself I'm excited to see it come in more places.

[EricH]

Updated for myself, and fixed a couple of slots I know the answer to.

[jpetito]

A Volunteer column to add: Machine Shop.

The volunteers who do this work are greatly overlooked as we view the spectacle on the playing floor and in the pits, but it takes a lot of years to become an expert, a lot of expensive gear, and the willingness and expense to haul it across the country side.

Not every venue can get one of course, but for those that do, the people with the expertise put machines back onto the playing field when there may have been no alternative but to pack up and go home.

Joe
Machinist

PS- The whole topic seems to most to be a sideshow of a sideshow, but having more mobile machine shops at venues helps out the "janitor closet" teams. Hmmm… sounds like another thread….

[RoboMom]

FIRST has posted a position for a part-time RD in Northern CA.

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by RoboMom

FIRST has posted a position for a part-time RD in Northern CA.

Jenny,

Thank you for the heads up!

I believe this position opened up after Ken Mitchell recently stepped down from his position as a Northern California RD.

-Mike

[RoboChair]

Originally Posted by jpetito

A Volunteer column to add: Machine Shop.

The volunteers who do this work are greatly overlooked as we view the spectacle on the playing floor and in the pits, but it takes a lot of years to become an expert, a lot of expensive gear, and the willingness and expense to haul it across the country side.

Not every venue can get one of course, but for those that do, the people with the expertise put machines back onto the playing field when there may have been no alternative but to pack up and go home.

Joe
Machinist

PS- The whole topic seems to most to be a sideshow of a sideshow, but having more mobile machine shops at venues helps out the "janitor closet" teams. Hmmm… sounds like another thread….

I too believe this is an important issue to address.

[frcguy]

Awesome job! Especially like the new preface.

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by jpetito

A Volunteer column to add: Machine Shop.



The volunteers who do this work are greatly overlooked as we view the spectacle on the playing floor and in the pits, but it takes a lot of years to become an expert, a lot of expensive gear, and the willingness and expense to haul it across the country side.



Not every venue can get one of course, but for those that do, the people with the expertise put machines back onto the playing field when there may have been no alternative but to pack up and go home.



Joe

Machinist



PS- The whole topic seems to most to be a sideshow of a sideshow, but having more mobile machine shops at venues helps out the "janitor closet" teams. Hmmm… sounds like another thread….

I'm curious how machine shops work in a district environment. As the only regional I attended this year was SVR, the only machine shop I know of is the NASA trailer kind. I'm assuming that they don't drive a trailer out to every district event, although I may be wrong. Could somebody who has experience post a quick overview? Thanks in advance.

[Thad House]

Originally Posted by frcguy

I'm curious how machine shops work in a district environment. As the only regional I attended this year was SVR, the only machine shop I know of is the NASA trailer kind. I'm assuming that they don't drive a trailer out to every district event, although I may be wrong. Could somebody who has experience post a quick overview? Thanks in advance.

In the PNW, we own 2 (I'm pretty sure. I know we own at least 1) machine shop trailers that travel to every event. I'm fairly certain these trailers are easier to work with and incorporate logistics for then finding a machine shop in each school or venue we go to. Even the district championship uses the trailers for the machine shop.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Thad House

In the PNW, we own 2 (I'm pretty sure. I know we own at least 1) machine shop trailers that travel to every event. I'm fairly certain these trailers are easier to work with and incorporate logistics for then finding a machine shop in each school or venue we go to. Even the district championship uses the trailers for the machine shop.

Washington FIRST Robotics owns one machine shop trailer that was purchased when we were still in the regional system. That of course is the one with the wrap. The plain black trailer is owned by an uber volunteer. They are for the most part equally equipped. They are towed to the events by volunteers.

[sanddrag]

The only real issues I've had with event machine shops were no tungstens and filler rods for the TIG welder, and lack of a large enough arbor press.

And for the record, Octavio, the machining instructor at Ventura college is a great guy. Very friendly and helpful.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by frcguy

I'm curious how machine shops work in a district environment. As the only regional I attended this year was SVR, the only machine shop I know of is the NASA trailer kind. I'm assuming that they don't drive a trailer out to every district event, although I may be wrong. Could somebody who has experience post a quick overview? Thanks in advance.

Depends on the area, even for regionals.

Ventura (and I'd highly recommend trying to keep that venue available for districts) has an on-site shop, with golf-cart transport (it's not quite at the gym end of campus). L.A. and San Diego(?) used the Holy Cows' mobile shop (a trailer). I'm not entirely sure about O.C., but I think the school shop was open there. Can't say when the last time I've seen the NASA shop down here was.

Short version: Local shop if possible, trailer shop if not possible or for other reasons (consistency, etc.). I'd be reasonably certain that something along those lines would be the case for districts as well, with the caveat that if there was a team at the high school they'd probably be expected to either completely shut down their shop or make it the event shop. (Example, if an event was hosted at 1197's school, which there are other factors against, it'd most likely be a hike across campus to the team shop, which would probably be opened for use as the event shop if staff were available.)