MAR

[Cody Burd]

I was wondering how many qualifiers can you attend in this new format? I am very interested in the answer

[GaryVoshol]

If it's like the Michigan model, 2 qualifying events. If you gain enough points, then you can attend the MAR championship.

In MI, when there were open spaces remaining, teams could sign up for a 3rd district (for only $500). The points toward the state championship were counted only in the first 2 district events you attended.

[Cody Burd]

thx

[thefro526]

According to discussion at the last MAR meeting, each team will get two Qualifying events with their initial Registration. From there a team can chose to compete in a 3rd District if space is available - the price for the 3rd event is still being discussed, it could be $500 as in Michigan, or it could me more or less depending on what is decided by MAR ($1000 was the tentative number).

Also, only your first two events will count towards the points needed to qaulify for the state Championship.

[Carol]

Not everything is set in stone with FIRST yet which is why not all details have been made public. There will be a webinar shortly for all teams to ask questions and get more details. Stay posted.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Carol

Not everything is set in stone with FIRST yet which is why not all details have been made public. There will be a webinar shortly for all teams to ask questions and get more details. Stay posted.

Not to try to insult the awesome folks who are part of MAR, but is there a way that anyone can get involved in the planning process? Because right now it seems they are the only ones who know anything other than the 1 public MAR meeting that was open to teams.

I don't want to sound rude, but the fact that we launched a campaign in 2009 requesting transparency from FIRST about their 5 year plan, yet we who are not part of the MAR planning stages, are being left in the dark about anything going on until "it is just right" to make public, sounds ironic and hypocritical to me and other mentors who I spoke to.

We generally do not care to hear something only when it is set in stone, we want to be updated about things being discussed and deliberated upon. FIRST might have been translucent, but right now "MAR is opaque," to quote a friend. Its a little sad when I have to go to my old team to ask what the plans are for districts and what rules are being discussed along with the prices still. We want information as it is being discussed, just like so many mentors in FIRST wanted to hear these same things back in 2009.

Hope that did not sound rude, as I deeply respect some of the folks in MAR. Please let me know if there is a way to join the planning committee. A simple list of "This is what's up in the air" and "This is what is concrete" is all I ask for.

To quote the specific paragraph from the 2009 letter:

We’re not complaining about these actions but about the lack of transparency in their planning phases. While it is reasonable to be without a “fully fleshed out” plan yet – particularly for the District model – surely some of the basics are known, and uncertain or speculative points can be identified as such. We certainly all know that plans can change and we can work with that.

+.02

Edit: Who is the "head" of MAR?

[Chris is me]

Maybe it's FIRST who's insisting on non-disclosure rather than MAR. Just a thought.

[Carol]

The board meetings are public and notices of them were sent out to the membership list in advance. Many people have dialed in to them. Are you a member? You should have received email notification.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Carol

The board meetings are public and notices of them were sent out to the membership list in advance. Many people have dialed in to them. Are you a member? You should have received email notification.

Nope, the only notification I received was from someone else about the MAR meeting on 9/17. Might be because we registered the new team and aren't on any other mailing list?

Do you mean member of the board? If so, then no. PM'd you to keep the thread clear.

Thanks Carol!

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Not to try to insult the awesome folks who are part of MAR, but is there a way that anyone can get involved in the planning process? Because right now it seems they are the only ones who know anything other than the 1 public MAR meeting that was open to teams.

Are you kidding?

Um, not to be insulting, but I remember at least 3 web meetings and 2 face-to-face meetings in the past several months. Plus a pile of e-mails.

Are you a MAR member? If so, you know this. If not, why not? Send an e-mail to Ed Petrillo of team 293 SPIKE (his e-mail is edward.petrillo, in the gmail dot com domain) and he'd be tickled pink to sign you up. Membership is free, open to anyone in the MAR region, and everyone gets a vote.

That being said - and as the guy who penned that 2009 letter - this is not FIRST, it's MAR. Two different organizations. And I haven't seen a more open and transparent group in a long time. (Though, I admit, they don't communicate via the web very well ).

Before I enter rant mode, join up, then we'll talk. Or ask Ed your questions, he's a nice guy.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Are you a MAR member? If so, you know this. If not, why not? Send an e-mail to Ed Petrillo of team 293 SPIKE (his e-mail is edward.petrillo, in the gmail dot com domain) and he'd be tickled pink to sign you up. Membership is free, open to anyone in the MAR region, and everyone gets a vote.

Thanks Don!

And like I said, my intention wasn't to sound rude or insulting, just trying to get more information. Not trying to grind anyone's gears. And if they did communicate via the web more my comments may have never been brought up.

[EricH]

Maybe it's hard to join up if you don't know how to join up. If that bit of info did not get out to Akash (or his team), or any other team within the region, that is a problem--and it's not that team's problem.

Let's just say, as an example, that I were in the MAR area. (I'm not.) I've noticed the (relatively few) CD discussions on the topic--but very few even of those have the "how to get information" stuff posted. Now Bill's Blog comes out and says, "MAR is a go, welcome!" I have very little information on what is going on within MAR (besides what I've managed to pick up on CD). Maybe I haven't gotten a message, electronic or otherwise, from anybody within the organization group on how to get in on the information loop (and I'm in the target area, for the sake of this example). I'm going to want the missing information--and having people tell me "You should have the info from all these meetings" (that I didn't know how to be a part of, at the very least) is NOT going to make me any happier about not knowing what's up!

If that is the case--that the info did not make it out to all the teams in the region--then it may be a really, really, really good idea to contact all the teams and verify that they did or did not get the information on joining up. As a matter of fact, it probably wouldn't hurt to do it anyway, especially any rookies that sign up.

If, after someone has learned how to get the information, they don't use that option, then that is their choice. But if they don't have that information in the first place, then it is the responsibility of whoever is making the decisions to get that information to those people.

[Lil' Lavery]

MAR has done everything in their power to try and inform everyone in the region that this is happening and how to get involved in the planning process. That is absolutely not MAR's problem. They were even handing out flyers at regionals last season. Honestly, any active mentor in the region pretty much had to intentionally avoid MAR not to be exposed to it at some point this summer.

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by EricH

Don, just a little hint.
(snip)

I don't have any involvement in MAR, but it seems to me like Akash had concerns, posted a question, and got a very helpful concise answer from the people at MAR. A great example of what CD is incredibly useful for.

Eric, since you are not even close to the target group, does it make much sense that you would have been hit with MAR informational minutes or information? Perhaps another rookie team could comment on how that has actually happened, and it would be much more useful to the MAR planning committee. Finally starting with "X, just a little hint." sounds pretty condescending to me. Even if someone was giving me the best advice in the world, if it was delivered like that I'm not sure I would listen.

Still waiting for a District/Qualifier to come to a region near me...

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

MAR has done everything in their power to try and inform everyone in the region that this is happening and how to get involved in the planning process. That is absolutely not MAR's problem. They were even handing out flyers at regionals last season. Honestly, any active mentor in the region pretty much had to intentionally avoid MAR not to be exposed to it at some point this summer.

During last season and in the summer, the 3553 main contact was, let's just leave it at less than a great communicator. This is why the information never reached the people involved in our new and old team. Due to the team folding (school whatnot/long story, we were not at offseasons either.

Aside from that I've already been in touch with the parties I need to be in touch with thanks to Don and Ed. I have also apologized already to Ed if I came across in a bad manner. I will also be helping them get the info out to teams likes ours who were in limbo during the summer and in the previous season and did not have all the info, including newly registering teams.