Registration 2012

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by gblake

So, if things hold up, that's a 17.6% increase over last year. That sounds pretty good.
Is that a typical year-over-year increase or is it a big enough change to merit notice?

It's not outstanding mostly because last year's registration had an unusual lag (it took a big jump later) . That makes this season look like a larger gain than it really is historically.

Here are the registration numbers for the mid-point /final and gains over the prior year as on noon on the 29th day of Registration (this year's 2nd event opening).

Season - # reg teams - midpt gain - final # ---- final gain
2012 ------ 1863 ----- 15.4%
2011 ------ 1615 ------ 6.1% -------- 2065 ----- 14.2%
2010 ------ 1522 ------ 7.7% -------- 1808 ------ 7.8%
2009 ------ 1413 ----- 13.5% -------- 1677 ----- 11.7%
2008 ------ 1245 ----- 26.7% -------- 1501 ----- 15.4%
2007 ------- 983 ----- 24.4% -------- 1301 ----- 14.8%
2006 ------- 790 ----- -0.1% -------- 1133 ----- 14.7%
2005 ------- 791----------------------- 988

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Doug G

If only they had an online system to support 1000+ requests in a matter of minutes.

And automatically register a rookie team in their home regional.

Why don't they? 1000+ requests in a couple minutes is trivial given the right tricks and capabilities.

And registering rookie teams in the nearest regional when they register is pretty straightforward given that FIRST knows regional locations and team locations...

[rsisk]

The home regional can be tough. A lot of our rookie teams are equidistant to San Diego and LA (and some out in the desert can add in Las Vegas)

[Mark McLeod]

Another problem, just with getting rookies into whatever their home regional is thought to be, is that they are traditionally the group that takes the longest to register. Most events are filled before half the rookies have signed up. That's why FIRST insists on every event having 10 reserved slots.

Rookies have a lot more dominoes to setup than veterans, and they don't yet know what those dominoes even are: get initial funding in place, garner administrative permission, find teacher advisors, recruit EVERY student member, locate mentors, find a room for storage and working, find out what kinds of tools & materials are necessary and where/how to acquire them.
Very little starts before the school year (and FRC registration) begins, so a lot happens for rookies in the Fall.

[Mark McLeod]

We broke 1900 teams this morning.

• 253 new teams - 4 of them are new vets (~13% of all teams. An average final ratio is more like 20%)
• 13 resurrected veterans
• 11 Countries - USA, Canada, Mexico, Israel, Turkey, Brazil, Great Britain, Australia, Chile, Dominican Republic, Germany

Still missing 421 vets from last year, but a bunch are only hidden on waitlists.
No FRC teams in two of the US states.

Here's where everyone is from so far.

# ----- Place
181 ---- CA
159 ---- MI
120 ---- NY
109 ---- MN
90 ----- TX
90 ----- WA
60 ----- CANADA-ON
59 ----- VA
56 ----- FL
53 ----- PA
51 ----- MA
49 ----- NJ
48 ----- OH
46 ----- MO
46 ----- OK
43 ----- IL
42 ----- CT
42 ----- OR
38 ----- IN
36 ----- AZ
34 ----- WI
32 ----- CANADA-QC
32 ----- GA
32 ----- MD
32 ----- NC
31 ----- CO
28 ----- NH
27 ----- SC
22 ----- HI
22 ----- LA
20 ----- KS
18 ----- TN
15 ----- ID
14 ----- DC
13 ----- Mexico
10 ----- AL
10 ----- Israel
10 ----- ME
10 ----- UT
9 ------ MS
8 ------ AR
8 ------ KY
8 ------ NV
4 ------ IA
4 ------ MT
4 ------ NM
4 ------ RI
4 ------ Turkey
4 ------ WV
3 ------ Brazil
3 ------ WY
2 ------ AK
2 ------ DE
2 ------ Great Britain
2 ------ ND
2 ------ VT
1 ------ Australia
1 ------ CANADA-AB
1 ------ CANADA-NS
1 ------ Chile
1 ------ Dominican Republic
1 ------ Germany
1 ------ PR

[Basel A]

Oddly low number of Michigan rookies (5) relative to previous years. I can't help but wonder if they're simply hidden or some other, apparently significant factor is in play.

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

No FRC teams in two of the US states.

Which two states, and did those two states have teams in previous years?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Karibou

Which two states, and did those two states have teams in previous years?

I'd bet that one of them is South Dakota, which last had an FRC team back around 2007 or so. (FLL is strong in the state, but going higher than that is a little slow.)

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by Karibou

Which two states, and did those two states have teams in previous years?

• Nebraska has only ever had one FRC team (team 2044), and they only played in the 2007 and 2008 seasons.
• South Dekota has had 11 FRC teams, but the last one played only as recently as the 2008 season (team 939).

[Mark McLeod]

The registration rate has dropped to an average 20 teams a day.
Unrestricted event registration opens tomorrow.

• (1) Event seems to have reached it's maximum theoretical capacity
• (30) Regionals are developing waitlists
• (10) Regionals with single-digit spaces available (also means there's no waitlist to worry about)
• (11) Regionals with double-digit spaces remaining

• (4) FiM Districts have 10 or fewer spots unassigned
• The most vacant FiM District (Niles) has 23 openings.
• (4) MAR Districts have 10 or fewer spots unclaimed/unreleased
• (1) MAR District seems to have 12 openings

(8) MAR teams haven't picked/been assigned a second event (a lack on the teams part I imagine)
(65) FiM teams haven't picked/been assigned a second event (a delay by FiM rather than by teams - also imagined)

P.S.
Bill's Blog RSS feed reported 1994 teams at the same time that 1944 teams showed, so 50 teams are unreported on waitlists for 1st events, or only pre-registered (didn't pick an event yet).

[Anupam Goli]

Have all of the regionals been filled ever? My team is looking at participating in a 2nd event either in week 1 or week 5, but we don't have funds to pay for it yet, and were wondering if second event registration closer to kickoff is feasible.

[ebarker]

All event registration closes December 1st, 8:00 pm.

It doesn't matter if it is your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, etc event.

All event registration closes December 1st, 8:00 pm.

So you have about 1 month to get your ducks in a row.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

Wisconsin is really lacking outside teams this year...just sayin'...

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated.
We're gonna do it.

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by Wing

Have all of the regionals been filled ever? My team is looking at participating in a 2nd event either in week 1 or week 5, but we don't have funds to pay for it yet, and were wondering if second event registration closer to kickoff is feasible.

Payment for a 2nd Regional isn't due until the end of January, but as Ed said, you need to at least sign up by December 1st to get on the event list at all.

There has always been leftover space somewhere, as long as you're willing to travel. Dallas during week 5 should have plenty of room.
Week 1 events are all waitlisted, except for Israel (that'd be a lot of travel fundraising), although even some waitlisting events may still have room.

[Travis Hoffman]

48, 71, 234, 379, 829, 1024, etc. Queen City has a decidedly 2011 Knoxville feel. Add in 1038, 3138, Andy Baker's rookie team, and others, and it has the makings of another great rookie event! I just hope Blair leaves the orange spandex at home this time.

And then 772 and 781 sneak in from Ontario. It gets better!