New District Events for 2013?

[jblay]

I wonder if after all the regions are put into districts there will be any regionals at all or if teams will only be able to interact across regions at the championship. It would be cool to have a regional in each region kept so that this won't happen this way.

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Better name: New England Robotics District.

That's just awesome. If they don't call it that, I will be upset.

[JimWright949]

Originally Posted by dodar

When people along the US/Canada border are talking districts I kind of think you have to include the Canadian teams across the border in with them because if the Ontario and Toronto areas go to districts it leaves the other half of Cananda S.O.L.

The NW area would pickup British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan right now there are only 2 teams in those provinces.

[lynca]

Originally Posted by Steven Sigley

With this week being the Michigan and Mid-Atlantic Championships, I figure it's as good a time as any to ask.
What if any new District models do you think will be adopted for next year?
California?
Texas?

From a Texas perspective, teams are too spread out to really get the benefits of a district model. For example, teams from El Paso would still have to travel 8 hours to get to an event in San Antonio.

I think Texas is still a couple years away from really seeing the benefits of a District model.

[Racer26]

Originally Posted by dodar

When people along the US/Canada border are talking districts I kind of think you have to include the Canadian teams across the border in with them because if the Ontario and Toronto areas go to districts it leaves the other half of Cananda S.O.L.

Not really, at least not if I'm understanding you correctly.

Currently two active (3 total) teams (4334, 1482, [1346]) exist west of Ontario.

They could easily be lumped into a PNW/Midwest region.

The rest of Canada (Ontario and Quebec, plus one team from NS [4147]) is fairly concentrated.

We have 4 regionals right now, and a high percentage of Canadian teams went to 2 or 3 of them this year, and some teams (772, 1241, 188, 781, 610, and more) went south of the border for a regional at least once this season.

We have enough density to make a district model work without help from south of the border.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by 1075guy

Not really, at least not if I'm understanding you correctly.

Currently two active (3 total) teams (4334, 1482, [1346]) exist west of Ontario.

They could easily be lumped into a PNW/Midwest region.

The rest of Canada (Ontario and Quebec, plus one team from NS [4147]) is fairly concentrated.

We have 4 regionals right now, and a high percentage of Canadian teams went to 2 or 3 of them this year, and some teams (772, 1241, 188, 781, 610, and more) went south of the border for a regional at least once this season.

We have enough density to make a district model work without help from south of the border.

Oh, I always thought I heard people saying there was like 20-30 teams in the western half of Canada

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by jwfoss

Word on the street is that New England (CT, RI, VT, NH, MA, ME) has been and is looking to go to districts; but at this point I believe the earliest we'll see it would be 2014. I propose the name FiNE (FIRST in New England).

It's actually fairly surprising to me that the NE area has not gone to districts sooner, as the team density in the area and travel distances make a ton of sense.

I've heard the reason it won't happen sooner has to do with contracts for the venues that were signed as multi-year as well as not having the venues for the districts nailed down, but don't hold me to that it's second or third hand.

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

FiNE:
Given that there'd be about 8 districts (146 teams * 2 events/team / 40 teams/event), I would see there being one in SoMaine (Portland <-> Portsmouth), one in "NoNH" (Lebanon <-> Concord), one in SoNH (Nashua <-> Manchester), one in the Boston area, one in the Worcester area, one in the Springfield area, one in the Hartford area, and one in the Bridgeport area. I'm guessing the FiNE championship would host about 50 teams in the Boston <-> Worcester area.

When I was considering this I came up with similar districts and suggested locations.
New Haven (Yale)
Springfield (WNEC)
Eastern CT (Norwich area)
Worcester (WPI)
Boston (BU)
Nashua
Concord
Portland

District Championship would rotate between Manchester, Hartford and Worcester or just be in Worcester based on it's central location.

With New England having 5 regionals planned for next year (NH, CT, Boston, WPI, Maine) it will be interesting to see how many slots are allocated to the region.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Tyler Olds

Perhaps there will be many districts by 2014-2015..............

Ohio - either join with Illinois/Indiana, or go with Western PA/WV/Western NY.

Lots of space to roam out here in the Midwest - don't see how you're going to do a densely-populated district model out here yonder, especially at the current team densities. To get enough teams, you have to add a ton of land mass, and that defeats the whole purpose of the districts. Cheap event fees don't mean much if you're paying for long-distance travel!

[Alpha Beta]

I know somebody has done this out there, but would love to see it again...

Does anyone have a google map prepared with team locations and regionals already mapped.

As new districts are created it makes sense to consider what parts of the country are being left out. Is it possible to divide North America completely into districts and then permit a couple of international regionals in New York LA, and Israel for our overseas & South American members to participate in?

What areas of the country need to build up a volunteer base for this to work? It is my understanding that the transition to a district system is very grass roots driven, not top down from headquarters.

Kansas City has one of the largesr regionals in the country at 64 teams, with some being turned away due to space constraints. I would love to be part of a district system, and am anxious to hear ideas on how our less densly populated area would make this work.

[AcesJames]

Originally Posted by Peter Matteson

I've heard the reason it won't happen sooner has to do with contracts for the venues that were signed as multi-year as well as not having the venues for the districts nailed down, but don't hold me to that it's second or third hand.

Sue Glasspeigel told myself and Foss last November at our FLL event that the regional directors in the New England area are planning to implement the district system around 2014.

One of the main reasons she gave for waiting until then, other than venue contracts, was that they wanted the teams of New England to be "ready" to move to the district system. She and others don't want to simply change the system overnight. From what I can tell, the people planning the transition are putting a lot of forethought into it.

[smistthegreat]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

Ohio - either join with Illinois/Indiana, or go with Western PA/WV/Western NY.

Lots of space to roam out here in the Midwest - don't see how you're going to do a densely-populated district model out here yonder, especially at the current team densities. To get enough teams, you have to add a ton of land mass, and that defeats the whole purpose of the districts. Cheap event fees don't mean much if you're paying for long-distance travel!

Agreed, WNY, Western PA and Ohio doesn't seem like too much of a stretch for me, as many of the FLR teams already make the trek down to Pitt or Buckeye.

[P.J.]

I think the Northwest (meaning Oregon/Washington) is a very likely candidate to go to a district system soon. I've seen a couple people from high profile teams out in that area snooping around MI this year, but that isn't necessarily an indication of anything.

I am also a fan of a combined Hawaii/California region, and have heard rumors of a combined Wisconsin/Minnesota region and a combined Indiana/Illinois region.

Nobody has mentioned it yet, but I figure I might as well throw out the idea of Israel going to a district system.

Now regarding Canada, I could see them going to their own region, but probably only under one condition, an option which I've been a supporter of since Day 1 (And I'm in MI so thats a long time ago ), and that is Cross-Region travel.

What is to stop a team from say, Michigan going to a MAR district and earning points that qualify towards the FiM state championship? As long as you still play the same 12 matches as everyone else, the points you earn should be the same, its just they count towards your own Regional Championship. I just think there shouldn't be a problem with crossover like this once (theoretically) all of FIRST goes to the district system.

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by nukemknight

I've also heard rumblings about MD/DC/VA going to the district model. The three regionals are less than 3 hours apart (Richmond to Baltimore).

A DMV district event makes sense to me too. I hope they get something within the next few years (though I'll be long gone from the area by then).

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

Although it seems to be against what others are saying on this thread, I for one don't really want a district system for California. It seems to me like it would just make it a lot harder to get to Championships, and make us miss a lot more days of school (two/three district events, district champs, and then real Championships).

Personally, I really like they way things are now.

MAR district events are all Saturday-Sunday so kids miss no school here...

Edit: Sorry for the double post, guys!

[P.J.]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

Although it seems to be against what others are saying on this thread, I for one don't really want a district system for California. It seems to me like it would just make it a lot harder to get to Championships, and make us miss a lot more days of school (two/three district events, district champs, and then real Championships).

Emphasis mine.

I'm not gonna go into the whole speech here, it's been done in lots of other places, but a District system actually makes it EASIER to get to Champs, because it isn't just the winners of the regionals, its the top 18 (or whatever) teams in the state by points.

And sorry for posting twice so soon after each other, but I didn't read through this whole thread before I threw in my first comment.

[cgmv123]

Aargh, If there's a district event in Madison, we'd have to host it. Hosting Lego League is bad enough...