New England District Town Hall Meetings

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by jwfoss

A side note: Negative comments, worded differently would be far more constructive.

Hope that wasn't directed at me. I was just pointing out that there's teams who I hope get considered during the decision process, not saying something negative about this so I hope that's not the tone of my post. Although I would love to take a team up to a NE regional some year, I actually love the district system here.

On a similar note: would mentors from teams who frequent the NE regionals be allowed to attend these meetings? For example, 694? Will the NE district organizers meet with FiM and MAR folks to discuss do's and don'ts?

[AcesJames]

Dana, is "NE FIRST" the official name of our district system? I think NERD (New England Robotics District), as well as FINE (FIRST in New England) would be better names.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by AcesJames

Dana, is "NE FIRST" the official name of our district system? I think NERD (New England Robotics District), as well as FINE (FIRST in New England) would be better names.

Looks like we found a meeting topic already!

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by AcesJames

Dana, is "NE FIRST" the official name of our district system? I think NERD (New England Robotics District), as well as FINE (FIRST in New England) would be better names.

NE FIRST is the name. Though, I did hear NERD is making a comeback in another way....

We'll also have gotomeeting info for some events and record them for those who are out of NE who want to attend. All the info will be made available on nefirst.org. All of these venues are donated and I don't want to over-invite and wear out our welcome!

[BrendanB]

I am extremely excited to see neFIRST move forward as well as the prospects of outsiders!

[Michael Sperber]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Will the NE district organizers meet with FiM and MAR folks to discuss do's and don'ts?

We are very open to gathering best practices and lessons learned from both FiM and MAR, and we have already had a number of converstations with FiM and MAR stakeholders. We are planning to continue these converstations. Additionally, members of our planning committee visited FiM and MAR events.

We are also encouraging folks to visit the Q&A section of our website (nefirst.org) to share your ideas and concerns... The website Q&A and Town Hall meetings are to ways we can listen and learn from the teams.

[kstl99]

I have many questions about how district events are run so I looked quickly for info. I thought I would find it in the FRC game manual but I did not. Where can I find info on how FiM and MAR are run?

Thanks

[Ed Law]

Originally Posted by kstl99

I have many questions about how district events are run so I looked quickly for info. I thought I would find it in the FRC game manual but I did not. Where can I find info on how FiM and MAR are run?

Thanks

The FiM website, www.firstinmichigan.org, may be able to answer some of your questions. Do you have any specific questions? The pros and cons of district models have been discussed many times on CD.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by kstl99

I have many questions about how district events are run so I looked quickly for info. I thought I would find it in the FRC game manual but I did not. Where can I find info on how FiM and MAR are run?

Thanks

For things like District by-laws, you can find all of them on the individual district's websites (I'm pretty sure they are virtually the same for MAR and FiM):

http://www.firstinmichigan.org/

http://mar.us.com/

[kstl99]

Originally Posted by stevend1994

For things like District by-laws, you can find all of them on the individual district's websites (I'm pretty sure they are virtually the same for MAR and FiM):

http://www.firstinmichigan.org/

http://mar.us.com/

Just what I was looking for.

Thanks

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by jblay

Yeah, we are quickly running out of regionals outside of NYC and Long Island that we can attend.

Hmmm. I think NYC/LI would make a fine district, you need around 80-100 teams (MAR has 99). By my (unscientific) count, you have that in LI and NYC (84 teams). Joe, want to start something?

[JackS]

Originally Posted by Michael Sperber

We are also encouraging folks to visit the Q&A section of our website (nefirst.org) to share your ideas and concerns...

I talked with Jess Boucher shortly at BC, about this. How can teams from NY's capital region get involved? All 4 of the NE regionals (Boston, WPI, CT, and BAE) are within a 3 hour or so driving window, while only one NY regional falls in that window.

I know that I can speak for ourselves and Team 20 in saying that we would very much prefer to compete in New England. Neither team has competed more than once outside of New England in recent history (us at FLR in 2009 and 20 at FLR in 2008.) Also our relative isolation from other NY teams means it makes sense for us to be included in NE. (Look at Andrew Schreiber's wondermap here.)

[JamesBrown]

Originally Posted by JackS

I talked with Jess Boucher shortly at BC, about this. How can teams from NY's capital region get involved? All 4 of the NE regionals (Boston, WPI, CT, and BAE) are within a 3 hour or so driving window, while only one NY regional falls in that window.

I know that I can speak for ourselves and Team 20 in saying that we would very much prefer to compete in New England. Neither team has competed more than once outside of New England in recent history (us at FLR in 2009 and 20 at FLR in 2008.) Also our relative isolation from other NY teams means it makes sense for us to be included in NE. (Look at Andrew Schreiber's wondermap here.)

Having worked with two other capital region teams (that I believe are still active) in 1493 and 1665 I am fairly certain that they would also prefer New England to either NYC/LI or FLR.