2012-2013 MAR District Event Schedule

[Hallry]

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, here is the mostly-complete schedule of the MAR District Events for the 2012-2013 season:

A few changes from last year, but there are still 6 districts and 1 regional championship, which is again week 7. However, the Outreach Committee said that they will work with Steele Meetings to to reserve a block of rooms in St. Louis, as well as reserve charter bus companies to accommodate those teams who do not qualify until last minute at the regional championship. Additionally, they will work with hotels near Lehigh so teams attending the regional championship can receive the best rate possible.

Four of the venues are the same as last year, with three new ones joining. Two of the events are still tentative, and there are no districts week 2 or 5 due to other events, causing there to be two events during both week 3 and week 4.

Week 1: Fri - Sun 3/1 - 3/3 -- Hatsboro-Horsham (Horsham, PA)
Week 2: no event scheduled-- HSPA testing in New Jersey
Week 3: Thr - Sat 3/14 - 3/16-- Springside/Chestnut Hill (Philadelphia, PA)
Week 3: Thr - Sat 3/14 - 3/16 -- The College of New Jersey (Ewing Township, NJ) (tentative)
Week 4: Fri - Sun 3/22 - 3/24 -- Mt. Olive (Flanders, NJ)
Week 4: Fri - Sun 3/22 - 3/24 -- Lenape-Seneca (Tabernacle, NJ)
Week 5: no event scheduled-- Holiday Week (Easter and Passover)
Week 6: Fri - Sun 4/5 - 4/7 -- A High School in Central New Jersey (Middlesex or Somerset Counties) (tentative)
Week 7: Thr - Sat 4/11 - 4/13 -- Mid-Atlantic Robotics Region Championship, Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA)

So, what events are you planning on attending? We (1676) will most likely return to the Mt. Olive event week 4, and probably go to the TCNJ district week 3 as well, of course attending Lehigh if we qualify.

Can't wait to see you all soon!

[dellagd]

Ehhhh... FRC 2013 season! Im getting itchy.....

[DonRotolo]

Lehigh will be an awesome venue, just wait and see.

[Foster]

The Fri,Sat,Sun event plan rocks. Last year I really liked to be able to go for both days and not miss out on billable hours at work.

I'm up for a trip in the mountains for the finals.

Good job MAR!!

[Lil' Lavery]

Philadelphia without a regional/competition just feels wrong.

[StanTheMan321]

No more regional at the Liacoras Center? why have it all the way in Bethlehem, when Philly is basically the center of MAR geographicaly?

[jtus]

The cost to MAR last year was very high at Temple. More than 2 time what it is at Lehigh and it's not that far from Philly.

[bearbot]

IS their any team close to williampsort,PA i would love to mentor a team I go to Pennsyvlanaia College of Technology why are the MAR event basically on the west side of PA their should be a regional in central PA

[Koko Ed]

The X-Cats are doing what they usually do: FLR and Championship.
As for me my potential schedule is as follows:
WEEK 1: FLR
WEEK 2: Orlando
WEEK 3: Pittsburgh over Montreal
WEEK 4: Boston
WEEK 5: I want to go back to GTR but DC is the same week. If I don't get my Garmin issue squared away I may have to stick to the US so I don't end up traveling to Mississauga and end up in Calgary.
WEEK 6: I want to go back to Midwest but Hawaii and Las Vegas are available too. Hawaii is most likely out because Southwest does not fly there and last time I tried to apply to Las Vegas no one called me back and I switched out foe Queen City. I know Dee will call me back for Midwest!
WEEK 7: MSC.
and obviously championships.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by jtus

The cost to MAR last year was very high at Temple. More than 2 time what it is at Lehigh and it's not that far from Philly.

Lehigh will make for a great event, although we will miss having an event in Philly.


What MAR events is everyone planning on going to?

We are considering week 1 at Hatboro and then week 4 at Mt. Olive (Lenape if Mt. Olive fills up), and then hopefully MAR Champs in week 7

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Philadelphia without a regional/competition just feels wrong.

Yeah, kinda like Trenton without a regional last year...

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Yeah, kinda like Trenton without a regional last year...

Pssssh, Philadelphia regional has been around since 1999. Trenton's only had a regional since 2004. Prior to that the NJ regional was at Rutgers.

[Akash Rastogi]

Scratch that, we are doing Chestnut Hill and then Lenape/Seneca.

[Jared Russell]

I still do not understand why there is not a Week 2 MAR District Event. Ostensibly NJ state HSPA testing is listed as the reason, but this (a) only goes from Tuesday-Thursday of Week 2 (source) and (b) only affects juniors and seniors from NJ. There are still 37 MAR teams (by last years' head count) that are from PA and DE.

Not having an event this week significantly impacts the ability of teams to work among their own set of constraints to come up with the best possible competition season for their students.

[scottandme]

Might be a result of the survey they sent out at the end of last year. They had questions asking if your team would be able/willing to participate in events the week of NJ HSPA and easter. I seem to remember the MAR board mentioning that a large number of teams expressed a desire to avoid those weeks. I don't see the reason for concern either, especially since most events are now Sat/Sun.

I think they used to have Friday serve as the makeup day, but that seems to be no longer the case.

In case anyone is wondering - current registration numbers.

88 teams currently registered (54 NJ, 33 PA, 1 DE)
83 veteran/returning teams
3 true rookies (4454, 4460, 4475)
1 offshoot team (193, adding/splitting from team 11)
1 returning team (1617, last participated in 2010)

16 teams from that participated in 2012 are not registered yet (136,219,423,433,752,896,1367,1370,1791,1881,2554, 3553,4128,4342,4347,4361)

6/10 rookies from 2012 are registered (welcome back 3929,3974,4035,4281,4285,4373)

Looks like there should be some open spots for 3rd events this year. Max capacity is currently listed at 212 slots (32 at Springside, 36 at all others), giving us capacity for 106 teams. Obviously depends on additional rookie teams and the possibility of any of the 16 teams above not returning.