Off-Season Events

[Justin Shelley]

My team is thinking about hosting an off-season event in the southeast Missouri area. We were thinking about doing a regular three day long event, and if we do have an off-season event it will most likely be a regular one. On another note though I have thought about having a 24 hour competition like the one mentioned by M.A.R.S, or maybe even a week long event. For the week long event I was thinking having teams build a robot or just drive. Building a robot would be harder but there would be a lot of complications because of the rush. Driving the robot would be awesome but i'm afraid people might get bored of it. The reason i thought about a week long event is because that by the end of an event everyone's robot is extremely better then before. If there was a week long event I was thinking about having dances and other things to keep people entertained. If there ever was a week long event though it would take a lot to plan and a lot of MONEY. So any ideas? and i haven't talked to my mentors about the 24 hour or week long event yet, i wanted more opinions first.

[Billfred]

As one of the driving forces behind the SCRIW off-season competition in South Carolina: Start small!

Get a strong one- or one-and-a-half-day event going, then talk about crazy expansions. Also consider this a 2014 project; this gives you plenty of time to get teams on board for what is tricky to start up. Check this paper out as a great starting point, and attend some if you haven't. (I went to well over a dozen over the years before the first SCRIW competition!)

[Jacob Bendicksen]

I definitely agree with the "start small" approach. We (1540) host two off-season events: BunnyBots (http://team1540.org/bunnybots) and Girls Generation (http://team1540.org/girlsgeneration). BunnyBots is more of a mini-build season with its own robots, different games each year, and around 25 teams participating. It's a great way to get new members up to speed for build season. Girls Generation (as the name may suggest), is an all-girls event played with the previous season's robots. It's a great way to get girls on the drive team (something that historically has not been the case in competition) and boys into outreach roles (we run the event, since all the girls are busy). Both of these are one-day affairs (load-in can be the night before, but whatever), and are fantastic for everyone involved. Message me or email robotics@catlin.edu if you want to get one of these started in your area.

[faust1706]

This isn't really an event, but 1706 would like to teach the teams in the st louis county how to use vision to assist in the game. Channel Cats, RAVEN Robotics, Lightning Lancers, Eaglebots, Lutheran Roboteers, and Rambunction. If anyone is interested (you dont have to be on this list), please send me a message. I think it would be really cool if all st louis teams incorporated computer vision somehow.

[Justin Shelley]

sorry i didn't mean to make it sound like our team was interested in hosting the complex events, i was just meaning they were good ideas overall and that maybe a more experienced team, or set of teams, in Missouri could host. and 1706 i would love to come

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Justin Shelley

sorry i didn't mean to make it sound like our team was interested in hosting the complex events, i was just meaning they were good ideas overall and that maybe a more experienced team, or set of teams, in Missouri could host. and 1706 i would love to come

Is it complex? Yes...but it's not impossible. I'd been turning around the idea of an off-season down here for years and years (probably 2005? 2006?), but nothing happened. It was only when talking about it with Matt Hedden on 1293 in 2011 that I learned he was thinking similarly. That was the kick that started SCRIW.

So if you think it's a good thing, be the kick.

[Chris Fultz]

Originally Posted by Billfred

Check this paper out as a great starting point, and attend some if you haven't.

Here is an updated paper with some guidelines.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2562

The suggestion to start small is a good one. Also consider the mentor / volunteers needed for a 1, 2 or 7 day event, and the availability of students (jobs, vacation, etc.) for the longer periods.

[MarcD79]

We host the Suffield Shakedown Scrimmage here in CT. We have been doing this for 12 years. It has been organized & run by parents of students & volunteers. It gets passed on to the next generation of parents every couple of years. Everything is documented year to year so the next parent (s) may have a guide as to when each process of planning is activated. It doesn't start 6 weeks before the scrimmage. It gets started at the end of the previous year so we can arrange to have the facility reserved. School sports & other activities can interfere with when you want the event. Arranging food from local merchants is done weeks in advance so they know what they need on hand to accomplish the night before/morning of the event. We also purchase products from Costco with the agreement that unused/unwrapped products can be returned.
Depending on the area of where you want to erect the field, be it concrete or a basketball floor, some degree of protection has to be put in place. If it is a gym floor, not only does the floor under the field need to be protected, any area that robots will be transported will have to be protected. There is more to having an off-season event, but these are a few details.
If your school/team really wants to have it, it will happen.

[Drivencrazy]

As far as the availability of nearby off-season events you guys in the Southeast Missouri area could attend there are at least two I can think of. The Ozark Mountain Brawl is a great event hosted by 3612 the Gear Hogs and 16 the Bomb Squad (correct me if I'm wrong). Team Driven also hosts the CowTown ThrowDown in Kansas City that many Missouri teams attend.

[Justin Shelley]

After talking to mentors yesterday it seems like we, 3885, are going to hold an off-season event in late august before school starts it will be a two day event in which practice and qualifying are first day and second day there is some more qualifying and then eliminations if your interested in attending let me know!!

[rbrown1]

You might want to check with Camdenton & Harrisonville Mo. as they have an event in August that is held during the Missouri State Fair.

[jasp]

I love offseason events. My team goes to Battle of Baltimore and IROC. One thing that Battle of Baltimore does that is fun is that they add something new like last year there was a special red basket ball, and two years ago there was a tube that was shaped like a crab that got extra points. By doing fun things like that it really made it more interesting.

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by MarcD79

Depending on the area of where you want to erect the field, be it concrete or a basketball floor, some degree of protection has to be put in place. If it is a gym floor, not only does the floor under the field need to be protected, any area that robots will be transported will have to be protected. There is more to having an off-season event, but these are a few details.
If your school/team really wants to have it, it will happen.

We lay the carpet for the field directly on the gym floor for BE. And much of the rest of the floor is left uncovered except for the queuing areas. Your school might be the one requiring you cover the floor so that's something that could be venue-specific.

I posted in the other thread about the concerns of having a multi-day event/24 hour event: it probably sounds like a super awesome great idea to all the high school students who largely have nothing else to do during the summer, but remember that mentors, coaches, volunteers, parents, etc. are mostly made up of adults who have other responsibilities. Of course, there are also high school students who have jobs and internships during the summer, as well. This is less of a concern for a 2-3 day event, but could be an issue for a weeklong event. A lot of the adults have to use up vacation days to get to the regular season events and I'm not sure how keen they (or their employers) would be about taking off an entire week. Personally, I love FIRST and all, but it'd be hard to convince me that missing out on a week's pay would be worth it, not to mention I doubt my employer would be too enthusiastic about it. Even if your team's mentors and parents would be willing to do it, I'd then be worried about getting enough teams to show up for it.

The safety concerns of hosting a 24 hour event have been pretty well covered in the other thread so I encourage you to check that out.

Honestly, both ideas sound like a logistical nightmare (and I've been on the BE planning committee for a few years now). Take the advice of many others in this thread: start small with a 1-1.5 day event. See how that goes.