2015 MAR Season

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Jscout11

Is 265 coming back this year? Considering 223 has already registered and no sign of 265, I would assume not.

Also, Mt. Olive has already hit its initial capacity at 31 teams.

265 is more than likely not continuing this year

[Domenic Rodriguez]

Over the past year, Team 316 has been working with Cumberland County College and the local high schools to launch a new FRC team in Bridgeton. I'm really excited to see Team #5420 Velocity starting in my hometown, and the opportunities it will bring to our students. Velocity will operate under our parent organization South Jersey Robotics, Inc., but is otherwise reaching a new group of students/mentors.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Domenic Rodriguez

Over the past year, Team 316 has been working with Cumberland County College and the local high schools to launch a new FRC team in Bridgeton. I'm really excited to see Team #5420 Velocity starting in my hometown, and the opportunities it will bring to our students. Velocity will operate under our parent organization South Jersey Robotics, Inc., but is otherwise reaching a new group of students/mentors.

This is fantastic news! South Jersey has so many schools without FIRST in them. How did you manage to secure funding for the new team? That seems to be sort of an issue down there.

[Domenic Rodriguez]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

This is fantastic news! South Jersey has so many schools without FIRST in them. How did you manage to secure funding for the new team? That seems to be sort of an issue down there.

Given the current economy in the area, funding can definitely be an issue. I've been away at college for a month now, so my information may be a bit out of date, but here's what I do know. Cumberland County College is partnering with the city of Bridgeton to place a satellite campus/makerspace downtown (see this press release). The college will be giving the team a workshop at this location, access to the equipment, and some additional funding. South Jersey Robotics will also be assisting with the initial costs, and we'll apply our existing business model and fundraisers to the new team. I believe there was discussion of applying for the Rookie and/or NASA grants, as well as some local grant money.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Domenic Rodriguez

Given the current economy in the area, funding can definitely be an issue. I've been away at college for a month now, so my information may be a bit out of date, but here's what I do know. Cumberland County College is partnering with the city of Bridgeton to place a satellite campus/makerspace downtown (see this press release). The college will be giving the team a workshop at this location, access to the equipment, and some additional funding. South Jersey Robotics will also be assisting with the initial costs, and we'll apply our existing business model and fundraisers to the new team. I believe there was discussion of applying for the Rookie and/or NASA grants, as well as some local grant money.

Sounds like a solid plan teaming up with the local college! Let me know if you need any help or advice with any rookie-oriented fundraisers or want to try to hit up some of the local establishments for donations. Best of luck!

[AGPapa]

It's been about 12 hours after registration has opened and we're already at 95 teams signed up, (MAR had 110 in total last year). With 8 new teams we've beat last year's growth.

It looks like rookie team 5435, from Hamilton, NJ, is home schooled; does anybody have any information about them? Is there a history of FRC teams that are home schooled?

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by AGPapa

It's been about 12 hours after registration has opened and we're already at 95 teams signed up, (MAR had 110 in total last year). With 8 new teams we've beat last year's growth.

It looks like rookie team 5435, from Hamilton, NJ, is home schooled; does anybody have any information about them? Is there a history of FRC teams that are home schooled?

The last one I recall from 2009-2010 is 2753, Team Overdrive.

I'm curious as to why this team wasn't able to figure out how to work with the local FRC teams in the Hamilton area, or if anyone even let them know how many teams were near them.

[Jscout11]

New team count now up to 9. Team 5490 from Bethlehem registered for HH

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by Jscout11

New team count now up to 9. Team 5490 from Bethlehem registered for HH

Well, one of the reasons MAR chose Lehigh to host the DCMP was to promote team growth in the region. Looks like it's finally working.

Also, I'm a big fan of 5435's team name, the 'RoboMomoTrufflez'

[Brandon_L]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

The last one I recall from 2009-2010 is 2753, Team Overdrive.

I'm curious as to why this team wasn't able to figure out how to work with the local FRC teams in the Hamilton area, or if anyone even let them know how many teams were near them.

It certainly surprised me when I saw a new Hamilton team registered. They haven't reached out to us at least, as far as I know.

[AGPapa]

Second district registration opens in an half an hour, so here's the numbers from first event registration.

HH 31
MO 31
SCH 13
LEN 16
BR 9
UD 5
NB 2

Total 107

We had 110 teams signed up at the end of last year, so we're already pretty close. 12 teams from last year have not registered again this year, although I suspect that a few of them are on wait-lists for Mount Olive or Hatboro-Horsham.


It seems like this year MAR wants all events to have about the same number of teams (+/-4 teams). Last year's smallest event (that's still continuing this year) was SCH with 34 teams. If that event doesn't get bigger then we should expect the other events to be capped at 38 teams. Last year Hatboro-Horsham (40), Lenape-Seneca (39) and Bridgewater-Raritan (46) all had over this amount.

Originally Posted by Mid-Atlantic Robotics Email

MAR and the four other FRC District Model regions will work to balance team registration for 2015 across all of the events in each region. Experience has shown that when the attendance at two events differs by more than four teams, the competitive outcome of the events may be affected.

To achieve this balance in attendance, any team that attempts to register for a MAR event that has reached its initial capacity of 31 teams will be placed on the waitlist for that event. We will not begin admitting teams from waitlists until all events have filled to minimum capacity, and we reserve the right 1) to limit the number of waitlisted teams for any event, and 2) to achieve these limits, if necessary, by dropping teams from event waitlists (in reverse order of sign-up).

If MAR ends up with 110 teams like last year the average event size, assuming everyone plays two districts, would be 32 teams. If we add in growth, third plays and teams from other district regions then the event size grows a little bit. I'd expect event sizes to be smaller this year than last year. It'll probably end up around 34 or 35 teams/event.

[AGPapa]

So far 82 MAR teams have registered for two events, while 26 have only registered for one.

The breakdown by event is:

HH 31
MO 31
SCH 30
LEN 27
BR 31
UD 30
NB 10

Bridgewater-Raritan has no more open spots, while Lenape-Seneca, Springside-Chesnut Hill and Upper Darby are all close to capacity.

Very few teams have signed up for North Brunswick. I'm not sure why, but I'm guessing that teams want to avoid week 6. Brunswick will have to fill up before they allow more teams into the other events.

[Link07]

Originally Posted by AGPapa

So far 82 MAR teams have registered for two events, while 26 have only registered for one.

The breakdown by event is:

HH 31
MO 31
SCH 30
LEN 27
BR 31
UD 30
NB 10

Bridgewater-Raritan has no more open spots, while Lenape-Seneca, Springside-Chesnut Hill and Upper Darby are all close to capacity.

Very few teams have signed up for North Brunswick. I'm not sure why, but I'm guessing that teams want to avoid week 6. Brunswick will have to fill up before they allow more teams into the other events.

Could it have to do with Easter weekend? Also, it seems that some teams have been pushed into a situation of doing Bridgewater and NB, which, if they were to qualify for MAR CMP, would be 3 back to back events

Edit: SCH is now full as well

[MissDaisyGirl]

Week 6 encompasses both Easter and Passover this year, an unfortunate conflict.

[Ben Martin]

Originally Posted by AGPapa

Very few teams have signed up for North Brunswick. I'm not sure why, but I'm guessing that teams want to avoid week 6. Brunswick will have to fill up before they allow more teams into the other events.

We are debating using it for a 3rd event, pending funding and event capacity. Easter is a detractor too, but not necessarily a deal-breaker.