New England Teams To-Be-Registered

[Nathan Streeter]

I looked at registration numbers today for New England 2015...

So far 160 teams have registered for 307 event slots in New England. There are 9 rookies registered so far this year, but 11 teams competed in 2014 and haven't registered for 2015.

Meaning (so far), we have 2 teams fewer teams than in 2014 (162 teams competed) and have gained about half as many rookies (9 rookies in 2015 vs. 17 rookies in 2014).

So, does anyone know of rookie teams that haven't registered? Does anyone know why one of the 11 teams that competed in 2014 and haven't registered for 2015 are still un-registered? These 11 teams are 97, 1350, 1687, 2621, 2871, 3280, 3479, 3597, 3718, 4793, and 4958. Perhaps of note: only 3 of these 11 teams missed elims entirely in 2014, and 7 made elims at both/all their 2014 events... essentially, none of these teams were dominant, but 7 of 11 were good enough to make elims at all their events!

I'm surprised that there aren't more teams registered so far... partly that we haven't attracted more rookies and partly that we lost that many teams.

[Francis-134]

I know that 1687 is "returning" in a more-different form under 5400. I'll let Joe G. expand on that, as it is his team.

[BrendanB]

I hope 4958 makes it back again this year. They were a very small team but a very fun group who we enjoyed working with!

[Joe G.]

1687's school was unable to continue to support the program, and is moving in a new direction. Their students will be continuing with VEX and other engineering programs offered at the school. A few student members from the already tiny 2014 team wanted to continue with FRC, which lead to the creation of the school independent team 5400, in partnership with Worcester County 4-H.

We will have four student members (below the maximum 5 for rookie status) and a few mentors of various involvement from 1687 working with us, but that's about as far as carryover from 1687 goes. We are starting from the ground up on resources, materials, team structure and management, build space, avenues to recruit students, etc, and carry no direct or official connection to 1687's school.

We're sad to see 1687 go, and wish that both programs could have been made to happen. However, we're excited about the opportunities ahead. 4-H has been tremendously supportive, and we've got a large number of new students from a number of schools ready to go.

[Rosiebotboss]

You missed 2, there are actually 13. (2104 and 3609.)

The RDs, VISTAs and FIRST Senior Mentors are actively tracking them down and moving them along....there will be a couple that fade away.

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by Rosiebotboss

You missed 2, there are actually 13. (2104 and 3609.)

Yep, I see where my method of identifying 'missing' teams gave a false negative for 3609. 2104 is an interesting case in that they didn't end up actually competing in 2014... they registered for WPI and Hartford, but didn't attend either (I only included teams that competed in 2014, not ones that only registered... a subtle distinction). Of note is the fact that it looks like 2104 also didn't register or compete in 2012.

Originally Posted by Rosiebotboss

The RDs, VISTAs and FIRST Senior Mentors are actively tracking them down and moving them along....there will be a couple that fade away.

I'm sure they are/will... I just wanted to raise the issue to the New England FIRST community as a whole and learn if there was a larger cause or if this is 'typical' at this point in registration.

I would think that this is about typical for registration of rookie teams, but the number of non-rookie teams that competed in 2014 but haven't returned surprised me... The bulk of the teams that left (11 of 13) had competed in FRC for 4+ years... fortunately that means we only lost one rookie and one 2nd year team, but it raises the concern for why these generally successful veteran teams seem to have left (or have just been slow to register).

[Mark McLeod]

Here is a team list from this day last year if you want to see how many vet 2014 teams were still not registered at that point.
Just to see how it's happened in the past.

[Joe G.]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Here is a team list from this day last year if you want to see how many vet 2014 teams were still not registered at that point.
Just to see how it's happened in the past.

Looking through the list, I see 2871, 3280, and 4793 as not being registered at this time last year either.

I will point out that the current registration map in New England is quite stark. We have full events at Nashua, Reading, UNH, Northeastern, and Hartford, with very significant slots remaining at the other five events (Dartmouth has only 11 teams!). I could easily believe that a few of these teams are double-waitlisted if they were slow to register for whatever reason. For a significant number of the missing teams, Reading/Northeastern would seem to be the geographically logical event pairing, both of which filled quite quickly once second registration opened. On the other end of the spectrum, there are a number of missing teams from Maine, whose event has been historically slow to fill, putting less pressure on these teams to register quickly.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Joe G.

Looking through the list, I see 2871, 3280, and 4793 as not being registered at this time last year either.

I will point out that the current registration map in New England is quite stark. We have full events at Nashua, Reading, UNH, Northeastern, and Hartford, with very significant slots remaining at the other five events (Dartmouth has only 11 teams!). I could easily believe that a few of these teams are double-waitlisted if they were slow to register for whatever reason. For a significant number of the missing teams, Reading/Northeastern would seem to be the geographically logical event pairing, both of which filled quite quickly once second registration opened. On the other end of the spectrum, there are a number of missing teams from Maine, whose event has been historically slow to fill, putting less pressure on these teams to register quickly.

It is interesting how Week 3 in NE is currently the quietest week of competitions after the second wave of registration with only 37 teams signed up (26 at Pine Tree and 11 at Dartmouth).

We shall see when another wave of registration opens and teams sign up for their third events. I know our team and others aren't planning to register for a third and condensing the schedule down to 5 weeks can deter more third events as there are only a select few events you can sign up for to avoid competing on back to back weekends. Totally doable but we aren't jumping at it.

[The_ShamWOW88]

Chances are, they may be waitlisted currently and when additional district registration opens, additional slots will open at "full" events right now, considering there will probably be 40 teams or so such was the case with WPI last season.

Interestingly enough, FIRST as a whole, there still seems to be 470 or so teams that played last season that haven't registered.

[Joe G.]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

It is interesting how Week 3 in NE is currently the quietest week of competitions after the second wave of registration with only 37 teams signed up (26 at Pine Tree and 11 at Dartmouth).

We shall see when another wave of registration opens and teams sign up for their third events. I know our team and others aren't planning to register for a third and condensing the schedule down to 5 weeks can deter more third events as there are only a select few events you can sign up for to avoid competing on back to back weekends. Totally doable but we aren't jumping at it.

With the five week schedule, 1/3/5 is the only way to do three events without doing anything back to back. Since Pine Tree and Umass Dartmouth are arguably the two most remote New England Events, I could imagine that a large number of teams trying to do this schedule registered for their Week 1 and 5 events first, in order to try to get their home events first, and beat the registration rush for Nashua, Hartford, and Northeastern, all of which have a history of filling fast (and did again this year). I know that we seriously considered taking this course of action, before ultimately settling on attempting a 1/4/5 schedule.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Joe G.

before ultimately settling on attempting a 1/4/5 schedule.

Back to back isn't THAT bad.


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