Preparing for the Town Hall Meeting on the New Championships Format

[JaneYoung]

Although I am not attending the Championship Event and will not be able to attend the Town Hall Meeting (sadly), I am hoping that it goes well and that concerns are expressed clearly and information shared readily.

This would be my personal check list for participation preparation. It may sound like an elementary school lesson but, it helps.

1. Rest and food before the meeting. Make sure you are not hungry. Rest at the Championships is very difficult but, it can help. Send someone in your stead if you are already ready to snap.

2. Buddy system. Bring a buddy. That second set of ears is very helpful when going over the notes taken during the meeting. Also, an elbow in the ribs can be quite helpful at times such as, right before the snap.

3. Writing materials for taking notes. My preference is pen and paper; it allows me to doodle while I listen.

4. Listening ears. We are all guilty of wanting to say what we want to say and not actively listening. Here again, a buddy system can work wonders.

5. Draft and fine-tune a list of questions and concerns/comments that you would like to ask/express. This keeps you on task and helps control emotions during the meeting. Have 5 to 10 questions/comments prepared.

#5 is for this group. Use this thread, or a new one, to draft your collective questions and concerns. Keep them concise, allowing time for needed responses from the Senior Leadership. This was a similar approach that was used for the Transparency letter that was drafted/sent a few years back. Again, this will help keep everyone on the same page and will allow opportunity for keeping random wastes of time and emotions in check during the meeting. It also shows unity.

6. Keep the FIRST community spirit of Gracious Professionalism alive and well. Woodie's Grandmother is watching, I'm sure.

By preparing for the meeting, you have prepared yourself for any other opportunities that arise for discussions/conversations/interactions.

Jane

[PAR_WIG1350]

Originally Posted by cglrcng

There are other ways beyond the existing signed contracts years (I had discussed something like this w/ my wife last Fall)...1 Event site 4 Days 400 Robots/Teams. Then out w/ the 1st bunch...In w/ the 2nd. Bunch next 400 Robots/Teams...You (FIRST) stores the robots and pit gear for the winners only of days 1~4, they fly home/then back in for the finals on the last Friday PM/Saturday AM. Just the drive team and essential personell paid for say 12 of each (Each of the 4 teams can/may send the rest of the team on their own dime if they wish). The venue goes dark 1~2 days (Sunday~Monday), for cleaning & admin. to breathe. Back at it again big on Wednesday ~Saturday (Championship Matches Saturday Night like usual).

That way, the same venue/hotels/fields, etc. can be used, and it is still a true single location FRC World Championships. You move that around between 4~5 geographical locations N/S/C/E/W. (You are only inconveniencing 4 total teams...4 teams w/ a 50/50 shot at a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP!) How many would actually turn that down? How many of us wouldn't help them if they really couldn't afford it? Not many! (FIRST could set aside $50.00~$100.00 of all 800 teams entry fee to Champs to create a fund for the returning 4 teams=$40~&80K=10K per team in financial help to return to battle 1 week later for the World Championship Title).

12 Team Members Ea. X 4 Teams X $600.00 Flight Avg. per person=$28,800.00/1 night hotel 48 X$100.=$4,800.00=$33,600.00 Total (gas money to get home or food Bal., or addl. airfare $6,400.00) =Very Doable! (Of course as FIRST, I'd be hitting up a Major set of Airlines or Other Major Corporations wanting top billing exposure, to Sponsor the returning teams playing for the Championships myself for both the home & back round trip flights! And building the returning teams 1 room night into the actual event contract.) </;-)~ (TV Rights could add to the revenue & 4~8 returning team help stream, if billed & sold properly).

Many people have proposed similar situations, and the following applies to all of them. Such proposals might be feasible for a national competition, however, FRC is international. The logistics of arranging for international travel in such a short timeframe are, at best, problematic.

[Shifter]

Not ideal, but a possible temporary solution until everyone has migrated to Districts...

World Championship: crowns undisputed FRC World Champion (which is important, especially to robot-centric FRC teams)

invitees*:

• Chairman's winners with robots ranked in the top 40% at their last event are invited (but have the option to choose to attend the World Festival instead) - approx 50 teams
• captain and first pick from each Regional winning alliance - approx 160 teams
• top 60% of teams qualifying through District Championships - approx 100 teams
• Engineering Inspiration winners (with robots ranked in the top 40% at their last event) - approx 60 teams
• Rookie All Stars (with robots ranked in the top 40% at their last event) - approx 30 teams

World Festival: crowns undisputed Chairman's Award Winner (which is important to all FRC teams)

invitees*:

• Chairman's winners (with robots ranked in the bottom 60% at their last event or those who choose to forego the World Championships) - approx 30 teams
• second pick from each Regional winning alliance - approx 80 teams
• bottom 40% of teams qualifying through District Championships - approx 70 teams
• Engineering Inspiration winners (with robots ranked in the bottom 60% at their last event) - approx 20 teams
• Rookie All Stars (with robots ranked in the bottom 60% at their last event) - approx 50 teams
• wait-listed teams (similar to the 2015 lottery) - approx 150 teams

Each year Detroit and Houston swap hosting of the Championship and the Festival.

Pros:
- eliminates "co-champions" issue
- at both events FLL and FTC can be present, compete and be inspired
- opportunity for teams at both events to meet others from around the world
- increases the level of competition at the Championship

Cons:
- does not address travel costs (makes it worse depending on the team and their location)
- is there a better way to divide teams from Districts - based on how they earned their points?
- what about teams that qualify in multiple categories?
- at each event Rookie All Star and EI are awarded at the division level only

*the number of teams shown in each category are rough estimates only. Someone more clever than I would have to confirm/adjust.

[nuclearnerd]

Originally Posted by Shifter

Not ideal, but a possible temporary solution until everyone has migrated to Districts...

World Championship: crowns undisputed FRC World Champion (which is important, especially to robot-centric FRC teams)

World Festival: crowns undisputed Chairman's Award Winner (which is important to all FRC teams)

I am not strictly against co-world champions, but I like your alternative best so far!

One challenge - what to do with teams that qualify for World Championship, but also are Chairman's winners? It would suck if they had to choose, but on the other hand, if you could win World Chairman's from either event, the World Festival loses some catchet.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by nuclearnerd

I am not strictly against co-world champions, but I like your alternative best so far!

One challenge - what to do with teams that qualify for World Championship, but also are Chairman's winners? It would suck if they had to choose, but on the other hand, if you could win World Chairman's from either event, the World Festival loses some catchet.

I don't know if this fixes the problem you see, but theoretically you could just send your Chairman's team to the WF. In fact, you could even judge CA at both events and only announce it at WF. (I suppose it would be too bad not to be there for your own CA announcement, but that would be in your trade-off between the events.) CA isn't a spectator sport after all: it's the crowning that makes WF special. And most people probably wouldn't even notice whether the CA necessarily competed with their robot at the WF.

This would preferably use the same set of CA judges at both events (at least as much as it does now), but this could be a relatively small number of volunteers specifically selected ahead of time in part because they're free on those days (wouldn't have to be all of each event). That's a heck of a lot easier than coordinating a back-to-back for qualifying teams.

[sanddrag]

I haven't seen this proposed yet so let me throw it out there: final match at the White House?

[efoote868]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I haven't seen this proposed yet so let me throw it out there: final match at the White House?

Certainly high visibility, but more logistics issues

[sanddrag]

I think I have a great idea to organize the Town Hall meeting. Check this out:http://crowdmics.com

Thoughts?

[MikeE]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I think I have a great idea to organize the Town Hall meeting. Check this out:http://crowdmics.com

Thoughts?

Free for up to 5 participants...

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by MikeE

Free for up to 5 participants...

In concept though, something like this would be good. Isn"t the client app free and the host needs to pay? Maybe FIRST can arrange some kind of app like this.

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

In concept though, something like this would be good. Isn"t the client app free and the host needs to pay? Maybe FIRST can arrange some kind of app like this.

Or actual wireless mics, and a number to send questions/ask to speak via SMS? Simple and doesn't rely on an app that might target only some platforms.

[Rachel Lim]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

In concept though, something like this would be good. Isn"t the client app free and the host needs to pay? Maybe FIRST can arrange some kind of app like this.

Originally Posted by dcarr

Or actual wireless mics, and a number to send questions/ask to speak via SMS? Simple and doesn't rely on an app that might target only some platforms.

I agree with the actual mics, also because I think it would help to keep everyone focused on who is talking. I'm also slightly biased because my phone's version of android is too old so I can't use it...

If you're looking at polls, though, my math teacher last semester used something like this, except through socrative. If I remember correctly, we just went to that website on a phone/tablet/laptop and used a password to join and I believe it was free for everyone. It was an interesting experience, although I'd be cautious about using it, since it can easily make those who vote in the minority feel excluded, especially here where there isn't a "wrong" answer; cause make it easy to jump to conclusions and assume the poll is representative; and (this is mostly based on that class) it always seemed to take longer than was planned for and thus became a sort of distraction. However, it was a great way to visualize the answers we gave, and according to their website, they have an open response question that could be used to gather questions.

[Ginger Power]

Remind me not to make FIRSTers angry... this thread, as well as the others that followed the 2017 announcement, has an incredible amount of content, and a ton of great ideas! I'm very proud to be a member of the FIRST community right now.

[kgargiulo]

Originally Posted by kgargiulo

...I would like to create a GIS picture of team locations vs. departure and arrival airports for St. Louis, Houston, and Detroit. ...

Made some progress (with help, and in so doing identified a new programming challenge for the team and a possible new mentor, but that's another story). I have all FRC teams from the OPR sheet on a Google Earth globe.

Only 16 failed to geocode correctly (they're all at lat/long 0 / 0). I attached a North America picture (low team density in other countries requires too much zoom to make a useful picture).

The pins for each team can pop up with whatever information we want to embed, such as "nearest airport" or "distance to Houston". There are a thousand possibilities.

Going to do some more work to elaborate on this and then of course will publish it, even outside this thread and the CMP topic it might be a very interesting thing to see. But probably not going to do more about it until after CMP.

Good luck to everyone attending, looking forward to seeing you there.

[Knufire]

Originally Posted by Shifter

World Championship: crowns undisputed FRC World Champion (which is important, especially to robot-centric FRC teams)

...

World Festival: crowns undisputed Chairman's Award Winner (which is important to all FRC teams)

This is also my most preferred alternative of anything suggested thus far.