FIRST Chesapeake Districts

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

The concentration of 5 events (including the champs) in one small geographic location concerns me. Those teams could attend all their events and not have to travel.

Here is how I see a typical non-NOVA/DC/MD team trying to deal with the districts.
--1 event will be local (not sure if this will be true. They have not confirmed that geography will be a factor in adding teams to events)

--1 event will be a non-local event more than 2 hours away. travel will be required.

-- Champs. will require travel.

-- Worlds. Will require travel.

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

"Build it and they will come." FiM found this to be true when they created a district event in Traverse City (one of the original district locations). There was growth in teams in the northern Lower Peninsula and in the Upper Peninsula at that time.

Later it turned to, "Since they came, we will build it." There finally is an event in the UP at Escanaba.

Far-flung areas have travel costs - and always have had. But Districts can lessen those costs for teams, because travel may be a shorter distance.

And as was previously noted, a team can choose to attend just one event and thus keep costs the same.

From my impression/experience in New England with districts, I think it's better to have the events shifted slightly towards favoring the 'rural' or 'low-density' teams compared to what the 'FRC population density' might indicate.

The teams in high-density areas should all be able to attend one event very close to them (<20-40min travel)... they will then need to travel some amount to get to the second event (30-80min).

The teams in low-density areas should be able to attend one event fairly close to them (20-60min travel). They will then need to travel to get to their second event (45-120min).

Teams in high-density areas are accustomed to needing to drive further to get places; teams in low-density areas are accustomed to shorter distances. BUT low-density areas will need events brought to them in order to start to flourish at all... See Gary's 'If you build it, they will come' quote. As examples from New England, especially note what has happened to Maine since 2012/2013. UMass Dartmouth will hopefully be the beginning of something similar in SE Mass. I hope that NEFIRST and local teams can get something similar happening in VT and Central/Northern NH. Generally to fill up these 'outpost' events, higher-resources teams (perhaps from high-density areas) will need to travel further to them for their 2nd or 3rd plays. Even if official direction hasn't been given, high-resource teams will help fill them up...

The DCMP should approximately follow the population center. The teams that are good enough to qualify for the DCMP will generally be able to make things work to get there (particularly if the region makes an effort to help them and be understanding).

Note, district event or DCMP locations may seem weird at first, but wait a year or two for the district to get its feet underneath itself. Be the change!