Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

I have never been in the district systems.

My concerns aren't with the system itself, but in the details (that we haven't seen yet) such as:
1> Where is the volunteer base coming from (there is a big difference between a volunteer and a team member being told that they must 'volunteer').
2> Where is the growth in the district expected to come from, and how will that growth be handled

Truth be told, the devil is in the details. I'll withhold judgement until I see the system in action. In the end, I believe the district system is the best way to expand FIRST, but it's in its implementation is where the real successes and failures will happen.

Only time will tell exactly how GA implements the District System as far as volunteers go. In the PNW we do not require teams to provide volunteers but we certainly encourage it. There have been a few cases where I stopped just short of begging for Robot Inspectors at one event where I was the LRI to ensure we had enough people to be able to get all teams inspected on load in night.

Fact is that with 10 events + DCMP we had to call on a number of our most dedicated volunteers more than we would have liked to our first season. It got better last season and we hope things will improve more for next season.

[Kellen Hill]

This is the transition I'm interested in seeing. On average, each team in Georgia will be attending 1.17 more events next year compared to 2015.



This assumes that, like Indiana, our State Championship event will have about 30 teams and that Georgia will have 5 more teams competing compared to 2015. From data I compiled, it looks like 58 teams competed from Georgia in 2015.

I'm excited for the extra event on average. More plays usually leads to higher quality competition. I expect the biggest challenge to be for the 37 teams that only participated in one event in 2015.

Anybody from Indiana have insight on how all of their 1 event teams handled the transition?



**
"Total Events Attended" is calculated using the following:
All teams attend 2 district events + 30 teams attend district champs + 12 teams qualify for world champs = Total Events Attended

This would only increase with the number of teams going to a third district event.

[Nate Laverdure]

Originally Posted by Kellen Hill

All teams attend 2 district events + 30 teams attend district champs + 12 teams qualify for world champs

Won't it look like this then?



EDIT: somebody please teach me how to count.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by Nate Laverdure

Won't it look like this then?

I think you're counting the "4 event" teams in the "3 event" category. Typically these are tabulated exclusively rather than inclusively. (If I go to four events, I didn't go to three.) Presuming every team who goes to Worlds for GA attends State Champs, which isn't strictly but I think is usually true elsewhere.

[Nate Laverdure]

Originally Posted by Siri

I think you're counting the "4 event" teams in the "3 event" category. Typically these are tabulated exclusively rather than inclusively. (If I go to four events, I didn't go to three.) Presuming every team who goes to Worlds for GA attends State Champs, which isn't strictly but I think is usually true elsewhere.

Oops, yeah, that was dumb.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

Truth be told, the devil is in the details.

Absolutely Daniel. MAR does not require volunteers either, and we also work our key volunteers a bit too much. But everyone knows someone, and we've found that if an expectation of more volunteers is set, we rise to the occasion.

Originally Posted by Mr V

a few cases where I stopped just short of begging for Robot Inspectors.

I had to cross that line and beg at least once. But it worked

The real key to getting volunteers is treating them right.

1. Food must be plentiful and high-quality. And volunteers must be assured they have the time to enjoy it. For a Friday night/Sat/Sun event, volunteers get 3* dinners, 2 lunches and 2 breakfasts. (*3rd, on Sunday, if you help break down the field). Plus soft drinks all day.

2. Enlist students. A whole team of 20 kids can set up or break down a field pretty fast. The host school (almost every event is at a high school) and team has all their students volunteer, and other teams have a few kids volunteer for field reset and so on. And, kids need to know that after they leave High School, they'll probably want to volunteer at events, and this is great experience for when they want bigger roles, such as referee or Robot Inspector.

3. Alumni love to volunteer, make it easy for them to do so.

4. Not every mentor must be with the team all day every day. We went to an event where ALL the mentors stayed out of the pits the entire event. The kids loved it and did just fine. 3 hours as a Friday night RI is easy to do and helps tremendously.

Indeed, the devil is in the details. But one thing MAR made clear: There is no "they" - WE are MAR, all of us, together. Nobody else is going to do it.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

The real key to getting volunteers is treating them right.

1. Food must be plentiful and high-quality. And volunteers must be assured they have the time to enjoy it. For a Friday night/Sat/Sun event, volunteers get 3* dinners, 2 lunches and 2 breakfasts. (*3rd, on Sunday, if you help break down the field). Plus soft drinks all day.

QFT. Let's just say that when you run out of food, the volunteers who couldn't break free earlier ain't happy. (OTOH... if you've got a lot of good leftovers after firsts, you got a lot of really happy volunteers!) Snacks also help.

That, and knowing where to recruit from.

[kristinweiss]

Originally Posted by EricH

QFT. Let's just say that when you run out of food, the volunteers who couldn't break free earlier ain't happy. (OTOH... if you've got a lot of good leftovers after firsts, you got a lot of really happy volunteers!) Snacks also help.

I just want to say that GA FIRST does an awesome job taking care of their volunteers with lots of good food and a snack bar between meals. It also helps that Coke is a sponsor of GA FIRST and volunteers get free unlimited Coke products. I'm pretty sure that most of the alumni college students come back to volunteer from year to year volunteer due to the (free) food.

[ghostmachine360]

Originally Posted by NorthernTaco

I just want to say that GA FIRST does an awesome job taking care of their volunteers with lots of good food and a snack bar between meals. It also helps that Coke is a sponsor of GA FIRST and volunteers get free unlimited Coke products. I'm pretty sure that most of the alumni college students come back to volunteer from year to year volunteer due to the (free) food.

#thankyoubasedCoke

One of the best things about GeorgiaFIRST is that we're always expanding our volunteer base in general; we will be stretched thin possibly this year (between our own district, Knoxville, and Alabama), but we're already on our way to finding our counterparts for a lot of the key volunteers. Luckily, Tony and I as MCs can be split apart (not willingly ), and we've started to train our counterparts with our off-season events as well with the Key Volunteer positions. Just trained our new MC down in Albany, and we've got a couple people in the works for Macon. I'll probably do any of the competitions in the metropolitan ATL area, as well as doing the State CMP. Connie & our two new co-VCs Elizabeth & Casey won't have a problem getting the needed volunteers. Just with this past first year with Elizabeth & Casey, I've never felt more welcomed and loved. Back massages and Dairy Queen? I'm all in.

[MoistRobot]

FYI- Per this past weekend's GA MAC meeting GA districts will be:

3/10-12 - Columbus Convention Center (tentative)
3/17-19 - Albany Convention Center and Dalton Convention Center
4/8-10 - Kennesaw State University
4/14-16 - University of Georgia (district champs)

[ebarker]

Just to clarify it for fast readers:


3/10-12 - Columbus Convention Center (tentative)
3/17-19 - Albany Convention Center
3/17-19 - Dalton Convention Center
4/8-10 - Kennesaw State University
4/14-16 - University of Georgia (district champs)

Four events + One Champ.

[nighterfighter]

Originally Posted by ebarker

Just to clarify it for fast readers:


3/10-12 - Columbus Convention Center (tentative)
3/17-19 - Albany Convention Center
3/17-19 - Dalton Convention Center
4/8-10 - Kennesaw State University
4/14-16 - University of Georgia (district champs)

Four events + One Champ.

Interesting.

Do you happen to know which campus the Kennesaw State University will be hosting the event? The Kennesaw campus, or the formerly-known-as SPSU Campus, in Marietta?

[FrankJ]

Originally Posted by nighterfighter

Interesting.

Do you happen to know which campus the Kennesaw State University will be hosting the event? The Kennesaw campus, or the formerly-known-as SPSU Campus, in Marietta?

The Kennesaw campus. SPSU's Campus doesn't have a venue big enough.

[nighterfighter]

Originally Posted by FrankJ

The Kennesaw campus. SPSU's Campus doesn't have a venue big enough.

Thanks for the quick reply!

Being a current student, residing on the Kennesaw Campus, this makes me quite excited.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by nighterfighter

Being a current student, residing on the Kennesaw Campus, this makes me quite excited.

You DO realize that that statement just made you a prime target for the Volunteer Coordinator for that district event, right? (Assuming you weren't one already.)