Georgia Districts confirmed for 2016!

[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.)

[GaryVoshol]

I'm wondering how GA is going to save money going to the district system. Are all these schools donating their space for district events, like high schools do in other Districts? (I understand FiM gets a really good deal at Kettering and GVSU, which is why these two events are not in high schools.)

[FrankJ]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

I'm wondering how GA is going to save money going to the district system. Are all these schools donating their space for district events, like high schools do in other Districts? (I understand FiM gets a really good deal at Kettering and GVSU, which is why these two events are not in high schools.)

GWCC (Peachtree) was really expensive. Not only rent on the space, but the need to use their vendors for everything. Perry (Goober Pea) was less so.

[logank013]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

I'm wondering how GA is going to save money going to the district system. Are all these schools donating their space for district events, like high schools do in other Districts? (I understand FiM gets a really good deal at Kettering and GVSU, which is why these two events are not in high schools.)

I'm not fully sure how how Indiana FIRST or in your case, Georgia FIRST makes prices this low but district events to teams, are a lot cheaper. I know by the time we got past the District Championship, The price was the equivalent to the price of two regionals. The first 2 district events were $2,500 and the third (Not required) was $1.000. Then the district championship was $4,000. In all, that cost us $10,000. Plus whatever Worlds cost. So basically, you can get to worlds by $9,000 if you so choose. Plus, say your team isn't good enough to go to district champs, then all they spend is $5,000.

So it isn't necessarily cheaper event wise but, you save money if you aren't good that year. Plus, with district events being closer, you don't have to spend nearly as much on hotels compared to if you go to regionals. I know my team stayed at hotels at 2 of our 4 district events and that was just because we had the money/ sponsorship to and was convenient. The biggest drive we ever had to make was 1 hour and 30 minutes. I know of some teams in our area never stayed at hotels because they could save money that way.

Another thing about the districts is that you are more capable of making it to worlds versus going to 2 regionals. In Indiana, we were guaranteed 10 spots for worlds but were able to send 14 out of our 49 teams due to wait list and the fact that Team 45 is an original team. I know that a good amount of the teams that made it to worlds from IN may have not been able to win a regional due to bad luck. So if you actually have a good bot in your district, you don't have to win an event to make it to worlds.

All in all, the districts save you money on hotels mainly and, you have a better chance at making it to worlds if your robot is good and you run into some bad luck. being apart of a district gives you many advantages and money is definitely a big factor.

I'm not sure how Georgia will make there spots for worlds but, Indiana FIRST's spots were as following:

3 Spots: Winner (234, 1024, 292)
1 Spot: Chairman's (135*)
1 Spot: Engineering Inspiration (1501)
1 Spot: Rookie All Star (5403)
4+1 Spots: Next teams based on District Points (5188, 71, 5402, 1720, 1741*)

For this year we had these additional spots given to us:

2 Spots: Wait List (135*, 829)
1 Spot: Original Team (45)
1 Spot: TBH, I'm not sure (3940)

*135 was given the Chairman's award. They were previously accepted in via the Wait List. This added 1 more spot to Next teams based on District Points. This allowed 1741 to go to worlds. The same thing would happen if the winner of the event wins 1 of 3 "Big" awards or get in on the wait list. Same would also happen if the winner of RAS or EI got in on wait list too.

Hope I didn't make this too complicated. Thanks for reading.

[Knufire]

Originally Posted by logank013

...

I'm fairly sure GaryVoshol was referring to the cost of the event from the perspective of the GeorgiaFIRST, not the team. Districts definitely lower team expenses but the district organization picks up the financial responsibility of running events.

[logank013]

Originally Posted by Knufire

I'm fairly sure GaryVoshol was referring to the cost of the event from the perspective of the GeorgiaFIRST, not the team. Districts definitely lower team expenses but the district organization picks up the financial responsibility of running events.

Definitely. In Indiana, 3 of 4 event held here including the championships were at high schools, I imagine that high schools donate their space. The only event we had that wasn't at a high schools was in 2 high school size gyms at the rec center at Purdue and I imagine that wasn't too expensive.

[FrankJ]

The entry fee goes to US First not the State entities. Much of the cost of putting on an event is born directly by the state/regional entity. (Ga First in this case). Few of the venues are completely free and even then there are support costs. I am not privy to the actually numbers, but as a WAG I suspect you could put on 4 average district events for the price of Peachtree at the world congress center.

None of the Georgia districts this year are at high schools. Several are at smaller civic centers. Venues will not be donated at least for this year.

[Knufire]

Originally Posted by FrankJ

The entry fee goes to US First not the State entities.

Just to clarify, as far as I understand it, your initial team registration fee and your district championship registration fee goes to USFIRST HQ. If you sign up for a third in-district play, that registration fee will go to your district organization.

So, if you want to support your state/region's organization, play more districts!

[Nate Laverdure]

Originally Posted by Knufire

Your initial team registration fee and your district championship registration fee goes to USFIRST HQ. If you sign up for a third in-district play, that registration fee will go to your district organization.

After this registration phase, FIRST Manchester then provides each district with $1k per registered team.

-----

Assume you are GAFIRST. Assume your sponsor community continues to fund your organization at 2015 levels. Assume you have no other operating costs other than event production. Assume you have had zero team growth since the 2015 competition season.

In 2015 you ran two regional competitions, which cost you approximately $150k each (say). Assume also that the district championship will cost you approximately as much as a regional did, so say you have a balance of 150k that you can apply to your four district events.

But you also have a new income source-- FIRST HQ! They pay you in two ways:
-- You have 58 teams, for which you get $1k each.
-- You will run 4 district events with capacity for 40 teams each, which means you have 160 plays available. This means if you fill each event to capacity (assume this happens), then 44 teams will be playing 3rd plays, for which you also get $1k each.

This leaves you with $150k + 58k + 44K = 252k to run your four district events. Thus, you will break even, compared to your 2015 expenses, as long as the average cost to run a GA district event is less than $63k.

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by FrankJ

None of the Georgia districts this year are at high schools. Several are at smaller civic centers.

To make a fine point.

100 % of the Georgia District events are embraced and hosted by units of

• USG - University System of Georgia, this is the system than contains GT, UGA, KSU, CSU, etc
• TCSG - Technical College System of Georgia, the state technical Colleges
• GCCAN - Georgia College and Career Academy Network

Even though the events may be at a Civic Center, or Convention Center, the hosts are USG, TCSG, GCCAN units.

To date, there has never been a District system that was 100% university/college embraced.
.

.

[TDav540]

Originally Posted by ebarker

To make a fine point.

100 % of the Georgia District events are embraced and hosted by units of:

USG - University System of Georgia, this is the system than contains GT.....

It's just too bad there are no events in the city. All those potential GT volunteers....

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by TDav540

It's just too bad there are no events in the city. All those potential GT volunteers....

It's only 20 miles up the street, easy to get to.

[vikesrock777]

Originally Posted by ebarker

It's only 20 miles up the street, easy to get to.

As a leader of the Georgia Tech RoboJackets, a group that helps provide volunteers for the event, I would disagree with your dismissal of this "small" distance.

Our students usually have varying levels of commitment they can give to volunteering. Ideally, everyone would be able to devote their full weekend, but we typically have students whose schedules and availability don't allow that. It is not at all unusual for us to have multiple students only show up for half of a day. This becomes much harder to facilitate with this new location. Most of the time these students would walk to or from campus or be given a ride by one of us other volunteers. Walking to or from the event is now completely out of the question, and giving them a ride now changes from a short trip to an hour long commitment.

You definitely won't lose all your GT volunteers. Those you're most likely to lose aren't in your key volunteering roles. However, with distance and the change in event timing, you definitely will lose some.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by logank013

Definitely. In Indiana, 3 of 4 event held here including the championships were at high schools, I imagine that high schools donate their space. The only event we had that wasn't at a high schools was in 2 high school size gyms at the rec center at Purdue and I imagine that wasn't too expensive.

Imagination is important, but try not to use it as a substitute for actual information. In addition to paying for the use of the facility, the Purdue district event had to rent bleachers, which had always been a major expense for the Boilermaker Regional.

[logank013]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Imagination is important, but try not to use it as a substitute for actual information. In addition to paying for the use of the facility, the Purdue district event had to rent bleachers, which had always been a major expense for the Boilermaker Regional.

Haha. Thanks. I probably should have made it more clear that ll my information was a guess. That is my fault.