Current Districts Map. Who is next?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by TDav540

Not just regular travel either; AIR travel.

On the other hand, I rather suspect that a particularly good (read: persuasive) teacher/set of teachers could justify spending the entire week between back-to-back events "down there" in an extended field trip. This would include such items as college visits, some trips to museums of things that might not be available back home, plenty of homework time, and any other items deemed educational by administration, faculty, and parents.

This would probably depend a lot on the school and parents agreeing, however. And I'm really not sure they could pull the same trick if they qualified for DCMP; CMP would certainly be a bit of a buzzkill on that.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Jacob Bendicksen

I'm happy to see our Alaskan friends joining us in the PNW, but this has the potential to really stifle team growth in Alaska for a while. Two travel events with a reasonable likelihood of a third would be a tough sell for most schools.

AK really hasn't been on an expansion tear so I don't think that there is a big risk there.

Originally Posted by TDav540

Not just regular travel either; AIR travel.

And how did the AK team get to their events before, it certainly wasn't driving or a boat. Fact is traveling to Seattle is much cheaper and is quicker too than their other options. Hotels around where we hold most of our events are also much cheaper than the CA events they have been attending. So 2 events for not much more than the one they had been attending. The current team obviously thought it was a good deal or they wouldn't have asked to come to the rainy PNW instead of continuing in the Regional system.

[TDav540]

Originally Posted by EricH

On the other hand, I rather suspect that a particularly good (read: persuasive) teacher/set of teachers could justify spending the entire week between back-to-back events "down there" in an extended field trip. This would include such items as college visits, some trips to museums of things that might not be available back home, plenty of homework time, and any other items deemed educational by administration, faculty, and parents.

This would probably depend a lot on the school and parents agreeing, however. And I'm really not sure they could pull the same trick if they qualified for DCMP; CMP would certainly be a bit of a buzzkill on that.

Well, in theory, they could go to the Week 4 and 5 district events, as well as the Week 6 DCMP all at once. CMP would be hard to pull off, definitely.

[TDav540]

Originally Posted by Mr V

And how did the AK team get to their events before, it certainly wasn't driving or a boat. Fact is traveling to Seattle is much cheaper and is quicker too than their other options. Hotels around where we hold most of our events are also much cheaper than the CA events they have been attending. So 2 events for not much more than the one they had been attending. The current team obviously thought it was a good deal or they wouldn't have asked to come to the rainy PNW instead of continuing in the Regional system.

Point made and I agree, but they'll still have to house themselves in a hotel for weeks at a time, in addition to the two round-trip flights, assuming they make it to Championship again. However, you're right, it has to either save more money/provide more educational benefit.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Ginger Power

Minnesota's growth in recent years has slowed. We've reached a temporary plateau, but I don't expect that it will hold. There are a lot of potential teams to the northwest of the cities. However, with that said I don't think switching to districts will become more difficult over time. The oldest, active Minnesota team is just going into their 11th season. A lot of younger teams are just starting to figure things out and provide volunteers for events.

Also from conversations with smarter people than myself, I've learned that running an event of any size requires a pretty similar amount of volunteers. Especially key volunteers as you stated. That's without even considering the workload of the volunteer coordinator...

Assuming you do need to run 2 events per week for 6 weeks rather than our current 5 events (counting Iowa) during 3 different weeks, that's 7 more events in total. Focusing solely on key volunteers, it would require more than double the current number if they maintain the same workload. It's not feasible for an LRI to take 6 weekends off to help run an event.

TL;DR: As Minnesota gets older, the number of key volunteers will go up, which is the limiting factor for going to districts. The non-key volunteers will be there when we need them.

If definitely will get harder if MN waits too long. As it is they can handle things with less than 12 events, and better yet less than 11. Once the team count gets too high depending on the size of venues that are willing and fit with in the schedule you get into a situation where there needs to be 3 events on the same weekend. Now you really do have a volunteer problem and an infrastructure problem needing to worry about 3 fields worth of equipment or renting the stuff which increases the cost of an event dramatically.

The other thing is that a district event is 2/3 the length and many are on Sat/Sun and are potentially closer to home. So a person can take off the same time form work or less to volunteer at 2 district events vs 1 Regional. Since they are potentially closer to home that also means no or less cost for lodging. Add in the fact that you now have 3 times as many weekends to choose from and you get people who are willing to do 2 or maybe even 3 events when they have only done 1 Regional in the past.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by EricH

Funny, that's how it is out here too. It also, for some reason, breeds consistency between events when the LRIs for later events drop in on earlier events to help out for a day (and the same for head referees). I can't quite figure that out .

That being said, most of them (out here) aren't in the key spot for all of their events. That makes life a bit easier on them, I think.

This.

We usually end up having all the LRI's up in Duluth, but only 2 are actually responsible for the events. There's a certain amount of prep that goes into an event if you're the LRI, and then stress during the event that I enjoy not having at every event i'm at

[Doug Frisk]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

Funny enough, that's exactly what I've been doing. I started volunteering this past year with FTC and, time permitting, plan to do the same this year. The key thing being that "time permitting"-- as a student I don't know my schedule for FRC's season until at the earliest November, and at the latest January, after trying to switch things around to make volunteering a possibility. I have a great deal of love for FRC, and last year I did a great deal of work to make it possible for me to volunteer at two regionals and Championships, plus an FTC Super Regional, but as I'm pretty sure anyone who volunteers at events knows, sometimes it simply isn't possible for it to work, and that's even more of an issue for college students who are passionate about the program and want to stay involved.

Contact Laurie Shimizu, lfshimizu@gmail.com she's essentially lead volunteer coordinator for Minnesota and tell her what roles you want to volunteer in and ask her what you can do to prepare. (I think it's safe to list her email her since it's here: http://www.usfirst.org/whats-going-o...rogramCode=FRC )

Create an account in VIMS and register to volunteer. https://my.usfirst.org/FIRSTPortal/L...?eventid=17435 that's the Northern Lights Regional in Duluth next year. I'll likely be there as scorekeeper again. I look forward to seeing you there.

The Iowa regional coincides with Easter , so your college may be on break and that may be an easy one to volunteer at.

But don't wait or you'll miss your chance.

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by DareDad

Contact Laurie Shimizu, lfshimizu@gmail.com she's essentially lead volunteer coordinator for Minnesota and tell her what roles you want to volunteer in and ask her what you can do to prepare. (I think it's safe to list her email her since it's here: http://www.usfirst.org/whats-going-o...rogramCode=FRC )

Create an account in VIMS and register to volunteer. https://my.usfirst.org/FIRSTPortal/L...?eventid=17435 that's the Northern Lights Regional in Duluth next year. I'll likely be there as scorekeeper again. I look forward to seeing you there.

The Iowa regional coincides with Easter , so your college may be on break and that may be an easy one to volunteer at.

But don't wait or you'll miss your chance.

Thank you for the contact info; like I said, I volunteered at a couple of events last year here in Minnesota plus Champs, so I'm very aware of VIMS and Laurie (it's pretty impossible not to run into her when you've been around the FRC program here for five years!).

If everything allows, I'm definitely planning on volunteering up in Duluth for a second year as well. See you there!

[logank013]

Is their any website or map of how many teams are in each state? I know in Indiana, there are 49 teams. I'm Curious about the other 49 states.

If not, How did you make your map. I'd like to know for future maps. Thanks

[Doug Frisk]

Originally Posted by logank013

Is their any website or map of how many teams are in each state? I know in Indiana, there are 49 teams. I'm Curious about the other 49 states.

If not, How did you make your map. I'd like to know for future maps. Thanks

http://www.usfirst.org/whats-going-o...Stat eProv=LA

That will give you the teams in Louisiana. Replace LA with whatever state you want.

[KrazyCarl92]

Originally Posted by DareDad

http://www.usfirst.org/whats-going-o...Stat eProv=LA

That will give you the teams in Louisiana. Replace LA with whatever state you want.

Unfortunately it's not that easy. This list ends up including extinct teams from the state searched.

[Basel A]

For accurate team lists I use frclinks.com/t/MI-USA. Just replace the abbreviation and that'll give you the list you want.





frclinks is awesome

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by carpedav000

Im still trying to figure out why IN went to districs. We are waaay to small IMO to be a district.

A handful of reasons (as far as I have been able to tell, this is in no means official):

1. FIRST HQ- They probably wanted a small region to try it out, to disprove the notion of "too small"...

2. ...and IndianaFIRST had been looking to go this direction for some time. I've heard it mentioned as far back as CAGE Match 2013; I've gotten the impression that this was in the works long before that too.

3. More events, based on where the teams are. Before, all IN had for official events were Boilermaker (local for quite a few, but growth stunted due to venue and possibly cost limitations) and crossroads (local for nobody in 2013, and only 5188 in 2014). You see, events were based on who had the means to host a full blown regional, not on where the teams actually are. Now, we have events in Indy (local for many teams), Purdue area (also quasi-local for many), and Kokomo (Not just local, but historic too!). Teams south of Indy are still no longer local to anything, but as their numbers grow, I'm sure an event down there will be a thing (Columbus?). Not to mention that Indiana teams get two events for the price of one out of the deal, in addition to less travel.

4. Volunteers- Indiana has a relatively large and more notably, devoted volunteer base that is the special sauce needed to make a district thrive. I'd say this is the main reason why IndianaFIRST made the jump. If it counts for anything, at all four events, many of the higher volunteer positions had the same people filling the roles at all four events. I was scorekeeper at all four, and the same was true for the other key field volunteers (FTAs, Field supervisor, etc.) and most of the AV crew. Where we somewhat lack in sheer numbers, we make up for in devotion to what we do to make the events awesome for all who attend.

Despite some early hiccups and other quirks, ultimately, it worked great, especially for the teams (as far as I know, anyway). Whatever reason you want to pick, the decision, at least IMHO, was the right one.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

Volunteers- Indiana has a relatively large and more notably, devoted volunteer base that is the special sauce needed...

^^ This.

Indiana FRC volunteers made the IRI what it is. I would love to be in Kokomo for Week 7, but my team intends to be in Grand Rapids that weekend.

[logank013]

Originally Posted by carpedav000

Im still trying to figure out why IN went to districs. We are waaay to small IMO to be a district.

Again, these are just my thoughts. I feel like making a district where there are already a lot of teams is not very smart. The whole point of districts is to make a fairly well populated area and turn it into a very populated area. So basically, I feel like if you have enough teams to make 3 district events in an area the size of our state, switch to districts. As is, Indiana has 1 team per every 738.5 square miles. Then, due to the cheaper model, you can see more teams in that area. That's the whole point of districts. It's to make an area to have a higher frc team population density. Does that make sense?