Current Districts Map. Who is next?

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

This is a fantastic idea and makes the most sense when it comes to sustainability. Problem is that many people in the FRC world don't have too much common sense when it comes to sustainability and even FIRST just wants more teams even if they flounder around and waste grant money and funding from sponsors.

Personally, I think combining teams would be a cool idea. Difficult logistically, perhaps, but effective nonetheless.

I think this is ridiculous. I'm certainly not a proponent of "expand at all cost" or measuring program health by team quantity, but suggesting to combine existing and sustaining teams for the sake of reducing headcount is absurd.

In certain scenarios it may work out beneficially (especially for teams that are currently floundering), but to use it as a blanket statement is far fetched. The vast majority of teams operate in a school-based system for a reason. While there are plenty of success stories outside of that system, don't interpret that to mean that any team can break away from their school and survive. Once you start merging teams, you're breaking that school-based system. You're forcing teams to haggle with logistics (student transportation/liability/meeting times/recruitment/funding/etc) that they wouldn't have to otherwise. In many cases, interested students may not be able to participate in a function that requires them to be transported off campus or meet outside of traditional afterschool hours.

In other words, what good is creating "sustaining" teams if you reduce the capacity for those teams to positively impact their students and community?