Are 8 play regional reasonable?

[ehochstein]

So you want to move to districts? I do too.

There are a lot of logistical items that have to be done to make that happen, such as a non-profit to run FIRST in MN, volunteer trainings, equipment purchase lists and much more. In fact, I think Nick Aarestad did a good job summarizing a few of the items in this thread from last year. I love seeing all of the offerings for help in this thread with the transition but how do we actually move forward? Contact the people that authorize the change, the Regional Directors for the area. I've listed their contact information below. Every year at Championships, the Regional Directors meet with the FIRST Board to determine goals for the upcoming years. They may set deadlines, team growth goals and other items. Something you could do before championships is let them know you want to help and that you want to transition to districts. It wouldn't hurt to include FRCTeams@FIRSTInspires.org on an email about it as well. I think a good first step would be to request to have an open discussion about Districts and Regionals, whether it be at the Minneapolis events or maybe later in the season at an off-season event.

Regional Director
Susan Lawrence
sklsumgrad@comcast.net

Assistant Regional Director
Ken Rosen
kr71@aol.com

I know there have been discussions going on between High Tech Kids and MN FIRST about combining organizations to have one organization that runs all of the FIRST programs in Minnesota. I would encourage you to offer your support to High Tech Kids as well, as they very well could be running FRC in the future.

Originally Posted by Karthik

There's a lot of good discussion in this thread, but this comment by Nick is concerning. If the leadership of an organization is threatening volunteers for posting on CD about districts, I think that organization has larger problems than trying to make a switch to districts. Hopefully what Nick is referring to is a small number of isolated incidents as opposed to a concerted effort by a region to stifle open discussion.

I agree, I've heard concerns about this as well. I'm always one that advocates for open-door discussion, so I hope everyone in MN feels safe posting their opinions about districts on ChiefDelphi.