NY Districts - POA

[Chris is me]

Keep working at it, but you need to get in contact with the RDs and see what work has already been done and what is in the works already. You're far from the first person in New York to push for districts, and you don't want to fracture different groups of people by duplicating work that has already been done, if it has.

Now, who wants to contact the RD's? Volunteer and do it otherwise it may not happen.

You should do this! Be the change you wish to see, otherwise it may not happen.

[smistthegreat]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Keep working at it, but you need to get in contact with the RDs and see what work has already been done and what is in the works already. You're far from the first person in New York to push for districts, and you don't want to fracture different groups of people by duplicating work that has already been done, if it has.

Chris has it right. Sam, I'm very glad that you're taking the initiative to get NY into the district model. However, it's very likely that some of the questions you've posed have already been decided by the various directors/committees involved. The only way to know for sure is to email your RD and find out what has already been done/decided, and what the next step is.

[1493kd]

I emailed Ana and Paul this morning to see what the status of districts are in NY. I will update when I get a response.

[plnyyanks]

Originally Posted by 1493kd

I emailed Ana and Paul this morning to see what the status of districts are in NY. I will update when I get a response.

Thanks and please do! I meant to ask one of them about it when I was up for Tech Valley, but they were busy, I was busy, and it slipped my mind...

[Sperkowsky]

Alright, I will email Mrs.Winters and Mrs.Daly and will report what they say back here. This is some progress. Although, we will need to get together as a community to make this happen.

Edit -

As of 3/24 I have emailed both my the local RD's

Mrs.Winter had an automated response come back that she wont be in her office until Next Tuesday which makes sense since she is the Superintendent of a local school district and currently we are on break.

I will post results of these emails as soon as I have them.

[plnyyanks]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Although, we will need to get together as a community to make this happen.

Depending on the responses we get and what the current status is, it may be valuable to propose a conference call or some town hall meetings this summer so the decision-makers can update the community directly and maybe start some dialogue and receive some feedback.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by plnyyanks

Depending on the responses we get and what the current status is, it may be valuable to propose a conference call or some town hall meetings this summer so the decision-makers can update the community directly and maybe start some dialogue and receive some feedback.

FIRST Mid-Atlantic (MAR) did this while transitioning into districts, and continues to have update meetings at events throughout the year, in addition to their open Board meetings. It's done wonders for transparency and understanding. 10/10, very helpful.

[1493kd]

I heard back from Paul and her are some details of the move to districts-
- It is going to happen, its a matter of when
- It is possible NY could be split into 2 districts upstate/ downstate (this is not set in stone or finalized it was just part of our conversation)
- Before districts happen NY may add 2 more regionals to help build up the capacity of teams/volunteers to pull off districts

- The hardest part of changing from regionals to districts is that you have to start your own non-profit. With the current setup FIRST supplies the field, AV, schedule down to the minute, truck arrivals/departures, and field rental. With districts we would need someone (God bless them) to organize all of this yearly for 5 districts events. We discussed that it would probably have to be a paid position. So far no one has stepped up to the plate to take this on.

The people who already volunteer to keep FLR and TVR running already feel "stretched" to their limits.

- What I took from it is that we need someone or a group of people with some experience running a non-profit and doing events to really get this running? If anyone has any suggestions or willing to take this one (It could possibly be a paid position) contact Paul or Ana with your desire to help.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by 1493kd

- Before districts happen NY may add 2 more regionals to help build up the capacity of teams/volunteers to pull off districts

The most confusing thing I take from this is why do we need more regionals? TVR and FLR are both already pretty small and we have enough teams to make IMO a perfect sized district. Creating more smaller regionals just sounds like a very expensive district.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

The most confusing thing I take from this is why do we need more regionals? TVR and FLR are both already pretty small and we have enough teams to make IMO a perfect sized district. Creating more smaller regionals just sounds like a very expensive district.

The idea here is that more events of any type will create a larger volunteer base, as there are more opportunities to train key volunteers, a better gauge for how many volunteers the state can support, etc. Going from 4 regionals to at least 8 districts requires many, many more volunteers, so adding 2 extra regionals the year before helps ease that transition and create a larger base.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

The most confusing thing I take from this is why do we need more regionals? TVR and FLR are both already pretty small and we have enough teams to make IMO a perfect sized district. Creating more smaller regionals just sounds like a very expensive district.

I have never been part of this transition (and have never been to a district event), so this is just supposition, but it seems to me that even a small district requires at least as much volunteer time as three regionals.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

I have no basis for this opinion but I'm going to state it anyway.

FTFY. Maybe let's let folks who have actually been to/run districts share their experiences and not post garbage?

[Sperkowsky]

I figured if we are going to necro I figured I'd post what I know.

To start there is Most likely going to be 4 regionals in NY next year.
Sbpli, NYC, tvr, flr, and the Hudson Valley Regional. That's 31.7 teams per regional if a team would only do a single regional and NY regionals only had ny teams.

My estimate is NY would need about 10 district events plus dcmp. I'd also say you need about double the volunteers for a regional but about the same amount of qualified volunteers (refs, inspectors, fta, ftaa, Csas, ect).

So yes even 4 regionals doesnt simulate the right number of volunteers. But as I've seen district board members post before. When the volunteer spots are open volunteers come.

Also I can very much verify NY is going districts in a few years. But other then that I couldn't shake much other information out of the regional coordinators.

[bdaroz]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

To start there is Most likely going to be 4 regionals in NY next year.
Sbpli, NYC, tvr, flr, and the Hudson Valley Regional. That's 31.7 teams per regional if a team would only do a single regional and NY regionals only had ny teams.

Do you mean 4 or 5? (SPBLI, NYC, TVR, FLR, and HVR make 5)

The rest of your numbers make sense - the difficult part is location distribution.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by bdaroz

Do you mean 4 or 5? (SPBLI, NYC, TVR, FLR, and HVR make 5)

The rest of your numbers make sense - the difficult part is location distribution.

I am great at counting.

It's 30 teams per event also... man I Need some sleep.