NY Districts - POA

[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.

[Brian Maher]

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.

Has it been confirmed that there will be a new regional next year? If there is, has it been established where it would be?

A Hudson Valley Regional somewhere on the Hudson would be advantageous for a lot of teams in both the NYC and capital areas. For capital region teams such as 2791, the nearest second regional that has any realistic chance of having openings on the second round of registration is 3.5 hours away (FLR). Another regional would give us a considerably closer event and also make it easier for downstate teams to find a second play.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by BMSOTM

Has it been confirmed that there will be a new regional next year? If there is, has it been established where it would be?

A Hudson Valley Regional somewhere on the Hudson would be advantageous for a lot of teams in both the NYC and capital areas. For capital region teams such as 2791, the nearest second regional that has any realistic chance of having openings on the second round of registration is 3.5 hours away (FLR). Another regional would give us a considerably closer event and also make it easier for downstate teams to find a second play.

I don't know the exact venue but I do know the reason for the Hudson Valley Rally (an offseason going on now) has something to do with regional planning.

I also hear the reason for the regional is o attract schools to make teams in the area between NYC and Albany. There's a really weird gap in teams in the Westchester area.

[notmattlythgoe]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

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

So much this.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

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

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

So much this.

Let's do a deal:

You guys stop telling everybody else that they need to go to districts ASAP, and we'll let you guys share your experiences. As tired as you guys are of hearing folks not in districts say how districts should be run, WE'RE tired of hearing how we should be in districts! We're working on it, but FIRST didn't reach 3K teams in 2 years!



And, if you'd be so kind as to actually do some basic math as to man-hours required so we can see just how badly off GeeTwo was, rather than simply dismissing his post as "garbage", while you're at it? Or should I do that for you?

Spoiler for My assumptions and numbers:

I get, for a regional, 1x 12-hour day, 2x 10-hour days, and 1x 8-hour day (give-or-take a few hours on any given day, and not in that order). 8-hour day is setup/load-in--noon to 8PM is typical. 12-hour day is practice--that one goes away at districts--could be a couple hours longer. The 10-hour days are the two competition days. At districts, those two go longer--I want to say that I've heard 12-hour days, but I'm not entirely sure. And while you're at it, bear in mind that a 60-team event is going to need a few more volunteers than a 40-team event, primarily in crowd control and inspection. I want to say that regionals run a total volunteer staff of 80-100 people, as I recall hearing that number tossed around before, but I can't say for sure--and not all of them are there the whole time.

So, for a regional... 40 hours over 4 days, and if you assume that the 8-hour setup day is held down by 10 people (HAH!) and the rest are run by 60 at any given time, you've got 80+60*32=2000 man-hours over 4 days, easily, probably closer to 3000 for a large regional. Using a similar line for districts under the assumptions above, and on the smaller end of volunteer corps strength, I get more like 1500 man-hours over 3 days.

For anybody who doesn't want to read the spoiler, I can see why the district folks are upset (the assumption was off by a factor of two if my assumptions are anywhere close to correct). But you can be civil while you're upset--please do so.



Back towards the main topic... I'm not from NY, haven't heard any rumors. But if a big regional loses its home, that is going to hurt. But... it'll help the district situation by forcibly identifying possible sites, so it's not all bad (I hope). We're looking at that situation out here, too.