Districts in Texas proposal sent to FIRST

[Michael Blake]

Originally Posted by ahartnet

Bluntly put - I think it's naive to think that it'd happen.

Wow, Andrew... "naive" is not usually a word associated with my thoughts... lol

I prefer "learned and aspirational"... ;-)

--Michael

P.S. I could raise that money for FIRST in Texas and I offered to raise substantial money for them and they turned me down... so that's that.

[ahartnet]

Originally Posted by Michael Blake

Wow, Andrew... "naive" is not usually a word associated with my thoughts... lol

Haha, if I had any doubt as to if you were a fellow mentor, I'd be less blunt as to why I don't think it'd work. And it's certainly possible that it may be me that's naive about fundraising substantial funds for the sole use of travel - but my own experiences over the past 10 years both in FIRST and the profesional world are that travel money is hard to come by.

[Michael Blake]

Originally Posted by ahartnet

There's also nuances to consider in team sizes (how many rooms), and district rules regarding travel (for instance, any travel we use - bus or vans - have to be through a school approved vendor). If you were to attempt to do a financial stipend, I'd guess that the sponsors would also want to control what bus/van/hotel is used rather than just give the money to a team outright which could cause it's own set of problems. Granted though, if you could even get to this point I think most teams that have to deal with those sort of rules imposed by a district could find a way to make something work if it reduces costs...but I've learned never to doubt the ability for rules and regulations to force a decision that doesn't make any sense or to turn down "free money".

In addition to seeming unrealistic IMO, I think it treats the symptom rather than do anything to address an issue.

To be fair, I don't have a solution that I think is sufficient either. Do you allow teams to duplicate their score from attending 1 event if they justifiably can't attend 2? Do you reduce their registration fee to do only 1 district event? Do you allow west texas teams or border teams to compete out of state to count for district points? Do you only have districts for the parts of texas with a required team density (basically east texas)? Do you allow teams that aren't within XXX miles of a district event to decide on their own to opt-in or opt-out of districts? All of these come with their own set of obvious problems.

Andrew... everything you raise here is legit and the opposite of naive < ;-) > but there needs to be something done, at least initially, for these West Texas and Southwest Texas teams that are going to get killed by that second competition requirement.

Some of your suggestions above are _really_ interesting...

--Michael

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Coach Norm

+1

Lubbock or Alamo would be our priority since we havent done them before. We always planned to, just a matter of when.
Want to see your shop and visit your school also.

[Coach Norm]

Originally Posted by waialua359

Lubbock or Alamo would be our priority since we havent done them before. We always planned to, just a matter of when.
Want to see your shop and visit your school also.

Glenn,

It would be great to have you guys at either of those events.

Our shop is small currently. We are fortunate to be moving into some new space in about 3 weeks though. We would love to host you guys at WHS for a few days though. We could go check out some live music here in Austin.

[ahartnet]

Originally Posted by Coach Norm

We could go check out some live music here in Austin.

+1

Or add going to one of the hiking trails there like zilker park or lost maples

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Coach Norm

Glenn,

It would be great to have you guys at either of those events.

Our shop is small currently. We are fortunate to be moving into some new space in about 3 weeks though. We would love to host you guys at WHS for a few days though. We could go check out some live music here in Austin.

Thank you! Would appreciate that very much.

A close family friend are all flying to Austin today. They moved from Waialua to Austin several years ago and going to see one of them who graduates/graduated from high school.

[Ginger Power]

Originally Posted by waialua359

Running out of places to play.

There's a very high probability that you'll have a place in Minnesota for the next few years. I love playing with you guys so that makes staying in the regional format a little better.

[Drakxii]

Originally Posted by Michael Blake

Andrew... everything you raise here is legit and the opposite of naive < ;-) > but there needs to be something done, at least initially, for these West Texas and Southwest Texas teams that are going to get killed by that second competition requirement.

Some of your suggestions above are _really_ interesting...

--Michael

Many of those teams were already failing. If FiT can get two districts in Lubbock, one in El Paso and one in the McAllen area, it should only help those struggling areas.

There will be teams that will struggle with this in West Texas(~2) but they aren't the only ones there are also teams in East Texas(~4-5) and a couple of Coastal Teams(~2) that may need help in the first couple of years but going by 2016 teams it shouldn't be more then 15 total teams. Hopefully FiT will find some funds or expectations for them.

[macman828]

Originally Posted by ahartnet

Like you stated, the thing that will be interesting to me about Texas districts is there's a significant # of teams that don't have more than 1 event (currently) within 300 miles of them, and some of those don't have any event within 300 miles. If the normal district rules apply, forcing those teams to do two competitions in Texas could place a significant burden on them, or force something like Lubbock to host 2 district events back to back with many of the teams competing in both against a roster of teams that is mostly the same, or some other solution I have not heard of/thought of. There's a LOT of Texas that is not within a couple hours drive of San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, or Houston.

http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-a...=0 0FF00&mt=r

So 300 miles radius around Midland covers lots of ground.

a couple of 300 miles circles in Texas.
http://maps.google.com/maps/api/stat..." border="0"/>

[FrankJ]

Do keep in mind for competitive teams, districts means 3 events before 1/2 worlds. The 3rd being district championships which will require significant travel for some teams. But then 1/2 worlds will be a local event if you are a mid-east Texas team.

[EricLeifermann]

There is no requirement that a team actually compete at both district events that their entrance fee allows them to. Those teams who choose not to are still getting a better deal robot time per dollar compared to those in a regional.

I understand that those same 1 and done teams lost the ability to qualify for the super regionals in Houston/St Louis/Detroit but generally(giant assumption but not too far off) 1 and done teams don't qualify for those events anyways.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

There is no requirement that a team actually compete at both district events that their entrance fee allows them to. Those teams who choose not to are still getting a better deal robot time per dollar compared to those in a regional.

This statement confuses me greatly. How is 2 days of competition greater than 3? Sure, we get fewer qualification matches, but more practice matches. Heck, there have been years when my team has played in a dozen practice matches at a single event!

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

This statement confuses me greatly. How is 2 days of competition greater than 3? Sure, we get fewer qualification matches, but more practice matches. Heck, there have been years when my team has played in a dozen practice matches at a single event!

Because you get out of bag time at your own facility with access to so much more than you have at a practice day. Add in there is less stress as you don't have a LRI breathing down your neck to get inspected or other teams in your pits bothering you with useless questions like "how many wheels does your robot have?".

Also there is practice time on load in night. If you are at a place where you get inspected fast you get as much practice as you could want.

[FrankJ]

Comparing regional and districts is really an apples to oranges thing. Having done both. The stress level are about the same but for different reasons. You get more plays at district, but less time to work on the robot. Rather or not you get practice on a district load in day depends on if the field is built. Regionals are more likely to be attended by big name sponsors that districts. You are likely to meet and interact with teams outside your area than with districts. If you are seriously competing for EI or Chairmans, two regionals are better than districts. To be honest both models have things that are better. I really have not decided which I like better.