MAR 2017

[Ben Martin]

Originally Posted by Brian Sherman

And just to clarify. Congrats and welcome to all the new MAR board members, who represent MAR as a whole, single community: Randy Coren, Kevin Dieterle, Bill Garfield, Jim Hobin, Chris Lester, & Priscilla Zawislak. It's a strong addition.

I'll second this, very happy with the elected board members.

Thanks for all you guys do. MAR's events are better run than any other location I've visited.

Given the schedule, 225 would probably opt for weeks 3 & 5. I'm in the camp that loves DCMP in week 7, but I get why it needs to be pushed back.

[scottandme]

With registration starting today - I'm in the process of cleaning up the annual registration google doc. Will be updating intermittently over the next few days as teams register for their first event.

MAR 2017 Schedule

And in case people are interested - the all-time MAR standings are linked below, updated with 2016 data.

All-Time MAR Standings

[Brian Maher]

Originally Posted by scottandme

With registration starting today - I'm in the process of cleaning up the annual registration google doc. Will be updating intermittently over the next few days as teams register for their first event.

MAR 2017 Schedule

And in case people are interested - the all-time MAR standings are linked below, updated with 2016 data.

All-Time MAR Standings

Thank you for doing this, Scott! I always love these spreadsheets.

If you'd like some help keeping it updated, let me know.

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by Brian Maher

Thank you for doing this, Scott! I always love these spreadsheets.

If you'd like some help keeping it updated, let me know.

Ditto! Thanks so much for your hard work year after year, Scott! Much appreciated as always.

[Foster]

Originally Posted by Brian Sherman

To be transparent, I wanted to explain the decision process and approach in generating the MAR schedule for 2017 as I've heard both positive and negative comments from a few people both on CD and in person.

Thanks for the inside look at how the events were planned and the criteria that got used to figure it all out. The ability for teams to go from "well that's stupid" to "oh, that makes sense" is great. Nothing like a little transparent enlightenment to start the new season.

Since people complain season after season about MAR Champs at Lehigh, how much more would it cost MAR to use another venue?

[Brian Sherman]

Since people complain season after season about MAR Champs at Lehigh, how much more would it cost MAR to use another venue?

The easiest answer is a recent response from our Competition Committee Chair, Eric Zygmont.

Originally Posted by ezygmont708

Mid-Atlantic Robotics has a great partnership with Lehigh University. Without going to deep, MAR Champs is a $60,000 event. 80% of MAR teams are within 60 miles of the venue. It is a safe venue in a sub-urban/rural setting, and provides the space needed to effectively run our District Championships.

That said, the Venue Selection Committee and the Competition Committee have continually evaluated a variety of venues. The underlying concerns with these venues is location, capacity and cost.

Princeton University has been approached three times and will not commit to a date until 60 days out from the event. The Sun National Bank Center and the Liacouras Center have also been evaluated. These venues are in Urban Areas and command an steep price for Rental and Labor.

The vast majority of teams have a commensurate travel time to the event, and while there are no Hotels on top of the venue, MAR has each year arranged for transportation to and from a list of hotels in Bethlehem.

The competition committee has taken great measure to try to effectively distribute competitions throughout the region. Venues have been mapped against the geographic distribution of teams.

Should members of MAR have suggestions for additional venues they should direct them to the competition committee whose contact information can be found on midatlanticrobotics.org

We always listen to any ideas for consideration but have not found any viable options to date. As Eric mentioned, Lehigh provides the exact services and venue we need at a very low cost with no labor issues (i.e. labor unions). We have studied in depth other options for an alternate venue but nothing has been comparable.

MAR's operations are entirely run by volunteers who are members of our local teams. Does hosting at Lehigh have its flaws; sure. But its ease of set up, cost of venue & rentals, safety in surrounding complex, and flexibility of Lehigh personnel make it an easy choice for our operating committees.

[Foster]

Thanks for the repost, I knew I had seen it someplace before.

I think its important for the district leadership to keep these things out in front of the teams so they know whats going on. MAR has been very good about being very open about what they are doing an why they are doing it.

It doesn't stop the whinging, but it does help cut it down quite a bit. Thanks for your posts.

[nlknauss]

Kickoff registration is coming up soon so I thought it would be good to post the MAR area kickoffs too.

• York Country Day School, York, PA - http://www.firstinspires.org/team-ev...event?id=25579
• Hatboro-Horsham High School, Hatboro, PA - No link yet, but I've heard it's happening
• Lenape High School, Medford, NJ - http://www.firstinspires.org/team-ev...event?id=25581
• Montgomery High School, Skillman, NJ - http://www.firstinspires.org/team-ev...event?id=24935
• Not sure about NJIT?

If NJIT is still in, it seems like there are plenty of locations for teams all over MAR to receive kits as long as each kickoff has the required 10 team minimum attending.

[krtanjek]

TechFire is very excited to host a kickoff event this year at York Country Day School's new $15M STEAM Center.

Please consider attending Kickoff with us, or picking up your KOP here. We will also be holding a workshop on PID control and get into Vision during our workshop.

We are very excited and hope to see a lot of teams at our kickoff.

:-)

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Ben Martin

MAR's events are better run than any other location I've visited.

Re-quoted for truth. I've seen a few this past year, and let's just say I think MAR has on average the best-run events by a good margin.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by scottandme

Are all other regions moving to a week 6 DCMP? Seems like it would be a difficult move for Michigan and New England.

Here's what I see:

Week 5:
North Carolina
Israel

Week 6:
New England
MAR
Indiana
PNW
Peachtree

Week 7:
Michigan
Ontario

[scottandme]

Originally Posted by scottandme

MAR 2017 Schedule

Updated as of 2:40PM, will update every day or two. 80 of the 121 teams from last year have registered so far. Hatboro and Mount Olive continue to be the preferred choice for 1st registration slots.

One new rookie team so far, 6327/The Tin Men. Think that's the 4575/Tin Mint's spinoff team.

Welcome back to teams 265 (JV team for 223), last seen in 2014. Also returning is team 747, lists rookie year as 2002, but no competition history, so they must have been MIA for a while.

[musicgurl1329]

Originally Posted by scottandme

Updated as of 2:40PM, will update every day or two. 80 of the 121 teams from last year have registered so far. Hatboro and Mount Olive continue to be the preferred choice for 1st registration slots.

One new rookie team so far, 6327/The Tin Men. Think that's the 4575/Tin Mint's spinoff team.

Welcome back to teams 265 (JV team for 223), last seen in 2014. Also returning is team 747, lists rookie year as 2002, but no competition history, so they must have been MIA for a while.

Yea 6327 would be the Boy Scout team the Tin Mints started this year. I believe it was for some of the FLL kids that aged out/others had interest in a team.

Glad to see 265 and 747 back!

[scottandme]

Two days until second district registration - MAR is a tiny bit better off than it was at the same point last year.

2016: 106 teams total, 17 teams missing, 2 rookie/returning team
2017: 109 teams total, 15 teams missing, 3 rookie/returning teams

Of the 17 teams missing at this point last year, 8 didn't return, and 9 registered at some point after 2nd event registration opened.

Last year we ended up with 8 rookie/returning teams. So we need to add ~4-5 new teams, and retain ~50% of our missing teams in order to match our size from last year. 752 and 1791 register late every year, but the others were registered at this time last year (excluding rookies).

Missing Teams:
613
752
869
1370
1791
3167
3340
4281
4342
4373
4475
4637
6015
6016
6216

Historical District Size:
2012: 99
2013: 109
2014: 110
2015: 121
2016: 121

[scottandme]

70 teams registered in the first 90 minutes. Hatboro, Mount Olive, Seneca, and Montgomery all hit their initial capacity. Odd bug with Bridgewater where TIMS lists 0 available slots, but there are only 19/32 teams registered.

42 teams sitting at 1 event only, 12 teams from last year who haven't registered yet. Sitting at 112 teams in total, so only 9 off of last years total.

Montgomery looking like the deepest/strongest event overall, with Hatboro, Chestnut Hill, and Montgomery having the strongest top ends.