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Unread 26-06-2016, 21:04
swootton swootton is offline
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AKA: Steve Wootton
FRC #4055 (NRG4055)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Rookie Year: 2012
Location: Barkhamsted, CT
Posts: 50
swootton is on a distinguished road
Re: Ontario Moving to District Model in 2017

I've been following this discussion and would like to clarify the district system from our team's perspective. First a little background, we are currently entering our 6th season and couldn't be happier with the district system.

Our first year we attended 1 event and won RAS and were able to attend CMP. Another team helped us with logistics and transportation otherwise we may not have gone. This season we spent $5K for the regional and $5K for CMP. Our total operating budget for this year was nearly $50K

Our second year we attended 2 events and did not qualify to move on to CMP. We spent $5k for each event and had a total operating budget of about $35K

In our third season we moved to the district system and were excited to find out that we now get to attend 2 events for the same $5K and as many additional events that we could go to for $1K each so we signed up for three district events. We then qualified to attend the District CMP and attended which was an additional $4K. We did very well and were picked to be on the eventual winning alliance and were invited to attend CMP which cost another $5. Our total operating budget for this season was just under $50K

In our forth and fifth seasons we attended 3 events each year and District CMP for a total cost of $10K and an operating budget of about $35K

From a cost perspective our first and third years were the most expensive but we attended 2 events the first year and 5 events the third year for the same amount of money. Our second, fourth and fifth years were the least expensive but we still attended 4 events under the district model vs. 2 under the regional system.

As others have pointed out, I cannot understand how any FRC team could expect to grow/survive let alone just function on less than $10-$15K per year for a budget. We were told when the team was formed that we would need to find grants, sponsorships and do fundraising if the team was going to survive. We do not get any financial support from our school, town or state to fund our program, we are totally self supporting. We are fortunate to have two corporate/foundation sponsorships that we cherish very much that provide nearly 1/2 of our annual budget every year but we constantly discuss what we would do if we lost either one. One way we do that is to save money when ever we can. We have enough money saved at this point that we could survive for 1-2 years with some fundraising but we are always looking for and applying for grants and scholarships.

We attended an off season event in Yonkers, NY a couple weeks ago and were shocked by the differences between us being in a district system and all the other teams that are in a regional system. For us it was our 6th event, for all the others it was either their 2nd or 3rd. All we heard all day was comments about our robot not breaking and being very refined. All the teams wanted to find out more about the district system and most if not all wished that NY would go to a district model after playing with and talking to us.

In a nutshell:
Regional model
$5K per event - 6 teams advance to CMP out of 55-70 teams

District model
$5K for 2 events to qualify for point to advance to the district CMP
$1K for additional district events in your district or other districts
$4K for district CMP if you qualify - 32+/- teams advance to CMP

If you normally attend 2 events under the district model you spend $10K

For $5K you get 2 events, for $6K you get 3 events and for $10 you get 4 events if you qualify for district CMP. If you go to district CMP you have roughly and 50/50 chance of going to CMP.

In our team's opinion, we would not go back to the regional model if given the choice. We get more "bang for the buck" now and our kids have way more fun interacting with other students than they ever did.
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