Texas isn't moving to districts yet

[AllenGregoryIV]

Texas will stay in the regional model for at least one more year. This email was sent out this morning to team contacts.

We have been working closely with FIRST HQ to determine our readiness to move to the FIRST Robots Competition (FRC) district model. We have many of the key capabilities needed to make the change to district in place now. However, in a state as large as Texas, we knew another year of planning, preparation, and fundraising would ensure a successful transition to the district model.

For that reason the determination has been made jointly between FIRST in Texas and FIRST HQ to move to continue to conduct traditional FRC Regional events in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Lubbock for the 2017 season. Additional FRC Regional events may be added this year in order to accommodate the anticipated team growth.

There is much excitement about the upcoming FRC season and we expect a strong increase in the number of students participating in all FIRST programs due to the recognition of FIRST robotics as an official UIL competitive program. Over the coming months, look for ways you can become involved by attending one of the upcoming FRC District informational sessions.

In the meantime, we are working with UIL to set the date and location of the 2017 UIL Robotics State Championship - FIRST Division which will take place shortly after the FIRST Championships are completed in Houston and St. Louis.

2017 looks to be an exciting year for robotics in Texas. With FIRST Championship taking place in Houston, there has never been a better time to be part of FIRST. We look forward to seeing many of you from July 28th-30th at the Austin Convention Center for the Inaugural 2016 UIL Robotics State Championship - FIRST Division.



Ray Almgren
Chair, FIRST in Texas

[ahartnet]

A bummer but I'm not terribly surprised. I was much more surprised to hear that a proposal even went to HQ.

Hopefully how close we were to going districts for 2017 will up the involvement in a positive way for 2018 however.

[Bryan Herbst]

I'm definitely interested in seeing Texas' implementation of districts next year. I'm not very familiar with Texas with regards to the distribution of FRC teams, but looking at some population density maps (Texas, Minnesota) and a 2013 FRC teams map, it would appear as though Texas and Minnesota have some similar challenges in figuring out how to spread out their resources.

In particular, the northern bit of Texas looks fairly isolated. I'm curious as to how many volunteers they have in that region, how many district events will be located there, etc. If anyone knows the answers to these questions, I'd be interested to hear more!

[Harrison.Smith]

Additional FRC Regional events may be added this year in order to accommodate the anticipated team growth.

A regional in Austin would be awesome!

[lynca]

Originally Posted by Harrison.Smith

A regional in Austin would be awesome!

A regional in El Paso or Corpus Christi would actually be my preference.
Those regions need the most help to build volunteer bases and team growth.

[JohnSchneider]

Its always next year. :eyeroll:

[Michael Blake]

Originally Posted by JohnSchneider

Its always next year. :eyeroll:

BAZINGA!!