POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events

[EmileH]

I'm happy that we had a 1/2 and 1/2 mix of events in NE this year. Several teams, notably 1519 for NE, do not compete on Sundays do to their religious background. However, many other teams prefer Friday-Sunday District Events so that they don't miss as much school. I personally don't mind either, and I think that the decision comes down to the priorities of the team members, and having the choice is best.

[rwodonnell]

Originally Posted by EmileH

I'm happy that we had a 1/2 and 1/2 mix of events in NE this year. Several teams, notably 1519 for NE, do not compete on Sundays do to their religious background.

I agree that that mix would be ideal. Unfortunately, of the 10 NE district events, only 3 were Thu-Sat, and two of those were the same weekend (Easter weekend). It makes me wonder if those would also have been Fri-Sun in a year when Easter is after competition season, as it (almost) is in 2017 (April 16th, 2017 - only the 2champs are after Easter). In NE, only the Pine Tree event was Thu-Sat on a "normal" weekend, and because of the double on Easter weekend, had to be the 2nd event choice for teams needing a Thu-Sat event. I hope next year there are a couple more Thur-Sat events to choose from in NE.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by rwodonnell

I agree that that mix would be ideal. Unfortunately, of the 10 NE district events, only 3 were Thu-Sat, and two of those were the same weekend (Easter weekend). It makes me wonder if those would also have been Fri-Sun in a year when Easter is after competition season, as it (almost) is in 2017 (April 16th, 2017 - only the 2champs are after Easter). In NE, only the Pine Tree event was Thu-Sat on a "normal" weekend, and because of the double on Easter weekend, had to be the 2nd event choice for teams needing a Thu-Sat event. I hope next year there are a couple more Thur-Sat events to choose from in NE.

Venue selection has a lot of facets to it. Many of the venues used in New England are extremely busy, with many sports, concerts and event schedules to work around. Many events fell to Fri-Sun due to scheduling constraints at venues. In an ideal world we could satisfy every requirement, but unfortunately last years cards landed heavy on Fri-Sun events.

Its quite a balancing act to schedule all of the events that satisfy 1. Budgets 2. Competition season schedules 3. Geographic requirements 4. Volunteer breakdowns, etc.

-Brando

[rwodonnell]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

Its quite a balancing act to schedule all of the events that satisfy 1. Budgets 2. Competition season schedules 3. Geographic requirements 4. Volunteer breakdowns, etc.

I certainly don't want to suggest that it's easy! I was just making a hopeful statement that next year will have a more even split. Please know we are all very grateful to the volunteers for all the work that goes into these events, not the least of which, I'm sure, is the planning phase that lays the groundwork!

[kristinweiss]

As a college student, I am 100% in favor of Friday-Sunday events, primarily because my GPA cannot afford to miss the extra day of class. While a rest day on Sunday can be nice, I much prefer to suck it up on Monday and not get behind on class material or lower my grade by missing a mandatory class, and I feel like most college student volunteers can agree with that.

[Brian Maher]

Originally Posted by jgerstein

As much as I enjoy the rest day after a Thursday/Friday/Saturday competition, I went with Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

Unfortunately, while each individual competition is not a big deal, the missed days add up and all happen very close to each other. Missing five days over the course of the year is inconvenient but can be dealt with, but missing five days over the course of three weeks right before AP tests for DCMP and CMP definitely caused some concern at my school this year. If I were pulling my students out of school for two or three Fridays (and potentially Thursday if we travel to an event) in the six weeks before that, we'd be pushing the limits of what our students, parents, teachers, and administration would accept.

This comment sums up my views when I was a student pretty well, considering I was one of jgerstein's students.

1257's school is a challenging all-honors/AP school. With the block schedule system they use, missing a day of school meant missing an hour and a half in each of four rather difficult classes. On top of the baseline onslaught of homework, it was a hassle to catch up, and when AP classes with AP exams mere weeks away are thrown into the mix, missed days become a real PITA. My senior year, a TFS event could have easily cost me four or five hours of AP class time.

FSS events help keep students sane, especially ones with a challenging courseload. I am very glad MAR ran FSS events my senior year and that MARCMP fell during my spring break.

Originally Posted by NorthernTaco

As a college student, I am 100% in favor of Friday-Sunday events, primarily because my GPA cannot afford to miss the extra day of class. While a rest day on Sunday can be nice, I much prefer to suck it up on Monday and not get behind on class material or lower my grade by missing a mandatory class, and I feel like most college student volunteers can agree with that.

Last semester, I was fortunate to only have two hours of class on Fridays. If I had the schedule I have this upcoming semester, I would have missed a total of 21 hours of class due to events (7 hours of class on Fridays, and three TFS events). As a conscientious student who hates missing class and having to play catch-up, I would much rather have the choice of skipping all/some/no classes on Monday than be forced to skip all of them on Friday.

[Greg Hainsworth]

A point that need to be considered here with a TFS event schedule.

Most of these competitions are held in high schools. In our area, all visitors need to be checked in through the main office. A Friday event of qualifying rounds would essentially require the school to be closed. You couldn’t secure the school with all the spectators. There would aslo be nowhere to park because the lots would be reserved for buses, teachers, and students.

Our school districts would never allow it.

[ASD20]

Originally Posted by Greg Hainsworth

A point that need to be considered here with a TFS event schedule.

Most of these competitions are held in high schools. In our area, all visitors need to be checked in through the main office. A Friday event of qualifying rounds would essentially require the school to be closed. You couldn’t secure the school with all the spectators. There would aslo be nowhere to park because the lots would be reserved for buses, teachers, and students.

Our school districts would never allow it.

There was a discussion on this somewhere in the California District thread. Apparently FIM and PNW have most of their events TFS in high schools. I thought the exact same thing as you, but it has been done before.

[Michael Kaurich]

Originally Posted by ASD20

There was a discussion on this somewhere in the California District thread. Apparently FIM and PNW have most of their events TFS in high schools. I thought the exact same thing as you, but it has been done before.

It is a regional thing. Maryland public schools typically do not allow this to happen due to how the schools are booked for "extra curricular events" that FIRST tends to fall under for their purposes. Like most things it boils down to liability and how a locality deals with it.