POLL: Friday-Sunday events vs Thursday-Saturday events

[BrendanB]

Depends if I'm at a district event or a regional/traditional District Championship.

Competing Friday-Sunday at a district event is great. Of the seven events I've competed at since NE moved to districts in 2014 four of those were Friday-Sunday. The main benefit here was no one needed to take off time except for a few of us mentors had to leave work a little early on some Fridays to transport kids and equipment to the venue for 5pm load in. Some students stayed back from load in and this is a great time to have some kids catch up on homework before the weekend. With districts putting events closer to teams it meant we only had at most a 1 hour drive to get home. So far I haven't found myself as exhausted on Sundays after competing all weekend but its a different story for volunteers. Making two of our events Friday-Sunday allowed us to go to three district events.

In 2014 we went to a Wednesday-Thursday event which was really cool. Two full days off of school/work but we had a nice long weekend to recharge. It was also our first event of the year so it doubled as our end of build season rest.

Friday-Sunday is really popular in districts because it is only two full days of competition with an evening the night before. Under regionals/DCMPs where you have three full days of competition, plus load in/inspection the night before, and the event requires more time to commute to a Sunday finish sounds brutal and I'm glad they have kept it to Wednesday-Saturday.

It is nice to have committees working to keep a balance. This year NE saw more Sunday events due to extreme situations but we know they work hard to keep Saturday events on the table for teams.

[ollien]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Depends if I'm at a district event or a regional/traditional District Championship.

Competing Friday-Sunday at a district event is great. Of the seven events I've competed at since NE moved to districts in 2014 four of those were Friday-Sunday. The main benefit here was no one needed to take off time except for a few of us mentors had to leave work a little early on some Fridays to transport kids and equipment to the venue for 5pm load in. Some students stayed back from load in and this is a great time to have some kids catch up on homework before the weekend. With districts putting events closer to teams it meant we only had at most a 1 hour drive to get home. So far I haven't found myself as exhausted on Sundays after competing all weekend but its a different story for volunteers. Making two of our events Friday-Sunday allowed us to go to three district events.

In 2014 we went to a Wednesday-Thursday event which was really cool. Two full days off of school/work but we had a nice long weekend to recharge. It was also our first event of the year so it doubled as our end of build season rest.

Friday-Sunday is really popular in districts because it is only two full days of competition with an evening the night before. Under regionals/DCMPs where you have three full days of competition, plus load in/inspection the night before, and the event requires more time to commute to a Sunday finish sounds brutal and I'm glad they have kept it to Wednesday-Saturday.

It is nice to have committees working to keep a balance. This year NE saw more Sunday events due to extreme situations but we know they work hard to keep Saturday events on the table for teams.

Friday-Sunday regionals generally have load-in on Thursday evening, rather than Friday. District events are two day events, if you don't include load-in.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by ollien

Friday-Sunday regionals generally have load-in on Thursday evening, rather than Friday. District events are two day events, if you don't include load-in.

Correct. In districts we include the load in night more in our discussions because it involves load-in, inspection, and practice time starting at 5pm. It typically is called Day 0 on schedules.

[Wayne Doenges]

Having done several Saturday-Sunday District event and then going to work on Monday and having to OD on Mt. Dew, I would prefer Thursday - Saturday.

[Gregor]

Totally surprised at how close this poll is given that anyone who wants Sunday events with a Monday commitment's opinion is wrong

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Totally surprised at how close this poll is given that anyone who wants Sunday events with a Monday commitment's opinion is wrong

Someday you too will have a job and limited vacation days.

I can confirm it's really quite a miserable Monday to go back to work, but the extra day of time off that I actually get to spend relaxing, later in the year, is worth it.

[Koko Ed]

Sunday is getaway day for me (because FIRST events are a physical, mental and emotional drain I like to stay overnight, if possible, to get a good night's rest so I can travel home safely) so I need the traditional model otherwise I would have to use a vacation day for driving home.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Totally surprised at how close this poll is given that anyone who wants Sunday events with a Monday commitment's opinion is wrong

The answer is different when you are in the district system. Our first year in districts we took five days out of school for two district events and district champs. This doesn't count load in days which meant some mentors had to leave 3x slightly early to make it. We are also pretty centrally located in the region but for many teams, load in day at a regional or district means a full day of travel so that adds on another three days.

Then Champs takes another 3-6 days depending on how you travel. In 2014 it added another 5 days to the out of school/no work days.

Its a whole different story when you bump from 1-2 events before Champs to 3-5.

[Drakxii]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Totally surprised at how close this poll is given that anyone who wants Sunday events with a Monday commitment's opinion is wrong

I voted Fri-Sun, as if I have to take 2 vacation days I would rather take a Friday and Monday off then a Thursday and Friday. A Monday off is far more relaxing then a Sunday.

Also flights are cheaper on Monday.

[AndrewPospeshil]

For me personally, I would love for FiM to have Sat/Sun districts with Friday load-in. My team does three districts a year if we can swing it, plus DCMP and CMP. That's a day of school missed for each district, two for states, and three for worlds. My school allows ten absences a semester before credit is lost, so I basically have to pray that I don't get really sick between January and June.

I understand the concern with Sundays off for churchgoers and recovery, but I'm personally more concerned with people like my poor father using all his vacation days at work. Add in other misc. events throughout the year that require him to take the day off, illness, or an actual vacation, and he's left with little wiggle room. (sorry dad, love you!)

My idea of a "solution" would be a good mix of events. In Districts, each event's days could be decided on by the Event Coordinator or host team based on venue restrictions, attending teams' thoughts, and any other regional factors. I think a "day of rest" is a lot more valuable for longer events like DCMPs and CMPs, but for a two day district I think it's worth it to struggle through a post-District Monday if it means you get an extra absence/vacation day elsewhere in the year.

[stingray27]

In general, it looks like students have a tendency to favor the Thurs-Sat model where mentors favor the Fri-Sunday model (IMO)

The vacation days are super valuable for a mentor and missing work for a competition takes those valuable days away.

For a student, missing school seems to be a bit less of a problem. Personally, missing school for a competition taught me how to be responsible for my own learning and how to arrange study groups outside of the classroom. My fellow teammates and I would study and work on missed class work together and I actually learned quite a bit from these external study sessions. Now this might not work for everyone - some students may learn 10x better in the classroom. At the same time, I really needed Sunday as a rest day. Most involved students are on their feet for days, using their brains constantly, and get very little sleep. If I didn't have Sunday to recover, sleep and do all of my homework, my grades would have drastically dropped.

[niklas674]

Originally Posted by stingray27

In general, it looks like students have a tendency to favor the Thurs-Sat model where mentors favor the Fri-Sunday model (IMO)

The vacation days are super valuable for a mentor and missing work for a competition takes those valuable days away.

For a student, missing school seems to be a bit less of a problem. Personally, missing school for a competition taught me how to be responsible for my own learning and how to arrange study groups outside of the classroom. My fellow teammates and I would study and work on missed class work together and I actually learned quite a bit from these external study sessions. Now this might not work for everyone - some students may learn 10x better in the classroom. At the same time, I really needed Sunday as a rest day. Most involved students are on their feet for days, using their brains constantly, and get very little sleep. If I didn't have Sunday to recover, sleep and do all of my homework, my grades would have drastically dropped.

I have to agree. We did one Friday-Sunday event this year and two Thursday-Saturday events. We had to travel about 4 hours for our Friday-Sunday event so we didn't get back until about midnight. Going to school the next day was absolutely brutal. While our two Thursday-Saturday provided plenty of time to rest and recover. It made going back to school so much easier.

[edesirim]

Originally Posted by niklas674

I have to agree. We did one Friday-Sunday event this year and two Thursday-Saturday events. We had to travel about 4 hours for our Friday-Sunday event so we didn't get back until about midnight. Going to school the next day was absolutely brutal.

I definitely have to agree. Being a senior this year is going to be a challenge with the Friday - Sunday events which leaves me all wiped out. Hopefully there will be some lenience from my teachers