BAE and Mid-Atlantic

[Pin Man]

Why did they schedule the Mid-Atlantic Regional on the same weekend as the BAE Regional?!!?

http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2004/rgevents.htm

[Bill Gold]

FIRST Regional Directors don't think to themselves "How can I make two nearby Regionals on the same weekend to make teams in that area upset they can't attend both events." Event locations aren't available at FIRST's whims. Sometimes locations, for whatever reason, are only available one weekend of the competition period. Don't think they're out to get you. No offense, but I don't see why you're so upset that you won't be going to New Jersey [~280 miles away from Bridgewater] when there are 3 Regionals closer to you on different weekends [Hartford (~115 miles away from Bridgewater), New York City (~215 miles away from Bridgewater), and Long Island (~240 miles away from Bridgewater)].

You're lucky you have 5 Regionals less than 300 miles from your location. My team is lucky enough to have a regional in our hometown, and we're also lucky to have a 2nd year event in Sacramento, CA [~115 miles from San Jose], but if we wanted to go to another event [or if one of those events fills up before we can register] we'd be stuck going to either Los Angeles [~350 miles from San Jose], Pacific Northwest [~675 miles from San Jose], Phoenix [~715 miles from San Jose], or the first year Denver Regional [~1,300 miles from San Jose]. We're lucky compared to the Hawiians, Alaskans, Montanans, Brazilians, British, Germans, etc.

[Erin Rapacki]

Many of the teams who attend BAE also attend UTC. I know your team has an obligation to go to Mid-Atlantic, but UTC would be just as competitive and its only 1.5 hrs away from you guys. That's not too much of a difference from Manch.

[Pin Man]

Originally posted by Bill Gold
No offense, but I don't see why you're so upset that you won't be going to New Jersey [~280 miles away from Bridgewater] when there are 3 Regionals closer to you on different weekends [Hartford (~115 miles away from Bridgewater), New York City (~215 miles away from Bridgewater), and Long Island (~240 miles away from Bridgewater)].

Yes you are right but you just don't understand the history involved with us...

I bet we will be going to NJ...

[Wayne C.]

Originally posted by Pin Man
Why did they schedule the Mid-Atlantic Regional on the same weekend as the BAE Regional?!!?

http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2004/rgevents.htm

The first week of March was the ONLY weekend available in NJ. There was no coordinated effort to schedule them the same weekend. At least NY and Philly arenet on that weekend too.


And we hope you DO come to NJ- : )

WC

[Todd Derbyshire]

Looks like I will be needing more than a taxi cab to get to the Regional this year. UNH to Manchester 45 minutes UNH to NJ ummm looks like I'm missing some school oh well. I missed out on Jersey last year so I will be more than happy to attend this year.

[Rich Kressly]

Team 88 has been a long time attendee at the NJ event as 103 and many others have. In many ways, all of our teams "grew up" over the past seven years together which is what makes this event a real family atmosphere as well as a fierce competition. Kudos to the NJ Regional planning committee, Kim Keller and all of the people at J&J who have grown the event while maintaining its "true spirit of FIRST" feel for the seven years it has existed!

In 2002, our leadership (student officers and advisors) had to decide between Philly and NJ as the events were on the same weekend. Even though we are a PA team and we love the Philly event (2001 Champs and lots of fond memories thanks to Carol Kauffman and many others), we chose the event we had the most history with.

This is likely the same kind of tough decision TJ^2 is faced with today. The Tie-Dye, the large enthusiastic group, the quality robot and those big 88's have been a part of the Mid-Atlantic Regional for a long time. In the end, 88 will do what's best for them and everyone will respect that decision.

[Pin Man]

In case anyone was still interested in knowing we are going to sign up for the NJ Regional since its a Johnson and Johnson Regional and we do all our work at a J&J company building and we are going to try to get in the Long Island Regional