Off-Season in Richmond?!

[Sachiel7]

Hello Teams!
This thread is to discuss the interest in having an off-season competition in the Richmond (VA) area, hosted by the one and only RAPTAR Robotics!

So:
-Who's interested?
-How much would you be willing to pay for registration($50-250)?
-Names, anyone? (Richmond Riot?, Richmond Rampage? (Richmond doesn't need to be in the name, just a few quick ideas...))
-How long do you think it should last?(1-3 days)
-What time Period should it be?(Pre-Season, Mid-Season(Practice), or right after nats?)

For those teams who've run off seasons:
-What extra equipment is required? I know field operations equip., you can build it out of a trip to radio shack.
-What do you use to keep track of score? Excel?
-Do you have a special prize, or just trophies?
-What is your process for lining up the matches?
-Where do you get your field (Is it your field, or do you "borrow" it from the nearest regional?)
-Space: Do you hold it at your school (I think most of the events I've looked at are at schools, and since we're a homeschooling team, we don't have "facilities". So, we'd either need to partner with another team who's willing to open up their space, or find some space (like a church) that has enough room. I figure a large enough gym for the field, and some large rooms for pits.)

So, what do you think?

[Joe Matt]

Standing for myself, I would love to help a Richmond event, but I need to see if my team would attend. I think I posted a topic about this before, do a search. I don't think there was a HUGE amount of interest, but if it happened, people would go. I know we would, along with 1086, 422, and mabey even Godwin and Hermatige (sp?).

[Sachiel7]

Cool. I think I might start browsing team's forums and asking them directly. Not too many teams in the area are browsin the ol' CD yet.

[Joe Matt]

Here's the thread...

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=21443

[Erin Rapacki]

Last year I started from scratch with the organization of Beantown Blitz... it didn't happen in the end (tho we got 70% of the way there), but we are giving another whack at it for the upcoming 2004 season. (and it'll be so much easier because I know so much more)

There's a lot to learn, and a lot to know. I'd recommend trying to help out on a regional committee to see how they set things up, and if your event is later in the year... help out at off-season comps too. I recieved invaluable experience by being a ref at PARC, doing staging at WPI, helping with set up the field at WPI and a West Suffield gig, and judging at IRI. Get first-hand experience... you build a network that way as well.

-Call FIRST directly for the field, you just have to send people (a truck) to pick it up. But every offseason comp this year was able to get a real field directly from FIRST.

-you have to provide the carpet yourselves tho, borrow one from a regional, ask a neighboring team who has one, or buy one yourself. You also need people to sew the carpet together...

-I was told last year that better off-season FIRST field software will be coming out this year, so you won't have to make your own scoring program.

-awards, trophies, prizes... those are clearly up to you and your team. They are often original, catering to the setting of the event. They are usual kept fun.

ga... i gotta run, feel free to ask more questions



ByE

erin

[Sachiel7]

Thanks alot!
I've tried to contact some local teams by email, or by their own forums. I'll post back here with any results that form.
We're looking at building a mock field out of carpet, PVC, and wood. We'll use it for our own practice, as well as for any practice meets, or off-season events.
I think we're pretty set on having a practice meet this year during build time. This may give us a chance to test out our Off-Season setup. We'll see.
In the mean time, keep those suggestions rolling!

[Erin Rapacki]

Oh... well in that case, I'd recommend getting in touch with Team 176, Aces High. They do a good job of hosting the UTC scrimmage the last weekend of build season. They too, are able to get a real field from FIRST... but in the past, teams have build their own.

The scrimmages during build season are a little more informal, which makes organizing them a lot easier. Just expect for teams to either not show up or have robots that aren't working. Make sure tools are available. Many teams may be testing out their robots for the first time... so things could get interesting.

Originally posted by Erin Rapacki
-Call FIRST directly for the field, you just have to send people (a truck) to pick it up. But every offseason comp this year was able to get a real field directly from FIRST.

The one thing I remember about this topic is that FIRST is very picky about field pickup. When they say send a truck to pick up the field, you can't send Joe Schmo from team XX with his Dodge Ram to pick up field parts...When they say send a truck, you pretty much have to get FedEx, UPS, or another shipping company (IRI used BAX Global) to go and pick up the field. Thats one very important thing you need to know if you want a field from FIRST.

[camtunkpa]

As far as getting the field, FIRST is very stringent in the manner you are going to transport it. Be sure to contact FIRST ahead of time to make sure you have the right size truck because they almost didn't let us haul the arena in the truck we had this year. Another world to the wise, organization is the key!

Cliff
222 Alum.

[Sachiel7]

Hey thanks for the feedback guys. I'm not too sure whether or not we'll get a FIRST field. Do they charge for renting it?
How much space will it take?
Do they provide field operations equipment?

Just curious. I think we actually want to build our own full field this year for our team, and we'll use it at our practice and off-season(if it flies)
Also, I want to hear some name ideas!
How about:
"2004 1st-Annual RAPTAR Rampage"?
I dunno. We need a name!
Both for the practice event, and Off-season (I think we want to intertwine them)

[Sachiel7]

Well, We're setting our Sights for the 1st-Annual RAPTAR RAMPAGE Scrimmage to be hitting the Virginia Science Museum Sometime in February 2004!
I have one question I need answered:

CARPET!

What type of carpet is Used? Nylon?
How do you section it off, connect it, disconnect it?
Where did you get yours from?
About how much did it cost?
I need these things answered because I can't seem to find the right kind of carpet, or pricing. I need this as the final piece of the mischievous price puzzle, so I can give an estimate of the overall field costs, and I think the carpet is the largest chunk.
I think we'll have enough money to build one though, hopefully.
My idea for carpet was just to have a bunch of 12x32 (or something like that) rolls that somehow get quickly stitched together (with a small handheld sewing machine thing) and then taped over the seams. To take 'em down, you just remove the tape and cut down the line of the seam to disconnect the pieces. The carpet would get pretty fuzzy lookin after a while though

Anyway, let me know. We only have so many days before I have to work some of the details out.

Oh, and here's a current Team interest list:

Teams interested in Scrimmage/Off season:
-----------------------------------------
384 - J.R. Tucker
619 - CARobotics
1123 - AIM Robotics

Teams that MAY be interested (no direct affirmations):
------------------------------------------------------
388 - Grundy Robotics
414 - Hermitage Technical Center
422 - M.W. Gov. School, Mechtechs
540 - Godwin High Robotics
1086 - Deep Run High

[mtrawls]

Team 122 might be interested ... I have to talk about it with the guys in charge, though. Some details would be nice about how you plan to run the event -- even if it is just rampant speculation and nothing is even remotely set in stone yet.

[Sachiel7]

The main event in our focus right now is the RAPTAR Rampage Scrimmage.
We plan to host this scrimmage at the Science Museum of VA during most of the day (we're shooting for 10AM-5PM) During the end of build time, on a Saturday. I think we're shooting for Feb. 14th (end of fifth week, I think?). It's basically an open field/pit. Just bring your bot whenever you're available, and we'll run practice matches whenever anyone is ready. For those who've been to the Washington DC Practice event, this will be extremely similar.
None of the details are set in stone as of yet, but this year we're planning on constructing a full field for our own practice, that we'll use for the scrimmage as well.
This is a good way to meet other teams, see some other bots, "work out the kinks" and so forth. It's also fun!
This event will also help us gain experience in running field operations and so forth for our RAPTAR RAMPAGE Competition, currently suggested in may or fall of 2004.
I'll post back here when we get some solid results. Until then, keep givin' that feedback (I'm still looking for carpet)

[Joe Matt]

1.) Have you heard from VA Science Center that it's ok?
2.) Talk to Ms. Cook, the VA Regional head.
3.) Talk to Di Tomzack (sp?) with team 422.
4.) Get LOADS of money

Also, unless you talked with our team head, I would be able to go as myself, not as 384.

[Sachiel7]

I've just put teams that have named any amount of interest under the top list(even if it's just one member so far). Make sure you mention it to your team though. I'm putting together a section of our website and a forum for the RAMPAGE events; I'll post here when they're up.
Actually, I've been working with Patty and Dee all summer
They know me by name now(as if they didn't before... ). We are talking with them, but we want to try and do most of it ourselves so we get the experience. Also, we have 2 contacts at the VA Science Museum, one of which is a Judge at the VCU Regional, the other works strongly with FLL. I think it's fairly safe to say that with the contacts we have, they know who we are, and where we're coming from, so that won't be a big issue.
Our main problem right now is the field. We're still trying to come up with an inventory list/price list. I need some feedback on this or we might end up spending too much money...
As for gathering money, I'm not sure if we'll end up paying for anything other than our own practice field. I'm pretty sure that if Science Museum gave us their space, they'd do it for free (as a donation, of course )
And we have all the other equipment we need.