Information on Hosting Needed

[Kymber]

Thank you all this has been very informative, sounds a lot like planning a regional. I know what the budget for a regional is, how does an offseason event compare? Is it much cheaper or is it about the same? I think it will be a bit cheaper since you can get the venue donated, especially if you use a school, but do you have to run electric. Do you do your own scoring or do you have to rent this from FIRST as well? I'm just full of questions I know, I just want to have as much knowledge to pass on as I can. I like to know what I'm talking about when presenting to someone and I try not to pull the, can I get back to you on that if I can avoid it. I'm sure there will be questions I haven't thought of but that always happens, people like to know different things. We don't really have to worry about the tent thing, here in Texas you'd have to be out of your mind to do anything in a tent, if it's not hot and humid it's raining for the most part. Again Thank Y'all, ok I had to get one in, I've already corrected my grammar a few times

[Billfred]

FIRST, apparently, isn't sending out the ball counting system for off-seasons. You can do the clickers like the backup system they used during the later regionals and Championship, or you can go with a computerized system. (Talk to Mike Walker, miketwalker on here, if you're interested in the latter. His system kicked butt at Mayhem, and just required sacrificing a keyboard and a little bit of soldering.)

[Ken Leung]

Originally Posted by Kymber

Thank you all this has been very informative, sounds a lot like planning a regional. I know what the budget for a regional is, how does an offseason event compare? Is it much cheaper or is it about the same? I think it will be a bit cheaper since you can get the venue donated, especially if you use a school, but do you have to run electric. Do you do your own scoring or do you have to rent this from FIRST as well? I'm just full of questions I know, I just want to have as much knowledge to pass on as I can. I like to know what I'm talking about when presenting to someone and I try not to pull the, can I get back to you on that if I can avoid it. I'm sure there will be questions I haven't thought of but that always happens, people like to know different things. We don't really have to worry about the tent thing, here in Texas you'd have to be out of your mind to do anything in a tent, if it's not hot and humid it's raining for the most part. Again Thank Y'all, ok I had to get one in, I've already corrected my grammar a few times

From my experience, an offseason event is definitely much cheaper than a regional competition. In the past Cal Game's venue is free to use, except for some minimal custodial fee, and we never went for any fancy lighting setup.

You do have to run electrical, but depending on your venue, it's usually not a big deal. Worse come the worst, you can limit teams on the use of tools in the pit area, because if you don't, you may blow a circuit breaker or two in some cases.

If you are experienced with regional planning, then you know a lot about planning for an off season already. The only difference is, the budget is a lot smaller, and you are counting on a lot more volunteer support than in a regional, where you have money to hire professionals for a lot of the jobs. In an offseason event, if you want to save as much money as possible, virtually all jobs are filled by volunteers. Depending on how many teams are participating, you may that very easy or very hard to do.

As for the field/scoring system, it is of course best to get it from FIRST. You would have to talk to the Engineering department about that since they are in charged of the fields, but the only limitation there is how much fund you have to ship and field/scoring system to and from New Hampshire.

[KathieK]

I think it would be great if someone compiled all this into a white paper. I'd like to publish it on NEMO then as well...

[Ken Leung]

Originally Posted by KathieK

I think it would be great if someone compiled all this into a white paper. I'd like to publish it on NEMO then as well...

Agree. If I am not so busy figuring things out for Cal Games, I would work on that. Tell you what, once the event is over, I will take a look at the Cal Games Handbook and compile everything from the 06' event in there, and put together a little something.

Hopefully folks won't have to keep relearning lessons as we move forward.

-Ken L

[Jeremiah Johnson]

This would be awesome as a white paper. It would make my effort to get an offseason even here in the QCA a bit easier. We have the perfect place at Sherrard with 3 fullsize gyms, there's hotels within 20 minutes although it's a rural school, and I think 648 could muster up the man power to run it. I just need a formal way to present it to my team most definitely don't have the time right now. I would be utterly indebt to the person that made the white paper.