New Regionals in 2008

[Andrew Schuetze]

I would presume that FIRST and the various regional event directors will schedule the multiple events in a region to not coincide so that teams can attend two regionals without the travel issues as already mentioned.

The Oklahoma event comes at the right time as the Toltechs are just now looking at doing two regionals and championship if we win. We have been fortunate to win our way and pay our way to Atlanta and then travel this year without a robot to Atlanta.

Our plans are to attend the OK regional early in the season and then continue to compete in the Lone Star regional. I expect that a significant number of the LSR teams will do the OK regional with another portion going back to the New Orleans event. It will be nice to compete against some of those Kansas teams that have ventured south to Houston in the past.

Along that line, we need a new regional in Central our South Texas. I so want to make that happen but need to make lots more $$$ contacts. The small step forward was hosting the local Kick-off here in San Antonio.

[laurenlacy]

What's the story behind Minneapolis? FIRST has been pretty weak up in Minnesota in the past, so who's leading the charge to bring more teams to the area?

^sorry I messed up the whole quoting thinger...

I know that we(team 1816) have been spending countless hours trying to increase the FIRST presence in MN, directly influencing the formation of 5 teams and indirectly influencing another 9. We came home last year from competitions really excited to spread the program into MN, and made that one of our primary goals.

We missed a lot of school(haha) to go travel and promote FIRST Robotics in local high schools, and have established an excellent reputation within our own community, which is getting noticed by local and state media.

We also worked with Susan Lawrence to promote FIRST in MN by setting up a FIRST booth at a science and technology conference at the MN Science Museum, which was attended by 1000s of HS students.

Another major contributing factor to the growth in MN is a partnership we established with Medtronic, which led to Medtronic partnering with Boston Scientific to help sponsor many of the new MN teams. When we approached Medtronic to ask them to sponsor us they thought the program was so cool that they told us it was our job to start new teams.

We also had a presentation for Medtronic employees explaining how inspiring the FIRST program is, and asking them to mentor new teams, which helped secure mentors for new teams. This made it significantly easier for the teams, because they had funds available and mentors... so thank you very much BS and Medtronic!

One of our mentors, Mark Lawrence, has also been working tirelessly to establish contacts in high schools and help them start programs, and then Ken Rosen, MN Regional Director, has also been working very hard to generate interest in the program by traveling to high schools.

I also know that many of our mentee teams are excited to help start their own teams, so be prepared for the MN FIRST presence to get large very quickly.

Haha... a very long winded explanation for a very short sentence... but basically the growth in MN is due to the focused efforts of many, many people interested in seeing FIRST expand beyond LEGO League in MN.

[teammember_342]

Honolulu, HI

What Honolulu? Which team would be willing to go to this island? There are only a few team on Hawaii anyway.

[Kelly]

I thought the Oklahoma regional was cool, but I was surprised it was in OKC and not Norman, at OU.

[angelc24]

I love the city of Minneapolis. I've visited it many times and have always found something interesting to do. I was looking in that area of the country for college and was disapointed to find few FIRST teams. I'm glad that FIRST is creating a regional there and will definitly encourage my team to go (as well as my family members that live in Minneapolis!).

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schuetze

The small step forward was hosting the local Kick-off here in San Antonio.

That small step was fantastic Andrew. The engine shop/classroom in the hanger where the rack was set up and where we picked up our KoPs was so neat. It added to the KicK Off and challenge. And as a Central Texas team, the San Antonio location saved us travel time and money which is always appreciated.

[TKM.368]

Originally Posted by teammember_342

Honolulu, HI

What Honolulu? Which team would be willing to go to this island? There are only a few team on Hawaii anyway.

Hawaii teams have been hard to maintain since participating in FIRST >ALWAYS< meant out of state travel. At the moment, we look to be going from 4 Hawaii teams for 2007 to at least 15 in 2008 *cross fingers*.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by teammember_342

Honolulu, HI

What Honolulu? Which team would be willing to go to this island? There are only a few team on Hawaii anyway.

Check the other thread. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=57121 It's all but full already That is, if registration was open.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

A lot of Minnesota teams went to the Wisconsin Regional this year, only adding to the greatness of the regional. However, I think with a new regional starting in Minnesota, teams will be split between Minnesota and Wisconsin and will have to make a choice. I'm very excited to see even more teams spring up next year, hopefully as a result of Boston Scientific and Medtronic sponsoring even more teams. They did a great job this year.

Same thing happened to the Midwest Regional with the inception of the Boilermaker Regional. Nearly all of the "powerhouse" teams decided to go to Boilermaker instead of Chicago, dropping the strength and reputation of the Midwest Regional, IMHO.

I see sort of the same thing happening to either the Wisconsin Regional or the Minnesota Regional... could also adversely affect the Midwest Regional, again lowering the number of attending teams.

Some members of 648, not me, want to go to Minnesota. I'm not in favor of it ... I want to get away from the Midwest for once, but not the Midwest Regional. I wish we could be like 25, 234, 233, etc. and travel to some exotic regional every year.

[kawelch]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schuetze

Our plans are to attend the OK regional early in the season and then continue to compete in the Lone Star regional. I expect that a significant number of the LSR teams will do the OK regional with another portion going back to the New Orleans event. It will be nice to compete against some of those Kansas teams that have ventured south to Houston in the past.

Except most the Kansas Teams will go to the Greater Kansas City Regional. Which I humbly invite you to come to....

[Barry Bonzack]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schuetze

Our plans are to attend the OK regional early in the season and then continue to compete in the Lone Star regional.

I am extremely excited to hear that Oklahoma will now have their own regional. The arena in OKC will be a great venue, and Bricktown is an awesome place with fun things to do and places to eat. I have gotten word that they are working on making one killer social event, I'll let that information be saved when the planning committee is ready for an official announcement. I am hoping this regional will spark many new teams to form in Oklahoma.

I plan to attend, and I am encouraging my friends in Florida to go to this regional (I am not sure how successful I will be at it). I am curious though, what information is there that it will be early in the season? This would conflict with the Florida Regional.

[dtengineering]

Glad to hear that the Seattle event is a "go" for next year. I think the Seattle regional will be a big boost for growing FRC here in Vancouver as the chances of getting sponsors and such to come down to Seattle (6 hour round-trip drive) are much greater than getting them to come down to Portland (12 hour round trip). As good as the streaming video is, even Discovery's 360 degree pit-cam doesn't make up for being there when it comes to plain old jaw-dropping awesomeness. We might even be able to bring a few more rookies along with us next year as we try to increase our numbers here in BC with a goal to getting a Vancouver regional off the ground in the next few years. (Although I understand every hockey rink in town is booked up in Feb/March of 2010 for some reason... it might have to wait...)

I have to say, though, that the decision to drop Portland from our schedule will be a tough one. Memorial Colliseum is a great venue (from a competition viewpoint I would rather see a two-field super-regional in Portland than one in Portland and one in Seattle... the pit area at Portland could handle close to 100 teams and if you haven't played at GTR in a two-field year then you don't know what you're missing) and the whole Rose Garden / Convention Centre District / Fareless Square (free and fast trains to downtown) makes it very easy to take students to Portland... and that is not even mentioning the great job the organizing committee and volunteers do there!

I'm looking forward to more info on the Seattle regional, including dates and venue.... but I know the students are far more interested in that whole Hawaii thing.... so is one of our teachers, but he's sailed there the last two time he's gone. I don't think we'll be doing that...

Jason

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

Glad to hear that the Seattle event is a "go" for next year. I think the Seattle regional will be a big boost for growing FRC here in Vancouver as the chances of getting sponsors and such to come down to Seattle (6 hour round-trip drive) are much greater than getting them to come down to Portland (12 hour round trip). As good as the streaming video is, even Discovery's 360 degree pit-cam doesn't make up for being there when it comes to plain old jaw-dropping awesomeness. We might even be able to bring a few more rookies along with us next year as we try to increase our numbers here in BC with a goal to getting a Vancouver regional off the ground in the next few years. (Although I understand every hockey rink in town is booked up in Feb/March of 2010 for some reason... it might have to wait...)

I have to say, though, that the decision to drop Portland from our schedule will be a tough one. Memorial Colliseum is a great venue (from a competition viewpoint I would rather see a two-field super-regional in Portland than one in Portland and one in Seattle... the pit area at Portland could handle close to 100 teams and if you haven't played at GTR in a two-field year then you don't know what you're missing) and the whole Rose Garden / Convention Centre District / Fareless Square (free and fast trains to downtown) makes it very easy to take students to Portland... and that is not even mentioning the great job the organizing committee and volunteers do there!

I'm looking forward to more info on the Seattle regional, including dates and venue.... but I know the students are far more interested in that whole Hawaii thing.... so is one of our teachers, but he's sailed there the last two time he's gone. I don't think we'll be doing that...

Jason

You could fly on Hawaiian airlines which flies directly to you! In fact, we will be possibly going to Vancouver from Seattle next month for an electric vehicle event.

[FunkyRatDemon]

Originally Posted by KTorak

Portland vs. Seattle is the same GLR vs. DET regional debate. Some teams only choose one over the over (for MANY reasons) and some teams go to both because they can do it without over night expenses. Team 1023 goes to GLR because we have been there since our team was founded and we have a great presence (many teams and volunteers know us year after year). Then our 2nd regional is usually one we like to travel to so we don't attend DET.

We'll be going to Portland and Seattle next year
Sorry UC Davis...

[Andrew Schuetze]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

We might even be able to bring a few more rookies along with us next year as we try to increase our numbers here in BC with a goal to getting a Vancouver regional off the ground in the next few years. Jason

What does it take team wise in order to host a regional? I beleive that the San Diego folks put together a three year plan and started something like 10 new teams before they put together their regional for this year.
This would be in addition to the rent for a venue for the four days plus meal costs for volunteers, field rent, and I don't know what else. Did OKC start a bunch of teams in the area? I read a previous post about Hawaii using the regional to start new teams. Something of a chicken or the egg first thing