2008 Regional Registration Progress

[Karthik]

Mark,

You pretty explained the registration process the way I understand it, but I think there are a couple slight differences.

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

It's easier if you think of registration as involving three lists, in this order:
-- Team List = already in and guaranteed (either paid or it's your first Regional choice).
-- Wait List = paid (or first Regional choice), but waiting for additional slots to be opened up. In order of first registration or payment date.
-- Pending List = payment is pending (not an ordered list)

You don't necessarily have to be paid to be on a waitlist. When I login to TIMS, I have the option of adding 1114 to the waitlist of any full event. I had this option before we had made any payment arrangements with FIRST for any of our events.

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

For example, if you registered today for Hawaii as a third Regional, you would be added to the Pending count. As soon as FIRST received your P.O. or check you would be moved to the wait list behind the other teams that registered as a first Regional and teams that paid before you. The Pending count would go down by one. Finally, when the remaining unclaimed rookie slots are opened up, you might get one, the Regional Director might decide to make all the pits a little smaller to squeeze you in, or FIRST will work with you to find you space in another Regional.

As of right now, any team who registers for Hawaii would be added to the waitlist. The pending list only accepts teams when the regional has empty spots available. For example, GLR had a pending count of 18 teams a few days ago, and 1 open spot. When that 1 open spot was filled, the pending count dropped to 0. I've spoken to a few teams who were on that pending list, and they said they've been moved to the waitlist. (I'd ask more teams, but of course the pending lists are no longer viewable)

Again, this is just my interpretation of how the process works based on what I've read, observed and have been told. I could be terribly mistaken.

/edit/

Found this on the FIRST website: http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc...nt.aspx?id=462

Originally Posted by Registration Process for Additional Events and the Championship

When a team selects an additional regional event and/or the Championship, the team's selection will be "pending" until a FIRST acceptable form of payment is received. Once FIRST Finance has received an acceptable payment for your team, we will move the team's event status from "pending" to "registered".
Please understand that once all event spots are filled, any of the remaining "pending" teams who have not yet paid will be moved onto a waitlist for that event (even if this should occur prior to the payment deadline of 2/01/08). Therefore, no pending spot is guaranteed until a FIRST acceptable form of payment is received. See also: FRC Payment Terms.

[Mark McLeod]

1280 teams are registered. Less than thirty to go to match last year's total.
Teams don't seem to show up until they've been accepted into their first Regional, so there may be a bunch of teams sitting on some wait list for one of the many full Regionals. We have a couple here. Anyone else know of any teams that show up as registered, but didn't make it on to any published Regional list yet?

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Hi Karthik,

I did take some liberties in the interest of simplifying my earlier explanation.
I wasn't referring to the generic "wait list" term we see on TIMS. When we click that, TIMS lists us as payment pending anyway. It's that sub-division I'm referring to.

Sorry about mangling the example of Hawaii and the Pending count. I believe it proceeds that way, but the general public doesn't get to see the count going up and down after Open Capacity is reached.

After Open Capacity is reached and the Pending count goes to zero, FIRST calls everything not on the Team List the "wait list," however, it is my understanding that FIRST's wait list is just a common name for the paid list and the payment pending list. I bet they both still individually exist internally.
Really, just a first level division where other attributes may come into play for final team selection, as Kim referred to. I bet any pending team that pays moves to a higher spot on the wait list.

It seems reasonable for FIRST to give preference to paid entrants (or even partially paid entry fees) given how hard it is for many teams to raise the necessary cash. Just looking at last year's registration I saw a lot of teams signing up for events they didn't intend or couldn't afford to go to. I assume they were backup regionals or last minute maneuvering. Some must have been based on the hope that fundraising would go well.
I don't know what the incidence is of teams signing up and just not carrying through with payment, but awarding a spot to an unpaid team would risk wasting a slot and denying another team who could pay for it.

Anyone aware of any case of FIRST refunding payment, because a paid team didn't make it off the wait list?

[Mike Betts]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Anyone else know of any teams that show up as registered, but didn't make it on to any published Regional list yet?

Mark,

As of 3:30 PM EST today, there are 33 teams wait listed for a regional but not signed up for any regional yet.

Mike

[Richard Wallace]

As of this afternoon there are 1286 registered FRC teams shown on the FIRST site.

I assume Mike's 33 team figure above is accurate although I don't know its source, so the total of registered teams is 1319, a bit ahead of last year's final total. So any increase from here on is year-over-year growth.

405 total registration slots are shown as available, so overall registration is at 77% of published capacity.

Seventeen regionals are now at their published capacity: BAE Granite State, Midwest, Finger Lakes, Greater Kansas City, NASA VCU, Boilermaker, Detroit, Florida, Peachtree, Silicon Valley, Oklahoma City, Boston, Great Lakes, Hawaii, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and SBPLI Long Island. The 33 teams that Mike reported above are waitlisted for one of these "filled" regionals as their first regional. An unknown number of teams are waitlisted for one of these as a second regional. And six other regionals appear likely to reach their published capacity soon, because they have more teams pending than open spots.

Adding total registrations for all regionals and subtracting 1286 leaves 87 teams that are now confirmed for a second regional, and there are 203 teams shown as pending for a second regional. Total second regional participation is hard to predict now because of the unknown number of waitlisted teams.

Regional-by-regional and week-by-week figures follow:

Regional / Attending / Pending / Open

BAE Granite State / 42 / 0 / 0 
Midwest Chicago / 38 / 0 / 0 
New Jersey / 50 / 15 / 3 
Oregon / 30 / 14 / 24 
St. Louis / 30 / 17 / 8 
Week 1: / 190 / 46 / 35 / 84% full

Arizona / 37 / 1 / 17 
Finger Lakes / 34 / 0 / 0 
Greater Kansas City / 54 / 0 / 0 
NASA/VCU Richmond / 54 / 0 
San Diego / 29 / 10 / 9 
Week 2: / 208 / 11 / 26 / 89% full

Boilermaker / 32 / 0 / 0 
Brazil / 2 / 0 / 28 
Chesapeake / 39 / 11 / 15 
Connecticut / 36 / 9 / 34 
Detroit / 32 / 0 / 0 
Florida / 54 / 0 / 0 
Peachtree / 37 / 0 / 0 
Pittsburgh / 12 / 16 / 19 
Silicon Valley / 40 / 0 / 0 
Wisconsin / 47 / 8 / 7 
Week 3: / 331 / 44 / 103 / 76% full

Buckeye / 23 / 5 / 27 
Lone Star / 25 / 4 / 29 
Los Angeles / 35 / 8 / 7 
Microsoft Seattle / 22 / 2 / 10 
Oklahoma City / 37 / 0 / 0 
Davis/Sacramento / 19 / 10 / 15 
Waterloo / 11 / 4 / 15 
West Michigan / 27 / 12 / 17 
Israel / 4 / 0 / 38 
Week 4: / 203 / 46 / 158 / 56% full

Bayou / 32 / 2 / 22 
Boston / 45 / 0 / 0 
Colorado / 32 / 4 / 6 
Great Lakes / 54 / 0 / 0 
Greater Toronto / 42 / 8 / 12 
Hawaii / 29 / 5 / 0 
Las Vegas / 23 / 9 / 18 
Minnesota / 54 / 0 / 0 
Palmetto / 20 / 19 / 11 
Philadelphia / 36 / 0 / 0 
SBPLI Long Island / 34 / 0 / 0 
Week 5: / 401 / 47 / 69 / 72% full

New York City / 40 / 9 / 14 / 74% full

[Cory]

It'd be nice if they just released the wait list in numerical order from low to high. Then you see who wants to come, but have no idea of the order they are in.

[waialua359]

I agree that similar in the past, they should post the wait list, and in the order from high on the list to lowest. This would give teams an idea of whether they really have a shot of getting in or not. I know its also based on when payment is received, but still, at least it gives us an idea of who is trying to come also .

[Mark McLeod]

Speaking earlier of how Pending goes to zero when Open Capacity is reached I was interested to note that the Hawaii example I used seems to have been made retroactively correct.

Regional / Attending / Pending / Open
Hawaii / 29 / 5 / 0

Hawaii seems to be the only Regional where they're still posting the Pending count.

[waialua359]

Yes, the Hawaii one is a little different. They had to "fix" it this past week.

[Mark McLeod]

1312 teams, officially now more than last year.
177 teams ahead of this same time last year. Rookies only account for 54 of those. So far that's an 83% team retention rate bettering 1999's retention rate.

Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Hawaii lead with the most rookie teams.
Puerto Rico and several others are doing really well too. I'll have to talley them by territory/state/State.

Rookies by territory:
MN 34
OK 31
HI 21
CA 18
IL 12
AZ 11
MO 9
PR 8
WA 7
VA 6
NY 6
MD 6
MI 5
MA 5
OR 5
FL 5
PA 5
ON 3
KS 3
WI 3
NC 3
OH 3
NJ 3
IN 2
VT 2
ND 2
GA 2
NV 2
TX 2
NH 1
WY 1
SC 1
DE 1
UT 1
MS 1
QC 1
IS 1
UK 1

[Billfred]

I just now updated the missing list (my little jaunt to Brunswick Eruption ate into the time I normally use to update it); currently, the list stands at 227 missing teams, an 82.55% retention rate. Getting warmer...

[synth3tk]

Whoo, this is more exciting than the NFL draft!!! Seriously, those are some nice numbers up there.

[Mark McLeod]

A rookie team from Santiago, Chile just registered for the Great Lakes Regional.

Thanks for the catch. I'm just hungary I guess.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

A rookie team from Santiago, Chili just registered for the Great Lakes Regional.

Great news! Now that there is a FIRST team in Chile, we will have to spell the name of that country correctly.

[Richard Wallace]

Updating once again now that unrestricted registration has begun. 1365 FRC teams are registered, including 249 rookie teams.

21 regional events are now at their published registration capacity. They are: BAE/Granite State, Midwest Chicago, New Jersey, St. Louis, Finger Lakes, Greater Kansas City, Nasa VCU, Boilermaker, Detroit, Florida, Peachtree, Silicon Valley, Wisconsin, Oklahoma City, Boston, Colorado, Great Lakes, Hawaii, Minnesota, Philadelphia, and SBPLI Long Island.

313 published spots remain open so overall regional registration is at 83% of published capacity. (Closer to 90% for North American events.) As before, it is difficult to predict 2nd regional participation because the number of waitlisted teams is not known. However, 139 spots have been confirmed and 172 are pending for teams attending their second and third regional(s).

Regional-by-regional and week-by-week figures follow:

Regional / Attending / Pending / Open

BAE Granite State / 42 / 0 / 0 
Midwest Chicago / 38 / 0 / 0 
New Jersey / 55 / 0 / 0 
Oregon / 31 / 15 / 23 
St. Louis / 37 / 0 / 0 
Week 1: / 203 / 15 / 23 / 90% full

Arizona / 39 / 0 / 15 
Finger Lakes / 36 / 0 / 0 
Greater Kansas City / 55 / 0 / 0 
NASA/VCU Richmond / 60 / 0 / 0 
San Diego / 31 / 15 / 7 
Week 2: / 221 / 15 / 22 / 91% full

Boilermaker / 32 / 0 / 0 
Brazil / 7 / 1 / 23 
Chesapeake / 49 / 10 / 5 
Connecticut / 41 / 11 / 29 
Detroit / 32 / 0 / 0 
Florida / 62 / 0 / 0 
Peachtree / 40 / 0 / 0 
Pittsburgh / 18 / 13 / 13 
Silicon Valley / 41 / 0 / 0 
Wisconsin / 55 / 0 / 0 
Week 3: / 377 / 35 / 70 / 84% full

Buckeye / 26 / 5 / 24 
Lone Star / 27 / 3 / 27 
Los Angeles / 37 / 9 / 5 
Microsoft Seattle / 24 / 3 / 8 
Oklahoma City / 38 / 0 / 0 
Davis/Sacramento / 21 / 10 / 13 
Waterloo / 13 / 5 / 13 
West Michigan / 34 / 9 / 10 
Israel / 8 / 0 / 34 
Week 4: / 228 / 44 / 134 / 63% full

Bayou / 32 / 4 / 22 
Boston / 45 / 0 / 0 
Colorado / 39 / 0 / 0 
Great Lakes / 55 / 0 / 0 
Greater Toronto / 44 / 8 / 10 
Hawaii / 31 / 7 / 0 
Las Vegas / 27 / 11 / 14 
Minnesota / 54 / 0 / 0 
Palmetto / 24 / 17 / 7 
Philadelphia / 37 / 0 / 0 
SBPLI Long Island / 44 / 0 / 0 
Week 5: / 432 / 47 / 53 / 89% full

New York City / 43 / 16 / 11 / 80% full

[Mark McLeod]

Here's the corresponding rookie count by territory: (I'm missing 3 though)
MN 36
OK 32
HI 21
CA 18
IL 12
AZ 12
MO 9
NY 9
PR 8
WA 7
VA 6
MD 6
MI 5
MA 5
OR 5
FL 5
PA 5
KS 4
WI 4
ON 3
NC 3
OH 3
NJ 4
IN 2
VT 2
ND 2
GA 2
NV 2
TX 2
NH 2
WY 1
SC 1
DE 1
UT 1
MS 1
QC 1
IS 1
UK 1
Chile 1
Brazil 1

For Long Island we are still missing one veteran team, but we've regained two vets who sat out last year (doing FVC), and we've gained three local rookies. I think the missing vet will get registered eventually too. 49% of the public high school districts have FRC teams.
The SBPLI Regional also cleared it's wait list a couple of days ago and is now at full (unpublished) capacity. We're all sucking in our guts to fit in the pits.

It looks like several Regionals are making their decisions and assigning final capacity for many of the wait lists.