2008 West Michigan Regional

[Jherbie53]

Well I looked and nobody has started one about West Michigan yet, so I decided to start it. There are 50 teams signed up for it. 33, 71, and 494 are all coming back this year. But lets not forget all of the great teams right here in West Michigan! I can't wait until we have completed BOB this year and start competing at the regionals!

[Koko Ed]

Depending on what the X-Cats do fundraising for a second regional I will either be going to Buckeye with them or going to this event if they don't make it.
It looks very IRI.

[Pat McCarthy]

From the perspective of the planning committee, the planning of the regional is coming along great! It looks, to me, to be one of the top regionals as far as the entire experience goes. I may have more info after the next meeting to share with the community...

I hope to see everyone at the 2008 West Michigan Regional!

[johnr]

i see there is a team social this year. i would sure appreciate more info on it. how much? what food will be served? some of us will not be eating meat that weekend. easter.
so ,with easter brought up ,our team will be attending a church service on thursday night. if any other team shows any interest here i will post more info.

[Pat McCarthy]

Originally Posted by johnr

i see there is a team social this year. i would sure appreciate more info on it. how much? what food will be served? some of us will not be eating meat that weekend. easter.

And more info you shall have!
http://westmichiganregional.com/inde...s/page0008.htm

The 2008 West Michigan Regional Team Social and School of Engineering Open House will take place Friday, March 21.
The social will be take place on the Grand Valley State University Pew Campus (where the kickoff is held), located in downtown Grand Rapids.
It will be held in the parking structure of the Days Hotel directly across the street from the Kennedy Engineering building.

You can get to the Pew Campus by the free RAPID bus service between the Allendale campus and Pew campus, or by other vehicles by taking M-45 and heading East towards Grand Rapids.
Map

There will be subs, pop, and hot chocolate. For those observing the religious holiday, there will be meatless subs. There will be games, some inflatable play structures, tours of the GVSU School of Engineering buildings and labs. Rooms will be made available within Kennedy Hall for Friday night team meetings.

Keep in mind the majority of the activities will be in a parking structure which will be the temperature of the air outside, plus the body heat of a few hundred people in attendance, plus area heaters if necessary. Dress appropriately!! Large tarps will be covering the open areas so as to keep in as much heat as possible.

[Ken Platteschor]

The planning committee has made arrangements with some area hotels to provide special pricing for FRC team attending the event. Check out the website for more information. www.westmichiganregional.com

Also keep in mind that these prices are only good for a short time so do not wait.

[johnr]

sorry, a few more questions on team social.
1- what is cost? web page not real clear on this point.
2- do you have to pre-register for it?
3- will bus passes be given that night? my son attends gvsu and needs student id to use bus system i believe.
4- how late do buses run? might want to explore downtown area.
thank you.

[Pat McCarthy]

Originally Posted by johnr

sorry, a few more questions on team social.
1- what is cost? web page not real clear on this point.
2- do you have to pre-register for it?
3- will bus passes be given that night? my son attends gvsu and needs student id to use bus system i believe.
4- how late do buses run? might want to explore downtown area.
thank you.

1. I am 98% sure that the team social is no cost to teams.
2. I will check about the pre-registering, but I'm >50% sure that you do not need to.
3. The bus is free for GVSU students, but they do not check student IDs on the route, I, nor anyone I know has seen them check. Bus Schedule The buses run about every hour on Friday. We have discussed arranging a few extra buses for team transports to the social, but there have not been any plans made.
4. The bus runs until 2am on Fridays.

I will keep you up to date on any info from the planning committee as it finalized.

[Pat McCarthy]

Greetings from the West Michigan Regional Planning Committee!
Here are the official details for the Team Social!

Now that all of us have shipped our robots, it’s time to start planning for the regional. As most of you have seen by now, the West Michigan Regional is having a Team Social.

Grand Valley University is sponsoring the Team Social to showcase their downtown campus. The event will take place Friday, March 21, 2008. And yes, it is Good Friday. Information about the event is posted at http://www.westmichiganregional.com/...s/page0010.htm

The event is free, and all students, mentors and guest are welcomed. It will start around 6:00 pm and start winding down around 9:00 pm. The food and activities are being held in the bottom of the parking ramp next to Grand Valley State University. The ramp is owned by Days Hotel, so if you have elected to stay there it is just a short walk. Otherwise transportation is on your own.

The event will have inflatable games, such as bungee runs and obstacle courses, along with a 24’ rock climbing wall. The inflatables and the food will be in the bottom of a parking structure. Dress appropriately.

The food will be subs, chips, and pop. We will have special cheese only subs for vegetarians and those observing Lent. Otherwise, the subs will contain meat. Deserts will be served inside of Grand Valley State University’s building, and there will be activities there to showcase Grand Valley State University.

Grand Valley State University has also made arrangements for teams to have a classroom to do debriefings and strategy meetings. Most rooms have white boards, projectors and internet connections. We will have to stagger use times.

Holland Team 74, Grandville Team 288, and Creston Team 904 will be co-hosting the event, and supplying the volunteers. Parties-n-More and Rock-on-Climbing Walls LLC are donating the games. Days Hotel is gracefully letting us use their parking ramp, and Grand Valley State University is supplying the food and drinks. Please take time to thank these people for their contributions to make this event happen.

Teams who are registered for the regional will have gotten this information in an email along with information needing to be sent back in to the Team Social organizer about how many people will be attending from each team.

As an additional note: There will be no more buses than on a normal Friday night. That means 1 every hour. I would recommend that teams use their own transportation to get to the Team Social.

[Corey Oostveen]

Team 288 the Robo Dawgs will Be there!!!!

[Pat McCarthy]

Hi all,
I am trying to organize a webcast of the regional, due to the demand for one, and I need help! The plan is to use the venue's wireless internet to stream the video to ustream.tv

I'm looking for someone coming to the event who has a just one component or the whole bit needed for the set up, the two being:
-A USB video capture device
-A laptop or desktop with wireless capability (802.11b or g)

If anyone is able to help out with this please reply or PM me.

Thanks!

[XXShadowXX]

2604 will be there


by the way grand valley state said not to expect wfi at the event, so we may have it or may not

[Pat McCarthy]

Originally Posted by XXShadowXX

2604 will be there


by the way grand valley state said not to expect wfi at the event, so we may have it or may not

Hmm, it could be that they aren't opening it up to teams this year. I haven't heard either way. I have a student account to get onto it if that is the case, so that won't impact the ability to do the webcast.

[XXShadowXX]

sweet.

[bmusser]

I would appreciate someone hooking us up with a webcast because I will be having back surgery on Wednesday and have to miss the regional (and the rest of the season for that matter). My old team 226 will be there and my new team 1504. Looking forward to watching the webcast if you can get it set up. Good luck.