District/Regional Format

[Joe Johnson]

Just to keep the balls in the air, let me toss this out there.

Mixing matters. Both at the CMP and at the lesser events. There is value to FIRST to have the cross pollenization between regions.

What do you think of the idea of an Ambassador System where the Winners of a regional championship as well as the Chairman's Award winners (and perhaps even the Finalists) are invited to compete in a different district/regional the following year. It would not be mandatory and I think it would be best if the Ambassador teams were financially subsidized for the extra travel/shipping/etc expenses. I am thinking that of those 9 teams (3 winners, 3 Chairman's & 3 finalists) perhaps 3 become ambassadors.

In this way, teams from various regions would still mix and the culture of FIRST could be spread around but the costs are still kept reasonable and the Ambassadors would be charged specifically with spreading the culture. We could leave it to the creativity of those teams to define what that means, but I think that by charging them with the goal, you will see 1000's flowers bloom.

keep the thoughts and ideas coming.

Joe J.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

Which was exactly the case in MI before we went with FiM. There were two regionals only 50 miles apart in SE MI, and one in W MI. Nothing mid-state, nothing Up North. I appreciate that CA is larger than MI, but not all that much larger. Teams from the western UP are farther from the MSC site than teams from Philadelphia would be. We hoped to put one district in the UP, but there are only 4 teams (in an area 20% larger than Maryland and Delaware combined). Still, having a district in Traverse City cuts the travel time in half for one event. Far-flung teams have a disadvantage in both district and regional systems.

Even some of the L.A. teams stay overnight, just because it's a 2-hour commute or so in moderate traffic. L.A. - San Diego (2 hours, or thereabouts--over 100 miles) often sees teams staying in hotels; same for the SVR-Sacramento leg, which is a similar distance. L.A.-Sacramento or L.A.-SVR is a good solid 6-7 hour drive. Add the L.A. - San Diego distance if you're coming from/going to S.D. instead of L.A. These aren't far-flung teams either--these are the places there is an event currently, and most teams have their second event in CA as well. The far-flung teams typically wind up in Las Vegas due to being mainly in the desert area on the east side of the state--another overnighter either way.

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

What do you think of the idea of an Ambassador System where the Winners of a regional championship as well as the Chairman's Award winners (and perhaps even the Finalists) are invited to compete in a different district/regional the following year. It would not be mandatory and I think it would be best if the Ambassador teams were financially subsidized for the extra travel/shipping/etc expenses. I am thinking that of those 9 teams (3 winners, 3 Chairman's & 3 finalists) perhaps 3 become ambassadors.

If the various regions opted to do this... Oh, and put the RAS into the pool of teams, for a pool of 10. And have a couple of at-large spots in each district that could not go to in-region teams until after X date.

I like the idea. I'll even go you one better, Joe: If you're invited, the "away" event is counted as part of your registration for your home region, and any points you earn count in your home region.

Example: CA is one region, AZ/CO/UT/ID (AZ) are another. Teams 60, 159, 3006, 39, 987, 3194, 1013, 1011, 3315, 842 are the pool of ambassadors for AZ; 254, 330, 1717, 812, 692, 3186, 1323, 1622, 1266, 971 are the pool for CA. Up to X teams from the AZ pool can compete in CA, and up to X teams from the CA pool can compete in AZ. All the teams competing in AZ have their points--and registration--in CA, and vice versa. Meanwhile, 359 and 368 get the at-large spots in the San Diego district, and 2576 gets one of the ones in the Los Angeles district.

(Note: could also be MI, the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic, or any other region that uses the district system)