New England District Town Hall Meetings

[Rosiebotboss]

FRC DISTRICT MODEL IN NEW ENGLAND

Greetings FRC mentors and coaches,

FIRST has approached several key members of the region to implement a “district model” in New England. A Planning Committee consisting of representatives from throughout New England and from various roles (mentors, event committees, and staff) have been hard at work at evaluating current districts and planning on how to best implement it for New England's unique needs.

The Planning Committee will be holding Town Hall Meetings throughout New England to discuss the District Model with FRC teams. Up to two mentors from each New England team can go to any Town Hall sessions, planned as follows:

- June 16th: Newport, Rhode Island
- June 23rd: Portland, Maine
- Mid-summer: Worcester, MA
- Late summer / early Fall: CT, VT/NH, and Boston, MA

To sign up for these events, click on the link below:

RI: nefirst-ri.eventbrite.com
ME: nefirst-me.eventbrite.com

(If this doesn't come through as a link, copy and paste it into your browser less the RI: and ME:.)

Or, if you cannot come, we still want to hear from you. To contribute ideas about the District Model in New England, and for more information about the NE District Model in general, please visit the NE FIRST website at (nefirst.org).

Thank you for ALL you do and let's make this the BEST District model in FIRST!

[Akash Rastogi]

Hmm sucks for teams in the MAR region who go up north for regionals like Boston and CT.

Good luck to you folks, the district model has been a big plus for MAR teams so far. Hope you like it as much as many of us do.

[Joe G.]

Great to see this finally happening. I'm assuming that implementation is targeted for the 2014 season?

Interesting point about MAR teams that travel. Is there any chance that this could be the first district region to allow cross registration between other regions that have already made the transition?

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Joe G.

Great to see this finally happening. I'm assuming that implementation is targeted for the 2014 season?

Interesting point about MAR teams that travel. Is there any chance that this could be the first district region to allow cross registration between other regions that have already made the transition?

Several NY teams travel to NE as well so I hope exceptions are made in some cases for teams who can more readily attend WPI/Boston/CT.

[jblay]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Several NY teams travel to NE as well so I hope exceptions are made in some cases for teams who can more readily attend WPI/Boston/CT.

Yeah, we are quickly running out of regionals outside of NYC and Long Island that we can attend.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Hmm sucks for teams in the MAR region who go up north for regionals like Boston and CT.

Good luck to you folks, the district model has been a big plus for MAR teams so far. Hope you like it as much as many of us do.

I believe one of the steps that the NE model will look at right from the get go is cross pollination between districts, so don't kiss us goodbye just yet.

-Brando

[jwfoss]

Originally Posted by Rosiebotboss

- Late summer / early Fall: CT, VT/NH, and Boston, MA

I am looking forward to this meeting, as well as the prospects of moving forward to the district model here in NE. It has taken far to long to get to this point, after FiM, I fully expected that NE would have been next.

A side note: Negative comments, worded differently would be far more constructive.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by jwfoss

A side note: Negative comments, worded differently would be far more constructive.

Hope that wasn't directed at me. I was just pointing out that there's teams who I hope get considered during the decision process, not saying something negative about this so I hope that's not the tone of my post. Although I would love to take a team up to a NE regional some year, I actually love the district system here.

On a similar note: would mentors from teams who frequent the NE regionals be allowed to attend these meetings? For example, 694? Will the NE district organizers meet with FiM and MAR folks to discuss do's and don'ts?

[AcesJames]

Dana, is "NE FIRST" the official name of our district system? I think NERD (New England Robotics District), as well as FINE (FIRST in New England) would be better names.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by AcesJames

Dana, is "NE FIRST" the official name of our district system? I think NERD (New England Robotics District), as well as FINE (FIRST in New England) would be better names.

Looks like we found a meeting topic already!

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by AcesJames

Dana, is "NE FIRST" the official name of our district system? I think NERD (New England Robotics District), as well as FINE (FIRST in New England) would be better names.

NE FIRST is the name. Though, I did hear NERD is making a comeback in another way....

We'll also have gotomeeting info for some events and record them for those who are out of NE who want to attend. All the info will be made available on nefirst.org. All of these venues are donated and I don't want to over-invite and wear out our welcome!

[BrendanB]

I am extremely excited to see neFIRST move forward as well as the prospects of outsiders!

[Michael Sperber]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Will the NE district organizers meet with FiM and MAR folks to discuss do's and don'ts?

We are very open to gathering best practices and lessons learned from both FiM and MAR, and we have already had a number of converstations with FiM and MAR stakeholders. We are planning to continue these converstations. Additionally, members of our planning committee visited FiM and MAR events.

We are also encouraging folks to visit the Q&A section of our website (nefirst.org) to share your ideas and concerns... The website Q&A and Town Hall meetings are to ways we can listen and learn from the teams.

[kstl99]

I have many questions about how district events are run so I looked quickly for info. I thought I would find it in the FRC game manual but I did not. Where can I find info on how FiM and MAR are run?

Thanks

[Ed Law]

Originally Posted by kstl99

I have many questions about how district events are run so I looked quickly for info. I thought I would find it in the FRC game manual but I did not. Where can I find info on how FiM and MAR are run?

Thanks

The FiM website, www.firstinmichigan.org, may be able to answer some of your questions. Do you have any specific questions? The pros and cons of district models have been discussed many times on CD.