District Feasibility/Potential

[AlexD744]

Originally Posted by dodar

I think it would be better to wait till like 150 teams and have 10 districts(2 per week with one "week off" or 2 weeks with only one district) and a FSC. You could do: Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville, Melbourne, Boca Raton, Tallahassee, Orlando, Gainesville/Ocala, Fort Lauderdale and Daytona. That would be 3 in North Florida, 3 in South Florida, and 4 in Central Florida; then you would have the FSC in the UCF Arena or OCCC or Amway Arena.

On the topic of Florida districts:
I agree with James that Florida could feasibly pull off the districts with ~100 teams and districts spread similar to the way he described, on a similar timeline (~2016). I think as far as volunteer bases, it would be a softer transition than going directly to 10 events. Although it would be a slightly harder transition for the teams.

Also, with 150 teams, that means 300 "competing slots" as each team plays twice. At ~40 teams per district, that means only 8 districts to accommodate the number of teams suggested for transition.

If I were to organize Florida districts/championship, I would do almost exactly what James did, but instead, I would move the Tallahassee district to Gainesville. Our panhandle is similar to Michigan's upper peninsula, I don't think the five teams up there warrant a whole district event, especially since three of them didn't even opt to compete in Florida this past year, but rather competed at the Bayou regional. Although, I would like to see that area grow when the district transition happens, so that eventually a district can form up there. I like the Championship in Orlando, I don't know about the venue.

I still don't know what to do with our friends from the DR... those teams are so close to Florida and have roots in Florida FRC. I would hate to exclude them, but I just wouldn't know how to fit them into a district system without more teams (~30 on the island).

Also, since all of this is speculation, does anyone know what, if any, talk there has been in FloridaFIRST leadership in regards to districts?

[Siri]

Originally Posted by AGPapa

I wonder if the districts led to more offseason events or if the offseasons came first? I know that Midknight is new in MAR this year, and I'm not sure when girlPower started. So that's 3-4 offseasons in MAR before districts. Does anyone have info about Michigan's offseasons in 2008?

MidKnight is new, but girlPower is in its 4th year now. Further, there were BR^2 and PARC before districts--it's more of a shuffle than an increase. MAR was a very high off-season area well before districts. Michigan is an anomaly for me; it may just be the calendar, but it seems very low.



I didn't assemble the list--it's basically just FIRST's calendar. I know it's missing events, (including Duel on the Delaware, that we're actually competing at).

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

On the topic of Florida districts:
I agree with James that Florida could feasibly pull off the districts with ~100 teams and districts spread similar to the way he described, on a similar timeline (~2016). I think as far as volunteer bases, it would be a softer transition than going directly to 10 events. Although it would be a slightly harder transition for the teams.

Also, with 150 teams, that means 300 "competing slots" as each team plays twice. At ~40 teams per district, that means only 8 districts to accommodate the number of teams suggested for transition.

Regarding timelines, here is the growth in FL FIRST teams since 1999. We will, assuming growth continues, hit 100 by 2017. (I used the average growth since 1999 since I couldn't find a trendline that made any sense).


I'd be more interested in seeing the amount of churn in teams. I've got the data to compute that I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Maybe tonight.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Regarding timelines, here is the growth in FL FIRST teams since 1999. We will, assuming growth continues, hit 100 by 2017. (I used the average growth since 1999 since I couldn't find a trendline that made any sense).


I'd be more interested in seeing the amount of churn in teams. I've got the data to compute that I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Maybe tonight.

Churn in teams? Like team size?

[AlexD744]

Originally Posted by dodar

Churn in teams? Like team size?

I think he means, how many are lost and gained each year? But I say that reluctantly.

The growth chart is interesting... it's kind of all over the place.

Again, does anyone know what official talks have been had about Florida's future with districts, if any?

[dodar]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

I think he means, how many are lost and gained each year? But I say that reluctantly.

The growth chart is interesting... it's kind of all over the place.

Again, does anyone know what official talks have been had about Florida's future with districts, if any?

Of the states with a pretty good number of teams, I think Florida would be the last to go into the district system.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

I think he means, how many are lost and gained each year? But I say that reluctantly.

The growth chart is interesting... it's kind of all over the place.

Again, does anyone know what official talks have been had about Florida's future with districts, if any?

I mean how many of the teams are new each year. If we have 26 teams one year, 36 the next you'd naively assume that there were 10 rookies. Sadly, it's not. There's a lot of things more important to sustainable growth than looking solely at team numbers. Basically, that plot is a horribly bad way to look at growth and feasibility. I'll try to write up more of my thoughts when I'm not working.


And yeah, that was the point... that growth is all over.

[PayneTrain]

It's no coincidence that the areas that have moved over to districts and have concrete plans to evolve into the system are not only the oldest and most dense areas, but also areas that train major key volunteers that ship out to other regionals across the country and are integral to championships, and the areas with districts are anchored by their multiple HoF inductees.

Those of us who imagine a utopia where one could open the proverbial floodgates and let a low cost, high match-volume structure cover the earth and unleash a bountiful harvest of successful teams gloss over the fact we need the seeds of volunteers to grow the programs.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

It's no coincidence that the areas that have moved over to districts and have concrete plans to evolve into the system are not only the oldest and most dense areas, but also areas that train major key volunteers that ship out to other regionals across the country and are integral to championships

You mean like Koko Ed? That guy must have several clones...

On the topic of Florida Districts: Waiting for 150 teams is a bad idea, it just hurts when you try to do it with such a large mass.

I think FL is close to being ready; if planning starts now, 2015 seems reasonable. Trust me, although you may have a few nay-sayers, that disappears once the first District season has passed. The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

Just remember to be as transparent and inclusive as you can.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

You mean like Koko Ed? That guy must have several clones...

On the topic of Florida Districts: Waiting for 150 teams is a bad idea, it just hurts when you try to do it with such a large mass.

I think FL is close to being ready; if planning starts now, 2015 seems reasonable. Trust me, although you may have a few nay-sayers, that disappears once the first District season has passed. The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

Just remember to be as transparent and inclusive as you can.

Oh wow, I didnt realize that MAR has only had 5 and 6 districts these last 2 years. For some reason I thought it was closer to 10. That does make it seem a little bit more feasible earlier on, but the team density of Florida vs MAR does seem quite a bit larger.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by dodar

Oh wow, I didnt realize that MAR has only had 5 and 6 districts these last 2 years. For some reason I thought it was closer to 10. That does make it seem a little bit more feasible earlier on, but the team density of Florida vs MAR does seem quite a bit larger.

For reference, in 2015 Florida will likely need between 5 and 6 districts based on my predicted growth. Placement of these would, logically, be done based off of team density in area. For reference, this year we would have needed 4 districts. Our Championship would, likely, be held at UCF but would more logically be in south Florida. However, to maintain parity with FiM's Championship on percentage of teams attending it would be (65/213) * 76 = 24 teams... Let's just say 40 teams to be safe... this means it could be held ANYWHERE a district could be held.

As for Florida vs MAR density, MAR is not as large a region as you'd think and they have as many teams as Florida. (source: I've spent a fair bit of time in those areas...also, a map)

Districts in a region is easily computed as CEILING((Teams * 2)/40).

[IKE]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

..... Trust me, although you may have a few nay-sayers, that disappears once the first District season has passed. The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.
.....

I remember giving Don this exact same advice in 2011 at the Championship...

I was pretty freaked out in 2009. One of the neat things about doing more events are there are more volunteering opportunities. It is always a challenge to get all the folks you need, but I don't know too many FIRSTers that step down from a challenge.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by IKE

I remember giving Don this exact same advice in 2011 at the Championship...

I was pretty freaked out in 2009. One of the neat things about doing more events are there are more volunteering opportunities. It is always a challenge to get all the folks you need, but I don't know too many FIRSTers that step down from a challenge.

Re-quoted for truth.

If you ASK folks to volunteer, especially alumni and even team members (at events the team isn't competing perhaps) people seem to step up. I found that many team members were "too shy" to volunteer but, when asked, are happy to do so and start doing it year after year.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

You mean like Koko Ed? That guy must have several clones...

I'm pretty sure he worked like 12 official events this year.

[cadandcookies]

As Boe said, the main thing stopping MN from adopting a Districts model is volunteers-- but it is being seriously considered and steps are being taken to increase the number of active volunteers. Talking with Laurie Shimizu (the regional coordinator up here, otherwise known as dragon-lady), they're making a push to get 3-5 previously uninvolved volunteers from each team by next season. If they can pull off even a fraction of that over the 2014 and 2015 seasons, Minnesota will probably be able to feasibly run a districts model in the 2015 or 2016 season (at least that's the estimate I've been hearing; frankly I'm just a student observer in these sorts of discussions, so I can't comment on how accurate that is).

Also, off-note, Minnesota also has the Minne-Mini-Regional competition, which is hosted typically by 2169 every year in collaboration with a broad assortment of teams (we provided staff and the field for a few years, but moved on to helping with River Rendezvous and Detroit Lakes). I've also heard tell of something coming together with 2512 and 1816, but I haven't seen much out of that.

I'd love to see Minnesota districts, but it won't happen in my time as a student...