Confirmed New Districts for 2015?

[Gregor]

Thread title pretty much says it all.

Are there any new districts confirmed for the 2015 season?

[Mk.32]

I am really curious about CA...... I have heard to many rumors.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Mk.32

I am really curious about CA...... I have heard to many rumors.

The prevalent rumor in this area seems to be pushed back a year, can't find venues. Needless to say, I'd love for this rumor to be wrong.

[T^2]

Originally Posted by EricH

The prevalent rumor in this area seems to be pushed back a year, can't find venues. Needless to say, I'd love for this rumor to be wrong.

Jim Beck explicitly said at SVR that regionals would continue for 2015.

[MrTechCenter]

Originally Posted by EricH

The prevalent rumor in this area seems to be pushed back a year, can't find venues. Needless to say, I'd love for this rumor to be wrong.

Yup. As said before me, Jim Beck stated that there would be a 7th regional added for next year (new one in Santa Barbara) and that CA would go to a "qualifier" system in 2016. We don't know the details yet though, but CA is confirmed to NOT be a district in 2015.

[Mk.32]

Originally Posted by MrTechCenter

Yup. As said before me, Jim Beck stated that there would be a 7th regional added for next year (new one in Santa Barbara) and that CA would go to a "qualifier" system in 2016. We don't know the details yet though, but CA is confirmed to NOT be a district in 2015.

I heard this from Jim, but at CMP I heard also that FIRST did not wanna add another regional but again all down the grape vine. Though it does seem likely we got another year with regionals.

[waialua359]

I think there are more issues than what is being communicated at this point.
I know one issue is whether or not they allow other neighboring states to join such as New Mexico, Nevada, Hawaii, etc.

And not directly related, but having some impact are the increase no. of teams in the Pan Pacific doing FIRST.
Australia is supposed to have a regional in 2015 and talks about a "super-regional" in Hawaii.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by waialua359

I think there are more issues than what is being communicated at this point.
I know one issue is whether or not they allow other neighboring states to join such as New Mexico, Nevada, Hawaii, etc.

And not directly related, but having some impact are the increase no. of teams in the Pan Pacific doing FIRST.
Australia is supposed to have a regional in 2015 and talks about a "super-regional" in Hawaii.

CA is too large for them to include neighboring states in the CA district and at this time FIRST really, really wants to draw district lines along state lines to make things easier. (They wouldn't allow N ID teams join the PNW district despite for some of those teams having to travel farther to the nearest Regional than for some of the farthest PNW District event) Yes MAR doesn't follow state lines. However the long term plan is to have the vast majority of the country in the District system and to allow inter-district play.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by Mr V

CA is too large for them to include neighboring states in the CA district and at this time FIRST really, really wants to draw district lines along state lines to make things easier. (They wouldn't allow N ID teams join the PNW district despite for some of those teams having to travel farther to the nearest Regional than for some of the farthest PNW District event) Yes MAR doesn't follow state lines. However the long term plan is to have the vast majority of the country in the District system and to allow inter-district play.

Allowing certain neighboring states is the direct message talked about at CMPS. I was asked my opinion on the matter both there and previously at other events.
On the flip side, because CA is too large of an area to have a district, it adds to the difficulty in trying to implement as well, which was also discussed.

[Zebra_Fact_Man]

Everyone keeps saying that Cali/Texas are too large to run districts, but I don't understand this claim.

The whole reason why districts work better is because (besides giving teams double the guaranteed playing time for the same cost) they make the competitions more local. (In the case of MI) Instead of having 4-5 regional locations to choose from in the state (era 2008), now we have 15 district! More events = less drive distance. For my team specifically, our drive distances were 15 minutes away and 1.25 hours away. Not bad at all.

Yes, the State Championship could possibly pose the travel problem. So just locate it in the center of the state?? Like Oregon/Washington did. Plus, nobody's forcing you to go to the State Championship if you specifically can't afford it. If your team budget allows for one event, well now you get two for the same price.

I guess I can understand the whole lack-of-volunteers problem; not every region is blessed with enough volunteer peeps to cover the need.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Zebra_Fact_Man

I guess I can understand the whole lack-of-volunteers problem; not every region is blessed with enough volunteer peeps to cover the need.

Of course, you can require teams to provide X volunteers.

[notmattlythgoe]

VA, DC, and MD will not be going to the district model next year. Hopefully 2016 though.

[VioletElizabeth]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Of course, you can require teams to provide X volunteers.

Can students be volunteers? Just as a general question--I remember doing field reset somewhere (it may have been offseason) as an unofficial job, because they were short on people.

[Brandon_L]

Originally Posted by Zebra_Fact_Man

Plus, nobody's forcing you to go to the State Championship if you specifically can't afford it. If your team budget allows for one event, well now you get two for the same price.

When MAR went districts, I thought that would be the case of our team. Two districts and that's it, regardless of our performance and an invitation to MAR cmp. The MAR grant system has been a godsend though. I'm not sure of how it works internally, but their goal is to get every team that qualifies for MAR CMP to MAR CMP through the "MAR wallet" (it even has a twitter account) and it works. I couldn't be more thankful.

Michigan's CMP is free for teams I hear, but it could be wrong.

My point here is there are ways around this issue if the district leaders look into it enough.

[Knufire]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

Michigan's CMP is free for teams I hear, but it could be wrong.

Originally Posted by DampRobot

The story I heard is that the MSC people wanted to make it free, as it would be supported by sponsors, etc, but FIRST makes them charge the registration fee.

Originally Posted by Zebra_Fact_Man

Word on the street is that the MSC could have been free (and FiM wanted it to be free), but Headquarters in NH required the the additional event fee to participate at the State Championship. FiM also wanted outside teams to be able to participate in disctrict events, but again Headquarters said no.

There's some paper posted here on CD about how districts came into fruition and why they work the way they do, but I'm much too lazy to go looking for it.

Here's the whitepaper: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2804

You might be getting confused with the grant provided by the state government this year that started this year. More information about that can be read in this document.

Originally Posted by MI FRC Grant

4. State, National, and World Competition Grants
The MDE will provide funding for reasonable expenses for qualifying teams to
participate in State, National, or World FIRST Robotics Competitions.

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Originally Posted by bam-bam

I've heard rumblings that an Indiana-Illinois district system was confirmed, which was why so many Indiana teams flew out to distant regionals this year. I'm about 80% certain of this, but could someone with more knowledge confirm?

Originally Posted by orangemoore

I haven't heard anything about them but I'm ready for them.

As far as I know, this has been pushed back to 2016. I'd still wait for an announcement from IndianaFIRST to be sure though.