NY Districts - POA

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

FTFY. Maybe let's let folks who have actually been to/run districts share their experiences and not post garbage?

Is there a better way you could have said this or do you want CD to have the reputation of not being the most welcoming place? If I'm a student or newer mentor and I see posters with a lot of green dots, calling posts "garbage", I'd think twice before posting and joining the community.

[dag0620]

Originally Posted by 1493kd

I heard back from Paul and her are some details of the move to districts-
- It is going to happen, its a matter of when
- It is possible NY could be split into 2 districts upstate/ downstate (this is not set in stone or finalized it was just part of our conversation)
- Before districts happen NY may add 2 more regionals to help build up the capacity of teams/volunteers to pull off districts

- The hardest part of changing from regionals to districts is that you have to start your own non-profit. With the current setup FIRST supplies the field, AV, schedule down to the minute, truck arrivals/departures, and field rental. With districts we would need someone (God bless them) to organize all of this yearly for 5 districts events. We discussed that it would probably have to be a paid position. So far no one has stepped up to the plate to take this on.

The people who already volunteer to keep FLR and TVR running already feel "stretched" to their limits.

- What I took from it is that we need someone or a group of people with some experience running a non-profit and doing events to really get this running? If anyone has any suggestions or willing to take this one (It could possibly be a paid position) contact Paul or Ana with your desire to help.

Finding someone to do run events exclusively as their job is going to be rough. Hiring freelancers to come in for part of the year to organize your events, is something doable. An idea to consider.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by dag0620

Finding someone to do run events exclusively as their job is going to be rough. Hiring freelancers to come in for part of the year to organize your events, is something doable. An idea to consider.

Well, there are already full time paid employees that work at NYCFirst and SBPLI. So, I would assume they would transition to running district events instead of becoming unemployed.

[dag0620]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Well, there are already full time paid employees that work at NYCFirst and SBPLI. So, I would assume they would transition to running district events instead of becoming unemployed.

Yes thats a possibility. The thing to keep in mind is that RDs etc. are often hired for their expertise in organizing non-profits, growth, and fundraising. NOT event planning. These are two entirely different sets of skills, both of which are needed though to successfully run a district.

[notmattlythgoe]

One way to help grow your volunteer base is to run offseason events. It also helps to prove to the organizers that there are other groups in the area capable of running an event.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

One way to help grow your volunteer base is to run offseason events. It also helps to prove to the organizers that there are other groups in the area capable of running an event.

Agreed. Currently there is only 1 offseason event throughtout all of NY and LI.

We will be most likely hosting a free week 0 event next year but, we have not spoken about an offseason.

[Bluman56]

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

One way to help grow your volunteer base is to run offseason events. It also helps to prove to the organizers that there are other groups in the area capable of running an event.

This is extremely important. Unfortunately NYC has no offseason events (closest ones are in NJ) that can be used as "training centers" for young volunteers eager to try positions that might otherwise be filled at regionals. There used to be one in 2010 at Francis Lewis High School but I have yet to find out why that was never repeated. It's a shame but this ongoing discussion makes me very excited for the future of NY Districts.

I would love to help if needed.

[Dominick Ferone]

I've seen most of the teams if not all the teams in New York and can say there is much variety in the whole upstate vs downstate with how things are done. Upstate is very well connected the capital area and Rochester both have great communities that are well connected. I'm pretty sure Rochestor helped a lot with setting up Tech Valley.
I know all the teams up state in my opinion is very well communicated and connected better than Long Island.

I'd be willing to help out if people need, I know people mentioned in the other district threads about setting up an event in our area and we can try and work with our school.

[Michael Sperber]

Originally Posted by plnyyanks

Depending on the responses we get and what the current status is, it may be valuable to propose a conference call or some town hall meetings this summer so the decision-makers can update the community directly and maybe start some dialogue and receive some feedback.

Originally Posted by Libby K

FIRST Mid-Atlantic (MAR) did this while transitioning into districts, and continues to have update meetings at events throughout the year, in addition to their open Board meetings. It's done wonders for transparency and understanding. 10/10, very helpful.

I strongly encourage ANY area considering a District transition to openly communicate with all stakeholders (including sponsors, teams and volunteers). Town Hall meetings, conference calls, newsletters, emails, etc are all great ways. And don't just communicate once, keep the dialog on going throughout the transition.

As we made the transition in New England, we held a number of Town Hall meetings - some went smoothly, others did not... but we wanted to hear from our teams, and to share with them what we knew (and what we didn't), and what our plans were. Based on the feedback from these meetings, we made some changes to our plans.

And don't forget about the event sponsors. We spent a lot of time talking with our major corporate Regional event sponsors. This went a long way in ensuring they were there to support us during and after the transition to Districts.

[smistthegreat]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

1. My favorite is a centralized NY district with a NY state championships. How cool would that be?

Please keep in mind that what works for you and your team might not be the solution that works for everyone. New York is an incredibly diverse state, both in general and in terms of FRC. Different groups of people may have different goals, or different ways to achieve those goals.

That being said, I'm encouraged by the initiative taken already, and I think Phil's suggestion of some sort of a more formal forum is a good one.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by plnyyanks

There's been a lot of talk about venues (one of the more difficult aspects), either for a new regional, district events, or a district CMP. I'm going to quote a few aspects from the Official Regional/District Planning Guides, as a set of minimum requirements (notwithstanding scheduling).

• The suggested venue cost is $10,000 (district planning guide, page 19), so this is the ballpark we're operating in. For a regional or district championship, the average is about $37,000 (regional planning guide, section 4, page 4)
• General space recommendations for a district event:
  
  
• Read the District Venue Selection Checklist for a brief overview of all the things required. For a Regional/DCMP, there are even more requirements.
• This doesn't even get into the logistics of planning district events and the manpower required. There's a nice flowchart on page 14 of the District Planning Guide that illustrates many of the positions that are involved.

Overall, these requirements can be pretty tough to meet, especially for high schools in NYC because it's not just the size of the school that matters, but also the physical layout of its space. And it's often difficult to find enough pit space that's an easy walk to the field, since many schools in the area don't have a second gym.

The most likely venues then are basketball/hockey arenas (for completeness, the parent category), and I'm willing to bet that even many of those don't fit the requirements.

Over this week I am going to go through every NYC team, find their High school and figure out if they have space. The scenario I feel as if we will see the most is the event in the gym with pits in the cafeteria but they have to on the same floor and decently close.

[Dominick Ferone]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Over this week I am going to go through every NYC team, find their High school and figure out if they have space. The scenario I feel as if we will see the most is the event in the gym with pits in the cafeteria but they have to on the same floor and decently close.

I think the point people are trying to make. This is only one step of the matter. But honestly this isn't the lead to take right now. Right now should be focused on trying to get more people wanting the district model. As it is volunteers can be hard to come by. Most rents have a lot of volunteers coming from teams but with districts it might need more volunteers. Tech valley and Flr share a lot of there volunteers, refs and judges. Adding more events would mean they have more tiring work to do. Not everyone would be available for every event

[bdaroz]

(Apologies for a bit of thread Necromancy)

Now that the season is over, I've posted an updated FRC team map for NY state teams:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Hg...PU&usp=sharing

Note: The map is 1 pin per location and for locations with multiple teams (eg "New York, NY") the label is prefaced with the number of teams in parenthesis. This is culled from the TBA data for 2016 events, so only "active" teams are listed. (I believe "active" in this case is registered, but if a team did not play despite being registered, they are listed... but I don't think it applies to any teams here.)

Some stats on this data:

• 150 Teams in NYS for 2016
• 53 of those are Upstate (North of Kingston)
• 97 Downstate (furthest northern team is 5943 Carmel)

Of the upstate teams:

• 21 are within 30mi of the Finger Lakes Regional
• 10 are within 30mi of the Tech Valley Regional
• Only 9 teams are beyond 30mi away from I-90/NYS Thruway. (Sorry Clarkson teams.)