2017 New York Regionals

[bdaroz]

Here's a post I had done w/ a map and breakdown of the 2016 teams:

Originally Posted by bdaroz

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.)

[Jessi Kaestle]

So I would just like to say that every year the NYC Regional would keep an exorbitantly large percentage (comparatively) of their capacity as waitlist spots so that they could ensure that NYC teams would have access because they were (and still are) aware of the average NYC team's financial situation.

That being said please don't treat the open capacity as an accurate reflection of the total capacity for either the NYC regional or HVR and please stop bad mouthing an organization who is doing everything within their control to give teams an opportunity for more plays

[rpaulsen]

Originally Posted by Bluman56

With all due respect, look at the attendance rate of the HudsonValleyRally offseason event. Not every team has access to a parent with a car or a mentor with a car (for example our team has access to a car through our Lead Mentor who is a dean of the school and through a fellow mentor, both of which work in jobs that require them to be on call at all times. I imagine given the attendance rates of this event and the event in 2010, other teams share the same struggles. To be clear, if an event cannot be accessed by public transportation (MTA trains to Javits for example), many NYC teams would not attend.

I've been on the most well funded team in NYC before joining the team I'm helping now and the dynamic is strikingly different. Everything that seems like a nonissue to a medium-well funded team is a huge issue for low resource teams.

I completely agree that we need more events in the 5 boroughs. HVR is the right step towards districts, but inner city teams are being completely ignored at this point.

Look, I totally get it. And from my post, you can see that I suggesting that in order to get districts up and running we need a new event in either Queens or Brooklyn. St. John's and Queens College would both be excellent options as Sam mentioned. NYC needs to move to the District model explicitly because we have so many under funded teams who deserve to have the opportunity to compete more than once. The only problem is we need to get our number of events and most importantly our number of volunteers up to make this happen.

Imagine how hard things would have been this year if the other the Hudson Valley coaches and I, our team volunteers, and the NYCFIRST staff didn't work as hard as we did over the last two years creating the Hudson Valley Robotics Association and this new Regional event. We might have very well been in the same situation with NYC moving to the Armory and TVR/FLR falling on the same days. Honestly, I for one am excited for what ending the NYC Regional at Javits because it was the single biggest impediment to moving to Districts. Now we can focus all of that money and energy into a series of smaller much more affordable events, turning FRC into a true season rather than a one off-all or nothing event.

[Kevin Leonard]

Originally Posted by Bluman56

Only problem is that the MAJORITY (I'd say close to 80%) of NYC teams are critically underfunded with many depending on NYCFirst being able to pay for their registration. So in essence, the committee has to figure out how to balance 48 strictly NYC teams with upstate and out of state teams. Once they start excluding NYC teams, those teams are done for the season, no competition, no robot. They can't go to LI because they either have not enough money for Registration or the commute is too expensive (NYC schools are extremely strict with how long and how far students can go on trips during school days). Forget HVR for the majority of NYC teams because that's both too far and requires lodging.

Sure I agree NYCFirst does magnificent work, but there are teams in NYC that are so critically underfunded that they need to ask the genie for more than 3 wishes, and this time around the genie (NYCFirst) might not be able to accommodate. Seems only time will tell at this point.

NYC needs more than one event at this point. I don't know what high schools might be able to hold one, or what other venue options are available that can hold minimum like 32 teams, but there has to be more than one event in future years in NYC. Here's hoping teams can weather the storm this year and NYFIRST gets teams that need funding/transportation/registration for a specific event what they need.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard

NYC needs more than one event at this point. I don't know what high schools might be able to hold one, or what other venue options are available that can hold minimum like 32 teams, but there has to be more than one event in future years in NYC. Here's hoping teams can weather the storm this year and NYFIRST gets teams that need funding/transportation/registration for a specific event what they need.

Queens would provide the easiest access to large enough venues between schools like st.johns, and Queens college. St.johns has some pretty legit sports complexes that would be a perfect fit. There are also some high schools in that area of Queens like Francis Lewis that could accommodate a small regional or district event. As for Manhattan I am no expert but I'm willing to bet in some areas of Manhatten there are cheap enough venues to host an event.

As for nyc teams needing money. Maybe a good idea for NYC first would be to spread some of their fundraising expertise with teams. They clearly do a fantastic job getting money and maybe they could teach some teams their ways so they can raise their own money. It in the end would create a more sustainable first community.

[Dominick Ferone]

Originally Posted by Kevin Leonard

I hope that this is just a temporary awkward teenage step toward districts that pays off in the long run. The introduction of HVR should help unite upstate and downstate teams while making it more convenient for a few teams to get second plays in.

That being said- if the NYC and HVR Regional committees fail to prioritize low resource teams off the waitlist, this could turn out to be a real disaster. I have confidence that the regionals will work themselves out- the NYCFIRST team is pretty phenomenal at what they do.

And hopefully in future years, the upstate regionals will better organize themselves, or perhaps give us another option to attend- perhaps a Syracuse Regional?

For now, I hope Downstate/Ohio/Montreal is ready for stray NY teams to appear, because Upstate really has nowhere else to go right now.

If NY does go to districts I feel upstate has no problem getting in multiple events. RIT, RPI, Syracuse, can easily have small events pop up. Depending on size even SUNY Poly would consider hosting an event. The problem remains with grabbing a field for the four weeks, and volunteers to go with it.
Downstate may have more of a problem with it than Upstate. If Upstate ran out of colleges, it wouldn't be to hard to get some volunteers then.