Post what you think of this.

[Aaron Lussier]

Next year my teams sponsor BAE SYSYTEMS is sponsoring a regional in Manchester, from what i've found out, even though we are no more than a 15 minute drive from manchester our school advisors say that we are going to have to all take a bus and find a hotel there to stay at. I belive that we should leave hotel space for teams that have traveled long distances like 121, or 271. It would be so much eaiser to just go home after to my own house and sleep in my own bed. I mean it's only 15 minutes. Please post your feelings on this subject.

[Jon K.]

at this years UTC Regional rage just commuted every day to the event and we were between 30-45 minutes or so away from new haven

[Kristina]

Being the team lawyer (aka, person who gets to persuade the school, advisor, captains, etc) I would point out that not only is their plan inconveniant for your team and others, its also a waste of money. Buses are getting so expensive nowadays, and even if you don't stay in a top of the line hotel, it still costs money. That money could be better spent on buying more parts, funding a lego league team, or purchasing spirit iteams to pass out.

Also, if your advisors make it the whole bus and hotel field trip thing, then they are responsible for you. Do they really want to wake everyone up in the morning and send you to bed at night? If its the driving that they're worried about, carpools worked fine for our team who drove 40 minutes to Los Angeles in morning rush hour for 3 days.

And a few last things to point out: if you stay in the comfort of your own home, you can spend more time resting for the competition as oppose to waiting for the shower or trying to find your toothbrush in your bag. You can eat breakfast at home and pack a lunch as oppose to buying fast food. Also, I know FIRST competitions are on two school days (thurs & fri) so if someone has a critical thing at school, they can just come on their own afterwards or skip a practice round day if their role isn't critical.

If you need more reasons, I'm sure I could come up with pages more. Teams die for a home field advantage, your advisors need to realize that they need to seize this oppurtunity.

[WernerNYK]

At the Long Island regional, there were 26 LI teams. I dont believe even one stayed in a hotel. We all bus over... I dont understand why your team would want to stay in a hotel... kinda pointless =\

[Chubtoad]

as WernerNYK said, I don't think any LI team stayed at a hotel. It was our repsonsilbity to get to SCCC and if we weren't there by a certain time then they didn't count us as being on the trip so we were marked cutting for the day. This also worked out well for people who didn't want to miss school thursday and/or friday (fools I say). We've gone to three off-season comps far away and we haven't stayed in a hotel yet! Even though those are one day things, you still get my point.

[MBiddy]

It wouldn't be a FIRST compeition if there wasnt a long bus ride at a hideously early hour of the morning!

Team leaders were discussing have our team stay in a hotel, but no one wanted to give up getting up at 4 AM to be a the school by 5 AM to take a 3 hour school bus ride to the regional and another back home at night for 3 days. Buses rule!

Yay!

[Aaron Lussier]

Originally posted by Doanie8

Also, if your advisors make it the whole bus and hotel field trip thing, then they are responsible for you. Do they really want to wake everyone up in the morning and send you to bed at night? If its the driving that they're worried about, carpools worked fine for our team who drove 40 minutes to Los Angeles in morning rush hour for 3 days.

That's just the problem they belive that if we drive or car pool then crash or something they will be responsible. So they want everybody to go down together so they won't get in trouble if something happens to us. How do I get around that?

Another point is that they take pride in waking us up at 6 in the morning and making us show up on O'DONNEL time ( ask anybody on 151 and you'll see why we hate it so much)

[Ashley Weed]

Hey, if your team has the money, let the powers be with you. I know my team would do anything to have money to stay at a competition that close to home. We are going to the MD State Fair, and we don't know what is going to happen, because our team has no more money for this year.

The car pool thing... I know schools around here won't allow it. There has been to many fatalities in farm road accidents with kids piled into cars. Take the money, get a bus, and have everyone use the bus for transportation.

[Kristina]

Legally, I don't think they're liable for you unless it is an school excused absence for an activity. For example in our French club, we didn't have enough money to rent a bus so we were all going to be conveniately sick and all happen to show up at the same place on the same day and time. But of course if they feel morally liable....go for the bus or get parents to drive. Doing that isn't 1/2 has unpractical as getting a hotel.

[Don]

Our team is like 20 minutes away from the West Michigan Regional. We sort of had the same problem as you guys did, the school was afraid of liability issues and students not being able to get their own transportation and such. Our solution was basically a permission slip. Everyone would have to sign the usual permission slips and if you wanted to drive yourself you had to sign an extra waiver or whatever. Everyone that couldn't drive themself would meet at the school and they would all ride a van down to the competition together. Our school has a couple of church vans, they're a lot cheaper than busses for small trips.
As for the hotel deal, that doesn't even make sense. It seems like the school would be more liable if something happened to you in a hotel you were forced to stay in vs. your home.
Hope this was somewhat helpful.

[Aaron Lussier]

Originally posted by Don
Our team is like 20 minutes away from the West Michigan Regional. We sort of had the same problem as you guys did, the school was afraid of liability issues and students not being able to get their own transportation and such. Our solution was basically a permission slip. Everyone would have to sign the usual permission slips and if you wanted to drive yourself you had to sign an extra waiver or whatever. Everyone that couldn't drive themself would meet at the school and they would all ride a van down to the competition together. Our school has a couple of church vans, they're a lot cheaper than busses for small trips.
As for the hotel deal, that doesn't even make sense. It seems like the school would be more liable if something happened to you in a hotel you were forced to stay in vs. your home.
Hope this was somewhat helpful.

Thanks all I will talk to my advisors about the permission slip thing if that does not work then I'll be back here.

[Matt Leese]

Originally posted by weedie
Hey, if your team has the money, let the powers be with you. I know my team would do anything to have money to stay at a competition that close to home. We are going to the MD State Fair, and we don't know what is going to happen, because our team has no more money for this year.

The car pool thing... I know schools around here won't allow it. There has been to many fatalities in farm road accidents with kids piled into cars. Take the money, get a bus, and have everyone use the bus for transportation.

I know that several teams camped out in the area for the MD State Fair event last year. They seemed to have no problem with it.

Matt

[jon]

We went back home every night for the KSC regional and for Nationals. I would have liked to stay in a hotel, even though we are so close.... I guess it had its advantages.

[Jnadke]

At least they should just make you drive to school and then take a bus from school to the regional event. Then that would remove the liability. There would still be some expense... but better than staying in a hotel...

[Ian W.]

that's what we did for NYC and SPBLI. i live on long island, about 10 minutes form SPBLI, and about an hour from NYC. we just drove to school, then bussed out to the comps. worked fine for us.