[BB] San Diego Disruption

[Jimmy Nichols]

Good Afternoon Teams,

Yesterday, the contract with the venue for the San Diego Regional fell apart. Moments ago, FIRST signed a new contract. The good news is we will still have a Regional in San Diego. The bad news is the date for the San Diego Regional had to change from Week 2 to Week 1. The San Diego Regional is now scheduled for Friday-Saturday-Sunday March 2-4, 2012.

If your team is currently registered for the San Diego Regional and this change is a problem for your team, email FRCteams@usfirst.org and they will help you move into another Regional.

I’m sorry for the confusion and inconvenience. If FIRST could have avoided having to make this change at the last moment, I assure you, we would have.

72 days until Kickoff
See you then!

[Chris is me]

And by signing a new contract when we were entitled to a Week 2 event date, the venue sold out the teams.

I hope the registered teams all get refunds.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

And by signing a new contract when we were entitled to a Week 2 event date, the venue sold out the teams.

I hope the registered teams all get refunds.

It says right there FIRST will move you to another event if you have a problem with the change.

[rsisk]

And the bucket that the teams pay into is different than the bucket the venue is paid out of.

This stuff happens, it ain't easy, but we are FIRST robotics teams and we can deal with it.

[Aren Siekmeier]

It helps a lot that they told us the reason this time...

[AdamHeard]

I don't understand teams not even attending this event being upset by it.

Clearly the regional planning committee had interests in mind other than "selling out the teams".

Sure it's an inconvenience, but I think if there is a need to blame someone it'd be the venue (not FIRST or the regional planning committee, which are two separate entities as well).

[Rick]

I sincerely hope that all the San Diego Regional teams have been personally contacted via email or phone regarding this, not just a post on a blog. The amount of "official" FIRST information being released via a blog is alarming. An email should be sent to each team's main and alternate contact every time a new blog post is released.

I am the main contact for my team and have not received any official communication from FIRST on the kickoff changes.

[Jon Jack]

Originally Posted by Ricksta

I sincerely hope that all the San Diego Regional teams have been personally contacted via email or phone regarding this, not just a post on a blog. The amount of "official" FIRST information being released via a blog is alarming. An email should be sent to each team's main and alternate contact every time a new blog post is released.

I am the main contact for my team and have not received any official communication from FIRST on the kickoff changes.

I received an email notifying me of the change minutes after the blog was released. The email was addressed to all teams who were registered for the San Diego Regional.

To put things in perspective, it sucks that it's now a week 1 regional and I'm not going to list the reasons why - but every team is at the same disadvantage. Plus, previous to this change SD and LA were back to back events (week 2 / week 3). Now that we're week 1 and they're week 3 it's a little easier for LA teams to do both SD and LA.

[Mr. Van]

Originally Posted by Ricksta

I sincerely hope that all the San Diego Regional teams have been personally contacted via email or phone regarding this, not just a post on a blog. The amount of "official" FIRST information being released via a blog is alarming. An email should be sent to each team's main and alternate contact every time a new blog post is released.

While Jon may have received an email, I DID NOT until just a few minutes ago.

I agree with Ricksta - Bill's Blog is NOT an appropriate way to communicate official information to teams. Bill's Blog should be fine for passing on general insights into the "behind the scenes" in New Hampshire, but using it for official announcements is completely frustrating. Any official FIRST communication should come in the form of an email blast.

As for the San Diego Regional, as a registered team, I find the fact that the days of the week have changed to Friday through Sunday to be a bit more problematic than the change of the week.

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Mr. Van

While Jon may have received an email, I DID NOT until just a few minutes ago.

I agree with Ricksta - Bill's Blog is NOT an appropriate way to communicate official information to teams. Bill's Blog should be fine for passing on general insights into the "behind the scenes" in New Hampshire, but using it for official announcements is completely frustrating. Any official FIRST communication should come in the form of an email blast.

As for the San Diego Regional, as a registered team, I find the fact that the days of the week have changed to Friday through Sunday to be a bit more problematic than the change of the week.

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

You still got the e-mail, and that less than an hour after Bill posted on the blog, didn't you? Complaining that it didn't arrive the second it was posted on Bill's Blog isn't going to get you anywhere... I've seen e-mails I've sent to people take well over an hour to arrive before, due to circumstances completely out of my control.

I think people need to chill a little here... FIRST is trying to use multiple avenues to communicate with teams - they aren't just throwing everything up on Bill's Blog. Something like this doesn't really deserve an e-mail blast to all FRC teams - there are around 2k teams, and this change affects what, maybe 50 of them? By posting about it on Bill's Blog AND e-mailing those teams directly affected, FIRST knows those teams signed up for the event are aware of the issue, and they get a broader audience to be aware of it in case other teams want to change their plans. It wouldn't surprise me if there were e-mail blasts sent out by state/region coordinators to all those in driving distance as well.

Thus far, I haven't seen anything important/directly relevant to my team posted in Bill's Blog that wasn't also included in an e-mail blast.

[Bob Steele]

I can only applaud FIRST for giving us a reason and fixing the problem in the only way they could.

[Mr. Van]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

I can only applaud FIRST for giving us a reason and fixing the problem in the only way they could.

I completely agree. I was simply taking the opportunity to also agree with the post that pointed out that Bill's Blog is not a very good "official" communication tool.

- Mr. Van
Coach, Robodox

[Alan Anderson]

It's nice to see a quick mention of the reason for the date change (though it left open plenty of room for speculation about the details). I especially appreciate the way the problem isn't presented as an "opportunity". The blog entry explicitly acknowledges that it's bad news for many people.

(The email blast just uses the cliche "Due to circumstances beyond our control", which is a bit of a let-down.)

[waialua359]

The only real issue I can see, is teams coming from out of state already booking their airfares to attend the event,and possibly not being able to get a full refund to switch the dates.
Hopefully, it hasnt happened to any teams who originally registered.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

I don't understand teams not even attending this event being upset by it.

Clearly the regional planning committee had interests in mind other than "selling out the teams".

Sure it's an inconvenience, but I think if there is a need to blame someone it'd be the venue (not FIRST or the regional planning committee, which are two separate entities as well).

I don't know why teams not attending (or planning on attending) the event were upset.

To be honest it may have been the case of "Hey FIRST, we know we promised you the venue but this other event really wants that weekend. Is there anything we can do to get you to move your event?"

I don't want to blame anyone, I want to applaud all parties involved for telling us well in advance.