2009 Regional Dates Announced (Unofficial)

Competition Regional Competitions
1

From Bills Place:

Good Afternoon Teams

I’m pleased to say we are very close to finalizing the Regional Event schedule. A few of the venue contracts are still in the works so the schedule may change slightly. (I sure hope it doesn’t.) Event names may also change as development continues to work with our sponsors. So here’s what I know so far. Pull out your calendars and start planning for another exciting competition season.

120 days until kickoff
174 days until the first Regional Events

See you then.

Week 1 Feb 25-28
BAE Systems Granite State Regional
Midwest Regional
New Jersey Regional
Oklahoma City Regional
Buckeye Regional
Greater Kansas City Regional
Washington DC Regional

Week 2 Mar 4-7
Oregon Regional
Boston Regional
Finger Lakes Regional
New York City Regional -2 fields
San Diego Regional

Week 3 Mar 11-14
Los Angeles Regional
Pittsburgh Regional
Wisconsin Regional
Peachtree Regional
Silicon Valley Regional
Florida Regional
Dallas Regional

Week 3.5 Mar 16-18
Israel Regional

Week 4 Mar 18-21
Boilermaker Regional
Chesapeake Regional - TBD
Arizona Regional
Bayou Regional
NASA/VCU Regional
Waterloo Regional
Microsoft Seattle Regional
New Zealand Regional (Mar 17-21)
Philadelphia Regional
St. Louis Regional

Week 5 Mar 25-28
UC Davis Sacramento Regional
Houston Regional
Palmetto Regional
SBPLI Long Island Regional
Greater Toronto Regional
Connecticut Regional
Las Vegas Regional
Colorado Regional
Hawaii Regional

Week 6 Apr 1-4
Minnesota 10,000 Lakes Regional
Minnesota North Star Regional
Michigan State Championship

2

I see the Michigan state championship on there, but when will the other Michigan dates be announced?

3

There are some serious shakeups in this schedule; Boston is now in week two and Connecticut is now in week five…

4

Arizona is week 4 now instead of week 2

5

Time to start planning the vacation time!
(ARRRGH! Boston is happening the same week as FLR! WHY!?)

Tentative plans:
Week 1. DC
Week 2 FLR
Week 3 Florida (duh!)
Week 4 Philadelphia may choose St. Louis or Bayou.
Week 5 GTR
Week 6 Michigan Championship

6

Did anyone else notice that they start the regionals on Wednesday? Did the regionals add a day in the same year that the districts subtracted one?

7

It might just be that they’re pulling the information from an internal calendar. FIRST is on site the day before the regional starts.

8

Minnesota Double Regional! Wow. Now to figure out which one to register for…

9

I’m a little unhappy about the way the regionals are scheduled. NYC is week 2 now which removes it from our options (week before is NJ)

But I am glad to see Palmetto in week 5. Hope to give South Carolina a little visit and see 1251 there as well.

10

If you pay the extra to ship, it is entirly possible to get your robot from Trenton to NYC (Trust me, 555 did it form New Orleans to NYC)

11

Its not the shipping, just timing for our mentors. We try to get in at least a 2 week break for students to catch up on schoolwork especially when most of these kids are all honors/ AP students. Two straight weeks takes a lot out of you and out of school time even if you get work in advance.

12

I hate Boston & New York City in the same week!

13

It’s very disappointing to see the Michigan District events missing from this schedule. With all the controversy over the Michigan District Pilot, I see this as yet another set back for Michigan teams. All events should have been announced at the same time. What little faith I had the the Michigan District Pilot & FIRST in Michigan is fading.

14

If they were “officially announced” then why aren’t they appearing in VIMS?

Also, why are the 2008 event days up on “Whats going on in my area?”

This may reflect some of the Event Dates, but I’m taking them with a grain of salt for now. Expecially following the quote below:

I’m pleased to say we are very close to finalizing the Regional Event schedule. A few of the venue contracts are still in the works so the schedule may change slightly. (I sure hope it doesn’t.)

15

sigh, and NJ is still week 1. I guess they think we can be the groundbreakers. Stogi, maybe this is the year we have to hustle to do both - after last year’s NYC regional we were also hoping to do Javits. At leats we can communte to the city.

Bill’s place is an informal ‘quick & dirty’ communications path; give them a little time to make it all pretty and ready for prime time.

Don

16

There have been some delays in other sites that needed launching before VIMS. VIMS will open for events on September 8 as far as I’ve been told.

17

… That’s not what I’m getting at. Both of you have copied only the first line of my reply. I’m not complaining that the information is not available in VIMS just that not everything is finalized and that the thread title could be misleading.

18

Agreed… How about

2009 Regional Dates Announced by an Official (Unofficially)

19

Oh.

Yeah, I guess so. Since I often need to deal with imperfect information at work, and still make serious decisions based on that information, I suppose the small noise level didn’t enter my radar. But, the caveat is right there for all to see.

Don

EDIT: Also shows the way a quote, out of context, can be misleading. Keep that in mind when reading the newspaper or watching the news.

20

Well if the list is right about the Buckeye Regional moving to week one that’s going to be new for my team seeing how it was week 3 or 4 the last few years but I guess it will make for just as much fun.