My team runs an offseason competition, so I understand the hard work that goes into each competition weeks before they are ever ran, and the difficulty of balancing costs versus turning the competition into a fundraiser. It’s not east.
I implore you all- publicly offer free or reduced entry for pre-rookie teams. These teams are not yet full teams with budgets that can pay entry fees, and considering the recent success of lending old robots (such as threads found here and here ) a reduced entry fee for these pre-rookies could be a boon to all of FIRST in your state. I also highly recommend giving a reduced entry to teams that give pre-rookies their robots, though most of the help will come from pre-rookies getting reduced entry.
I think this is a fantastic idea, a great way to get pre-rookie teams into FIRST. My team has only one robot, so we can’t really do this, but I’ll talk to them about doing this in the future.
I had the pleasure of working with some of these pre-rookie teams at Montclair Mayhem. 25 did a great job, and forgive me if I’m incorrect, but I believe they had 2 pre-rookie teams there, one of them consisting of two schools. It seemed to me those kids had a lot of fun, and they also were able to jump right into the competition. The more teams that mentor a “pre-rookie” in off-season competition the better. My team greatly supported the idea and although we did not have an extra robot, we had invited a school to come and use one of 555’s retrofitted robots. Unfortunately they could not show up to Montclair Mayhem. Being able to actually participate in an actual competition takes some of the edge of being a rookie off when it comes time for the offical FIRST regionals. This is a great idea, and I hope that some teams do encourage pre-rookies to get out and see what FIRST is like first-hand. (no pun intended)
My team 1251 will be attending Mayhem at the museum and is looking to donate our practice robot for a up coming rookie team. This is a great idea. Also as stated please take the entry fees easy on the rookies and veterans that help out.
Adding to what Drew said… The competition will take place on July 8th and 9th at the Museum of Discovery and Science in Downtown Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. South Florida FIRST is sponsoring this event. Any team who is interesting and haven’t gotten any information about this event please check out this thread. Also if you have any question, please email me at arefin.bari@gmail.com … I am looking forward to Mayhem @ the Museum.
If there are pre-rookie teams interested in attending Mayhem in Merrimack (held in Merrimack, NH) please feel free to e-mail me at pamelaerin84@yahoo.com and I will se what I can do to accomodate your team!
You have no idea how happy I am that so many are taking an interest into accomadating their off season competitions for pre-rookies.
To off season competitions - we will soon be able to provide you with instructions on how to get pre-04 bots (PBASIC Controllers) to work with the fields so literally any robot in the past 6 years can be used.
If you are interested in having your off season be “big” (very, VERY supportive) with pre-rookie teams or want to help a pre-rookie yourself, please contact me. I will do whatever I can to help you!
