Are there any off season summer events in Oregon or Southern Washngton
Based on this part of the FIRST website, there are two on the same weekend in October in Oregon. http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/calendar/list
Yeah but it would be sweet if someone started an off season event that occurred during the summer and uses this years robot
Well, you would still use this year’s robot in an October event, right?
So… why not you? http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2076
Unless that competition does something strange, offseasons in October still play Aerial Assist.
It is possible that he is referring to BunnyBots. I know that this is a big deal in Oregon.
Yes, the October events we host, Girls’ Generation and Rookie Rumble are Aerial Assist and are held October 11th and 12th. We hold them during the school year in order to to get NEW members energized about the season to come. Things are pretty quiet around Oregon competition-wise in the summer.
The rules for BunnyBots, our pre-season FRC-class competition with a different game, will be announced Sept 1st. That competition is Dec 20th.
I know it doesn’t quite fit the bill as a summer offseason but our team really does enjoy BunnyBots and I would recommend trying it. It’s a much more relaxed schedule, and it’s an opportunity to take risks that you might not want to in the regular competition season. For example, having totally unpracticed drivers? Not a big deal. Don’t really feel like scouting? Don’t worry about it. The strategies are still evolving at alliance selection. Having somebody new design a critical component? You have enough time for a couple extra revs. And if stuff doesn’t work, oh well. You’ve got the regular season ahead of you.
And if you want more information you should probably message Dale Yocum, who has conveniently already posted in this thread. 
Create one for next summer! Not only are offseason competitions amazing for developing pre-rookies, rookies, veteran members, and new drivers, but they also provide a great opportunity for fund raising and teaching training workshops for teams in the area. Offseason competitions are a great resource for developing the level of competition in your district.
Washington FIRST Robotics the non-profit organization tasked with running the PNW FRC district does have two official FRC fields and game specific field elements for Aerial Assist and 1 full set of electronics. They are available to teams in the PNW district to host their own off-season event. If anyone is interested you can PM me and I’ll help you sort out the details. We may also consider requests from teams outside of the PNW district. Note because we have a single FMS and electronics it will need to work around the events that have already be scheduled or are already in the planning stages.
How do training work shops come into play with an off season event .
FIRSTfare, our region’s big conference for FRC teams, is being held at Gladstone High in the Portland Metro area Oct 27th. That gives new and returning members an overview of a wide range of topics. Beyond that each team has their own method for getting people up to speed. That’s also what BunnyBots is for.
Are the presenters in First Fare generally students or mentors?
I haven’t actually been there myself but I would guess it’s generally mentors, given that I know one of our mentors presented there last year and that their speaker signup on their website asks for your profession. Could somebody who has been there confirm?
About 60% are mentors the others are leadership students with demonstrated expertise in a particular area. For example the Chairman’s award session is generally given by the Chairman’s department students from area teams.
Wow. California doesn’t even have one field…
Perks to a district system.
I don’t know if there is significant interest for another off-season event on that scale just for Oregon. The teams that would be competing from Oregon would likely be some of the same teams that compete in 1540’s BunnyBot event each year, and BunnyBot provides an excellent opportunity to try new things for teams (ie, 2471’s swerve ect). Girls Generation gives a GREAT opportunity to girls on a robotics team to become more involved by demonstrating their skill sets that they may not be able to show otherwise. Rookie Rumble gives Rookies a chance to become more proficient at working in a FIRST environment. My point is that each of these events presents a very clear benefit for the time and money that a team puts into it. Hosting a vanilla off-season event that is between Oregon and (potential) Washington teams, which would have some benefits, doesn’t seem very useful to me. I would argue that 1540’s events already cover the benefits of hosting an Aerial Assist off-season event by providing a clear framework of rules to help develop teams and their members.
Another important piece of FIRST is Money. Many teams in Oregon lack the funding to attend many of these off-season events. Some even lacked the funding to attend the DCMP after qualifying through districts.
Personally, I’m not convinced we need another off-season event in Oregon because I think the current events hosted by 1540 are great substitutes for the Vanilla FRC game.
Due to the lack of off-season events in PNW many teams are choosing to go out of state for events. I know of at least 4 teams from PNW that are planning on traveling to either Chezy Champs or IRI in search of competition this summer. The fact that these teams are willing to invest $10,000’s in traveling across the country makes me think that there is enough money out there for hosting off season events in PNW. In the past it has been expensive to ship fields across the country for a single event which is why Washington and Oregon Girls Generation competitions are back to back weeks, now that FIRSTWA has everything necessary to run events many of the price barriers have either been greatly reduced or eliminated entirely.Girls Gen is great but I feel we are missing out on a large part of the FIRST experience in the rest of the country.