So this doesn’t happen again:
Feel free to File → Make a copy…
Use it next year.
Your Welcome.
8 Likes
Not bad! From what it sounds like, they need the ability to put in some accommodations prior to generating the list, though - Being able to specify a short list of teams for each division (teams that need wheelchair access, etc), as well as collections of teams that need to be in the same division (sister teams who have a shared pit setup, etc) would be the improvement needed over their current process.
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I do believe, just for clarification, this should go to First HQ, not FIM. The division work is, I think, done at HQ.
Could be easily fixed with a procedural item.
Blue Box Note under 11.8.3 Step 6:
For pre-communicated reasons such as accessibility or for shared pit location for sibling teams. FIRST reserves the right to switch divisions for that affected team with a team that is one spot higher or lower in the distric rankings as long as the resulting list as long as the resulting divisions still met the three criteria.
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The problem is… that is exactly what caused the problem.
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This is the key bit. They didn’t check after the swaps.
Personally I would like all accomodations requests in by a certain time and make sure that 2/4 fields can accommodate and those teams needing accommodations end up on those fields. Then you always have a solution.
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Admittedly I know nothing about the FIM DCMP, the venue, or anything else that happens in places where it gets cold in the winter.
But I’d really like to know why the hell two of four fields aren’t ADA accessible. Is this is “they’re all compliant but two are better if you’re in a wheelchair” type situation, or are two fields literally not compliant? I agree that the quality assurance and methodology for these divisions needs to be fixed, but it seems like maybe the root cause needs fixing, too?
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The current layout at this MSC venue is in a massive gym that can hold 4 fields, however only half of the gym is set up “arena” style, which is where I believe they have college basketball games. So half of this massive fieldhouse has permanent seating, and a second level with elevator access, the other half is just open space, so they have to bring in temporary bleachers for two fields, which arent exactly wheelchair friendly. The issue is, MSC is so massive, there aren’t many options for the “ideal” venue that is also easy on the pocket books I’d assume.
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How do they balance out the divisions so it works in the realms when a team ranked so low like 2604 qualifies? Must be pretty tricky.
One team doesn’t throw off a whole division’s average that much.
In addition, just to be clear, 2604 is a deserving team. They had a few issues at Macomb in playoffs that required us to pull our backup card, but had they stayed in and had we still won the event, they would have qualified based on points (would have ended up with 65) regardless.
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This is, unfortunately, the reality with many regional venues these days. Now that you raise it, we had to make a few minor mid-event adjustments to allow for more ADA seating at more than one regional I was at this year. I think there are valid solutions to creating accessible seating within the context of temporary bleachers being built that could mitigate this issue, but admittedly it’s not an easy problem to solve and ends with a “meh” solution.