Mission mayhem used to be an event in South Florida hosted by (if memory serves) 1345 and 108 (not sure if 1251 was involved or not as that dissolved after my freshman year of high school). I am aware of a scrimmage day that 179 has hosted in the past, not sure if that’s happening still, but from my understanding it was very far from an event. More like a day to shake out the robots at the end of build. Tempest N’ Tampa also used to be a great event. There was also the Robot Rodeo (a mini off-season) in Orlando, again, I’m not sure if this still exists. I also heard rumor of something brewing in Tampa for this year, but nothing more than rumor.
I would love for 744 to host an off-season in Ft. Lauderdale. Mr. Stolley’s over worked as it is though, but I think we could do it eventually.
I can’t find anything about 179 hosting an offseason. But I did find that 1251 used to host Mission Mayhem. It was canceled in 2012 because of lack of teams.
So it looks like in 2013 there is only one off-season event in Florida.
Looking at Panther Prowl, it doesn’t seem to be as large as the offseason events in MAR. It only had 21 teams last year. Here Brunswick Eruption, Ramp Riot and Monty Madness are always full with around 40 teams and have waitlists to get in.
I wonder if the districts led to more offseason events or if the offseasons came first? I know that Midknight is new in MAR this year, and I’m not sure when girlPower started. So that’s 3-4 offseasons in MAR before districts. Does anyone have info about Michigan’s offseasons in 2008?
This is a pretty incomplete list. Here in NE we have 8 by my count: Battlecry, Beantown Blitz, WIWI, Conneticut State Champs, Bash at the Beach, Mainly Spirit, River Rage, Mayhem in Merrimack.
I think it can be said that New England will be coming into districts with a fairly strong volunteer base.
On the topic of Florida districts:
I agree with James that Florida could feasibly pull off the districts with ~100 teams and districts spread similar to the way he described, on a similar timeline (~2016). I think as far as volunteer bases, it would be a softer transition than going directly to 10 events. Although it would be a slightly harder transition for the teams.
Also, with 150 teams, that means 300 “competing slots” as each team plays twice. At ~40 teams per district, that means only 8 districts to accommodate the number of teams suggested for transition.
If I were to organize Florida districts/championship, I would do almost exactly what James did, but instead, I would move the Tallahassee district to Gainesville. Our panhandle is similar to Michigan’s upper peninsula, I don’t think the five teams up there warrant a whole district event, especially since three of them didn’t even opt to compete in Florida this past year, but rather competed at the Bayou regional. Although, I would like to see that area grow when the district transition happens, so that eventually a district can form up there. I like the Championship in Orlando, I don’t know about the venue.
I still don’t know what to do with our friends from the DR… those teams are so close to Florida and have roots in Florida FRC. I would hate to exclude them, but I just wouldn’t know how to fit them into a district system without more teams (~30 on the island).
Also, since all of this is speculation, does anyone know what, if any, talk there has been in FloridaFIRST leadership in regards to districts?
MidKnight is new, but girlPower is in its 4th year now. Further, there were BR^2 and PARC before districts–it’s more of a shuffle than an increase. MAR was a very high off-season area well before districts. Michigan is an anomaly for me; it may just be the calendar, but it seems very low.
I didn’t assemble the list–it’s basically just FIRST’s calendar. I know it’s missing events, (including Duel on the Delaware, that we’re actually competing at).
Regarding timelines, here is the growth in FL FIRST teams since 1999. We will, assuming growth continues, hit 100 by 2017. (I used the average growth since 1999 since I couldn’t find a trendline that made any sense).
I’d be more interested in seeing the amount of churn in teams. I’ve got the data to compute that I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Maybe tonight.
At MAR, on the first day (after school/evening) we need to feed 65 volunteers. On days two and three (the full days) we need to feed 100 - 110 volunteers. We need the same number of volunteers for a district event as for the region championship event. We simply have people volunteering at multiple events; thank goodness for the amazing MAR volunteers.
The big problem came in 2012 when we went to districts. We had enough volunteers, but we impacted NYC Regional significantly. The individuals that volunteered at NYC as their second regional ended up volunteering at MAR districts and we basically stole a decent portion of their volunteer base. This didn’t happen on purpose, and we didn’t realize how many individuals volunteered at NYC from MAR until the month before NYC when they were still looking for a large group of volunteers.
I mean how many of the teams are new each year. If we have 26 teams one year, 36 the next you’d naively assume that there were 10 rookies. Sadly, it’s not. There’s a lot of things more important to sustainable growth than looking solely at team numbers. Basically, that plot is a horribly bad way to look at growth and feasibility. I’ll try to write up more of my thoughts when I’m not working.
And yeah, that was the point… that growth is all over.
It’s no coincidence that the areas that have moved over to districts and have concrete plans to evolve into the system are not only the oldest and most dense areas, but also areas that train major key volunteers that ship out to other regionals across the country and are integral to championships, and the areas with districts are anchored by their multiple HoF inductees.
Those of us who imagine a utopia where one could open the proverbial floodgates and let a low cost, high match-volume structure cover the earth and unleash a bountiful harvest of successful teams gloss over the fact we need the seeds of volunteers to grow the programs.
You mean like Koko Ed? That guy must have several clones…
On the topic of Florida Districts: Waiting for 150 teams is a bad idea, it just hurts when you try to do it with such a large mass.
I think FL is close to being ready; if planning starts now, 2015 seems reasonable. Trust me, although you may have a few nay-sayers, that disappears once the first District season has passed. The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.
Just remember to be as transparent and inclusive as you can.
