My team ( 710 ) is trying to host a invitational this year and we are currently wondering if because FIRST is pretty much done with those fields, if they rent/loan them out to unofficial invitationals. I’ve heard of them doing such things in the past, and I wouldn’t imagine they would just randomly stop. Also it would be much more convenient than having to construct our own… after the fact kind of.
If anybody knows the answer and who I could contact at FIRST about it, it would be greatly appreciated.
FIRST does rent out their goals but be ready to pay some $$$$ for the shipping and use. I’m not sure who to contact at FIRST, but I can tell you that invitationals are alot of work…we’ve been running the PA Robot Challenge for 6 years now and you need about 30 people behind the scene to pull it off and look as professional as a FIRST competition. Good luck, it’s too bad we are too far away to attend.
Hmm yes shipping on that is gotta be a beast, but since we didnt go tto nats this year we have extra money left over. We know we have to have alot of help. This is what we are thinking, for volunteers offer community service to people at are school to help out( we have to have 20 hours a year to move on to the next grade). The one question i have, Who would make good judges for this event? Who should we ask?
Thanks man… now all I need is to find that contact, We’ll be able to pay for shipping, and somehow I hope we can talk to some refs or something to make it go off well
This is something we would like to run every year Lord willing.
I asked them when they were tearing down the fields at Houston, they said that they are just throwing the carpet away, but I suspect that they keep everything else…so you would have to come up with the carpet on your own.
Contact Tammy Tremble(SP?) at FIRST. The phone # is (603)666-3906 ext #111.
We are hosting our first invitational as well, and she is in charge of loaning out the fields and scoring components.
They usually have October 31 as their cut off date for invitationals so they can prepare for next years game.
Good luck to you and your team!
At the AZ regional, FIRST was throwing away the carpet(as they do every regional) but before they actually dumped it they wanted to know if there was a team that wanted it. I know someone took it home. I would suspect that is the same process used at every regional so you might be able to get a hold of some carpet from your closest regional. COntact the organizing committee for more info.
Also to note, FIRST does not give out any bins. You have to find you’re own source. Since you need ~40 just to set the field and extras to replace dead bins, this turns into a hefty expense.
The field must also be insured. I belive for 10k, but don’t quote me on that. I know in our case a local school has picked that up. It must also be shipped on a professional carrier.
The scoring software does come with the field, as does FIRSTs field operating system. You have to come up with the computers though. Last time I checked, none of the software was ready for the post season.
Needless to say, getting a field can be an expensiveb hassle.
Setup also takes 20+ people at least 6 hours, probably more.
