I have shared many of my thoughts in other threads.
Venues: I really like Paul’s idea of allowing for optional Regional or District/Regional Championship. I think the district model is a good way of getting larger High Schools and small engineering schools involved. A huge percentage of Kettering students come from FIRST. By the way, I predict Cass Tech to become one of the premier venues for a Competition. The atmosphere was fantastic there.
Bagging: Bagging system was fantastic. It was actually kind of fun Running around the building trying to find someone to sign for the bag. It was also a useful practice to have an alotted time to work work on things. 8 hours when well organzied can go a long way. 8 hours when poorly thought out can leave you with a mess or moral dilema. To me this stresses the needs of planning and execution so much better than the Thursday scrambles ever did.
Rookies: Paul’s right that this system actually helped us work with Rookie teams better. Usually we do a preseason presentation for Rookies and then throw them to the wolves (we would still anser emails and stuff). This year we were able to help two teams out a lot more. Both of those teams had really great Rookie seasons with both winning at least 1 Rookie Allstar, and one of the Rookies backed their way into a District Championship while the other was an Alliance captain at the State Championship.
State Championship: I had to watch this from a far, but the competition level there was excellent. It made this game fun to watch, even in the qualifying rounds. With so many good teams, all of the matches were extremely close. On paper who would have thought that the Quarter finals between 65, 217, and 67 against 2834, 33, an 68 would have been so close. Almost every match was within a Supercell. With 60+ teams, I don’t know that they can get 12 matches in. That would require 120 matches. That is a lot. Some options could be to bring in weighted records from district events. Otherwise maybe push it to 10 matches. There is no need for an entire practice day. Maybe 1 round to make sure everybody is still compatible with the field, but not a whole day. Actually a robot parade to start things off instead of a practice match. My biggest concern with the State Championship, is the Value factor. I hope it doesn’t suffer from too little play time relative to how much it costs. I know this factor kept several teams from attending this year. Now that the reality of only 24 of 64 teams playing in the elims, I fear a lot of teams that are good enough to qualify for States, but know they are not a top 24 will not attend unless it is more affordable.
Points System: Overall I think it is really good, but there are some concerns I would like to see addressed. With the exception of the WFFA, all other awards should have points. I understand that the culture awards are supposed to be worth more than points, but seriously get an award, you get some points. Otherwise I think it worked really well. It had a good blend of an exeptional weekend will qualify you for States and well as consistent good performance. Only allowing your first 2 events to count for points should stand.
Sustainability:
Looking through the numbers of the FIRST financials, and then applying some of those numbers, the gravity of some scary truths can be a bit overwhelming. Most teams are playing with donated budgets on fields that realy on donations at events that rely on donations. Kudos to the teams that earn their money via bake sales and car washes, but the fact remains that most teams are playing with other peoples money. This is going to be a real problem next year. A large portion of the FIRST budget comes from sponsors that are having a very rough year. Many of them have had to ask for money from the govenment (after their FIRST money had been doled out already). The FiM Pilot stresses value and it does a really good job of that. **While a lot of people are concerned with the conversion from Steak to Hamburger, I say 2 juicy hamburgers are way better than no Steak at all. **I know that I could Raise $5000 through fundraisers and small donations. Heck I could charge 30 kids $100 to be on the team and there is $3000. With the FiM model, I could run a team indefinitely playing 2 district events for $6K. Two events is enough to keep kids excited and inspired. 24+ matches is enough for them to learn what this thing is about. With the current FRC model where $7K might get you about 8 matches, I think I would have a hard time keeping a team going. I would then down convert the team to FTC, Vex, or maybe even try to bring a BEST district (cost about $30K for 12+ teams). This would compromise the goals of what I want to teach the kids, but would be better than a poor attempt at FRC. I don’t think I will have to worry about any of this, because the District model solves these problems.
Other items under sustainability. The volunteer system of requiring a team sponsor volunteers is a great addition (is it still volunteering if it is mandatory?). OCCRA has done it for years. One possible change to that system for small teams could be that if they are under 10 students, they could get their volunteer credits in at another event if they are too short handed at the event they are playing at. Another possibility would be having parents put some time in. Either way.
Sponsorship: This is going to get some groans from the vetran teams, but I would like to see a change with the big sponsors. I don’t see why a sponsor needs to give over $10K for the FiM Model. $5K for registration, $3500 for a robot, $1500 for incidentals. However, the extra funds I would like to see go towards a pool for States and the Championship. Qualify for States, here is your registration money, and $1000 for incidentals. Qualify for the Championship, here is registration and another $1000. Yes I know for many teams that $10K is not enought, but I helped a team this year that had a budget of about $6K. It can work. It made me ill to hear about teams that spent $80K or $100K in a single season. Most of that is travel, lodging and food for the team. The district model removes much of the need for that. I understand this is still and issue for remote teams, but with districts being significantly cheaper to run, they should be able to pop up everywhere.
FiM Overall: These people have done a really great job. Kudos to them for stepping out of the comfort zone of Status Quo and shaking things up. Don’t let the clapping of hands and patting on the backs drown out the need for improvements. There are some very real issues that have come up and need to be sorted out. Fix these things and you will have a great new way of doing FRC.
National Rollout: So with the improvement I have seen in many of the Mi teams from this FiM model, the scariest thing is how awesome this could make some other areas. Mi was already a powerhouse for good teams. I joked around about this, but imagine how cool Wii FIRST could be turning Midwest into a Regional Championship and doing the district model with Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois (this got a chuckle from somone on 111). With MWR being the Championship, you could turn Wisconsin and Boilermaker into districts. With the extra funds, have our IRI friends do an inseason district as well as maybe an event at U of I Champagne Urbana, and maybe Rose Hulman or Tri-State (are they under a differnt name now?). Throw in a couple more districts and you have what could be the premier Regional in the country. California has the assets to follow the FiM model more directly. East Coast is primed for a set up like this. Texas has been a breeding ground for BEST. The FiM model could be what it needs to convert BEST teams over to FIRST. You get the picture. (For all those teams in Arkansas, we will let you guys hang out in MI if you want). Once most areas have districts, then the Regionals can flip back to being open to whoever has enough points (locals get priority to save on travel funds). Do 4 weeks of Districts, 2 weeks of Regional Championships, the “The Championship”.
Editorial (stepping up on Soap Box):
For years now FRC has had Junior Varsity play level playing at Collegiate level productin events with Varsity Level play at the Championship at a Superbowl level event. This model scales the competition level very well with the cost to put on the competition. Sustainable sponsorship normally comes from producing something. The sports model produces entertainment. Most district events were only entertaining to FRC people just like most High School sports are only entertaining to the parents (there are exceptions). Watching States was truly exciting. Imagine if Nationals was made up of the top 24 teams from 13 Regional Championships. That worth the Pay Per View.
(Temporarily stepping down from Soap Box). Thanks.
