So I decided to utilize the standardized district rankings to rank the teams in Florida. In doing so I realized that at the 2 Florida competitions 1 of our 2 Chairman’s, 1 of our 2 Engineering Inspiration, 7 of our 24 other award, and 12 of 48 elimination slots went to outside of state teams. which doesn’t help with a lot of teams rankings being so close together.
I compared your Florida Rankings, to my World Rankings, and found several discrepancies. Your method sounds the same, normalize to 12 matches and double if only 1 event, so the results should be comparable. Many point values were 1 point off, and a few are 2 points off, which are probably rounding differences.
3992: I have 60 points, 10 draft, 0 elims, 7 wins (normalized to 7.5), 5 awards x2 since they only played one event.
3556: 1 have 58 points, 10 draft, 0 elims, 8 wins (normalized to 9.5), 0 awards x2 since they only played one event.
4224: I have 16 points, 4 wins (normalized to 4 wins) x2 since they only played one event.
I should have re-phrased my question: Does anyone have info regarding what FIRST in Florida leadership is thinking about eventual transition?
On a personal note, I think we have almost enough teams to host a district with 4 districts. Although, at the current growth rate, I would agree with you and extend to say we’ll never have enough teams, since we have had net loss of teams the past two years and this year we lost almost 25% of the teams that competed last year! However, I’m of the belief that we would have better retention rates in a district model, as teams get more for their money.
My biggest concern, however, is getting the volunteer base ready, as that is one of the largest hurdles when adding events quickly. I know others have also expressed concerns about the loss of the international teams that we compete with every year.
I can agree with most of that. But the biggest loss for “Florida” teams has been the loss of Puerto Rican teams. My first 2 years, I remember Orlando having like 6-8 of them; now there seems to be something like 2-3.
Also concerning volunteers for districts, I would see alot of current team mentors volunteering in off-weeks; that could help the normal volunteers out some.
Speaking for the Orlando Regional Planning Committee, we’re still exploring our options. There are many pros & cons to a district format, and many things that make Florida a unique situation not suited for exactly copying the other district models. One is not just team density, but location of the teams in the state, as well as the overall geography of the state. There’s a lot of dead zones between clusters of teams. And many of the infant-mortality has come from the JC-Penney grant teams that never established a stronger sponsor base.
Schools are different - you don’t have the large indoor spaces of schools up North, instead you have sprawling outdoor campuses. Teams that come to Florida are unique - how many Regionals can boast teams from Australia, Dominican Rep, Puerto Rico, Brazil, & Mexico? Not to mention we’re a huge draw for snowbots ;).
Preserving the integrity of the competition & volunteer base are essential for us, and are main challenges in creating more competitions. It’s been challenging enough for us to populate two regionals of volunteers, nevermind five or six. I understand with the large increase in districts up in Michigan, (not to mention the stressful game design this year) volunteers are being taxed to (past) their limits -4,5,6 events. Whatever we do in FL will have to have a strong volunteer development program first.
Plus like I said, we’ve got some ideas of our own to increase value at competitions (anyone heard of #botsonyachts?) without making any potential sacrifices to quality. Look at RoboVisionOD, RoboShow, and Thursday workshops. Not to mention the Mouse in the room down here…
TL/DR: We’ve got a lot of work to do before we can do districts here in Florida.
Plus the United Kingdom and Germany. I believe the Turkish Team was also registered for 2014 Orlando, but they dropped out. I’d have to look back in my records, but we might have also had a Team from Israel one year.
Lack of sustainability due to funding and/or loss of strong mentors are the two biggest factors.
As Daniel stated, the J.C. Penney Grants had a huge impact on our young FL Teams.
Additionally, the loss of critical mentoring assets due to work contracts ending (people seeking work outside the area/in another state) and sometimes entire companies closing their doors also has a huge impact. Did anyone notice that USA is no longer one of the Sponsors for the Orlando Regional and Team 801 or that Lyman (2757 BAD) and Space Coast Jr./Sr. (1875 Purple Haze) no longer have their FRC Teams?
I started compiling a list of FL FRC Teams no longer competing. It is a long list.
I also noticed that several of the Teams have crossed over to being FTC Teams.
Would Florida ever consider an offseason State Championship? Similar to what Minnesota or other states do. This could help ease the transition into districts.
I am sure we would but where would we do it, but how many teams would we cut it off at, we could easily invite every team and still give them 9-10 matches, or we could invite the top 32 and give them 13-15 matches
Don’t wait too long. Yes it is hard work, but it has to be done, and soon. Is your committee talking with the other one down in Ft. Lauderdale?
I have seen the District system from both perspectives now. Seven seasons in St. Louis as a team mentor, event volunteer, and planning committee member. Five seasons now in Michigan.
The FRC has evolved since 1996, my rookie season. The vision and mission have not changed: we are still a volunteer community aspiring to* “transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders.”* However, the means to that end has changed over the years. Our first step away from the modest beginning was Championships in Orlando. The second step was decentralized planning by regional committees and directors, enabling growth through geographic spread. The third step, begun by the FiM organization and spreading across the community, enables further growth by lowering cost barriers and improving competitiveness – a natural consquence when teams play more matches.
The District competition that I help to plan and host now requires about 5% of the budget that the St. Louis Regional required when I was part of that planning committee. Most of the difference (>$200k) went to professional event services and to venue rental. My opinion, apparently shared by many in the FRC community, is that those costs inhibit growth.
Holy Cows, We’ve lost 27 teams in the past 3 years! I know JC Penney pulling out & NASA downsizing has a lot to do with it, but that definitely sounds like panic time!
Yes we talk with S. Florida, we even have members on both planning committees.
Like I said, there are many considerations that have to be made, and avoiding the mistakes that FiM made when setting up their system is important. Yes the costs & quantity are appealing aspects of the districts, but maintaining the integrity of what we’re trying to do here, inspiration & gracious professionalism, are equally important. We are lucky enough here to have our venue at Central Florida, who have been very gracious hosts and have supported our efforts to bring more value-added to the Regional with minimal additional cost. There needs to be a careful strategy to avoid the volunteer issues that have plagued other events - this season’s competition has been taxing enough without additional complexities.
I am not sure where some of these names came from 665 was known as MAYHEM before motor monkeys, 1543 was The Riddler Revolution for as long as I could remember, 1875 was Automatanomatonamatons (or something to that effect) then became Purple Haze, and 1889 was just Haze for there entire existence