The FIRST Mid-Atlantic District Event Schedule for 2017 was approved at tonight’s board meeting. Thank you to all our 2016 hosts for returning in 2017!
Week 1 – March 3-5 – Hatboro-Horsham – Horsham, PA
Week 2 – March 10-12 – Mt. Olive – Flanders, NJ
Week 2 – March 10-12 – Westtown – West Chester, PA
Week 3 – March 17-19 – Springside-Chestnut Hill – Philadelphia, PA
Week 3 – March 17-19 – Bridgewater-Raritan – Bridgewater, NJ
Week 4 – March 24-26 – Seneca – Tabernacle, NJ
Week 5 – March 31-April 2 – Montgomery – Skillman, NJ
Week 6 – April 5-8 – Mid-Atlantic District Championship – Lehigh University – Bethlehem, PA
Time to figure out which ones I want to volunteer at.
If our regional schedule stays the same Ill probably be at Hatsboro Horsham and Bridgewater-Raritan. Not sure yet whether to volunteer at NE DCMP or MAR DCMP. Both with traffic end up being around the same distance.
MAR teams attend the week 9 super-regional by default, so there would have been a gap week. Would have preferred week 7 as well. Disappointed to not receive a survey about this change, or any mention of this in the board meeting schedule.
FIRST requested us to move our district champs to week 6 starting in 2016, but due to a schedule conflict, we had to keep it at week 7 last year. Because of the double champs, FIRST wants all districts to move their champs to week 6 this coming year. It has been discussed in great detail and has been mentioned at board meetings for the past 2 years. It’s not new.
One of the other benefits of having an earlier district champs is that it gives teams more time to prepare for travel to worlds. Those who have been in the positions to make travel arrangements & fund raise in less than a week and a half know this pain. And with more teams than ever qualifying for worlds this year, giving 2.5 weeks will help.
This is why I am happy to see DCMP move to Week 6. Planning our first trip to CMP was enough of a headache, and was with us starting early after our Week 1 district win. I can’t imagine putting the whole thing together in 1.5 weeks. It wasn’t until this year that I understood why so many teams decline their CMP invites.
Chesapeake ran its events in the first 4 weeks with a Week 6 DCMP. It’s favorable to a lot of things, but it definitely limits teams in the CHS system from playing outside of it. The way the schedule set itself up last year, we had to lock ourselves into a punishing back to back to back schedule to get the events we wanted. I loved it but we can’t do that again…
There are 4 format choices you can make for a district season, and none of them will make everyone happy and have every complementary activity made simple. Run events on 7 weeks like Michigan and you get jammed into two unfavorable turnarounds on coordinating a full season (although most teams in Michigan could plan for them easier in the future). Skip Week 6 before a Week 7 DCMP and you still get poor turnaround time from DCMP to the postseason expos. Run a 6 week schedule and you limit outside opportunities for your teams. Run a 6 week schedule with a gap week and you really corner them into a tight schedule up front for a friendlier planning process down the road.
I don’t see any solutions to district calendars as long as the season calendar stays static.
+Mount Olive moved to week 2
+DCMP moved to week 6 (although this had greater impact with a week 8 CMP)
-DCMP still at Lehigh
-DCMP still at Lehigh
-DCMP still at Lehigh
I’m probably not alone in being unable to attend board meetings, and the MAR email blasts/blog posts are pretty sparse. I try to listen in when there’s a working stream, but am not always able. More detailed meeting minutes used to be available, now they’re pretty much just a few bullet points - so it’s hard to have an idea of what is actually being discussed at meetings. I can’t find anything on the MAR site anymore, but meeting minutes used to be posted there.
After the first MAR season in 2012 - I remember getting a nice survey asking about the MAR champs schedule, competition weekends, RFS vs FSS events, etc. It was good to be able to give feedback on proposed changes, and have some involvement in the process, even if it didn’t end up matching our individual preferences.
There are obviously pros/cons to any arrangement, but I’m sure there are many teams in MAR who would have given feedback if asked. Worst case - it would have given the MAR board a better idea of team preferences, even if HQ is trying to force the move.
Are all other regions moving to a week 6 DCMP? Seems like it would be a difficult move for Michigan and New England.
I would personally write and compile all of the surveys/information because I valued everyone’s opinion because it was not reasonable to make unilateral decisions based upon what I preferred over what the majority of the teams preferred. As it was, it wasn’t the majority of the teams who gave their opinion, so the ones who don’t fill the stuff out are just stuck with what is chosen. I resigned from the board after District Champs of Aerial Assist year. I believe my last survey was fall of 2013.
The truth is, if you want all of MAR represented, you need to change the bi-laws and make the MAR board like the House of Representatives where each group of teams (geographically likely) gets one representative. That representative is then responsible for his/her teams and knowing their opinions. Then you actually have someone who is responsible for you, your team, and your team’s needs, rather than a single group responsible for everyone.
FYI, Congrats to Jim Hobin (3314) and Randy Coren (223) for being elected to the FIRST Mid-Atlantic Board of Directors and representing Northern NJ.
To be transparent, I wanted to explain the decision process and approach in generating the MAR schedule for 2017 as I’ve heard both positive and negative comments from a few people both on CD and in person.
Overall Goals & Approach:
-Spread out events based on geography and team density
-Minimize overlapping events in the same region
-Week 6 Champs per FIRST request
-MAR has event “regions” that are not based on state lines but rather are determined by our equipment transportation method. As many know, we use PODS. There are 2 franchise hubs within our region, Hatfield, PA & Edison, NJ. To limit costs, we try to avoid crossing the franchise territory boundaries. Southern NJ (Seneca) is part of the Hatfield hub. Central NJ is within Edison’s. So, our south field has an event week 1-2-3-4 and north field has an event 2-3-5.
Venue Specific:
-Mount Olive was shifted to week 2 due to venue availability.
-Montgomery was shifted to week 5 due to venue availability and the shift of district champs to week 6.
-Bridgewater was shifted to week 3 to not overlap with Seneca and Montgomery so that there are not double events in central/south NJ weeks 4 or 5.
-Westtown was shifted to week 2 due to venue availability and to not overlap SCH and Seneca weeks 3 or 4. We also prefer district events to be earlier in the season to allow teams to qualify earlier for district champs. If we even could have had Westtown week 5 again, it would force teams into the position of fundraising or preparing travel in 2 days for district champs, week 6. We already have that condition with Montgomery, week 5, which is not desirable.
While we have very flexible and generous host venues, venue availability is the number 1 factor that creates our event schedule. If any teams would like to have more options to create a different schedule, please consider hosting an event yourself. It’s a very rewarding experience for both the host team and local community.
And just to clarify. Congrats and welcome to all the new MAR board members, who represent MAR as a whole, single community: Randy Coren, Kevin Dieterle, Bill Garfield, Jim Hobin, Chris Lester, & Priscilla Zawislak. It’s a strong addition.
With registration starting today - I’m in the process of cleaning up the annual registration google doc. Will be updating intermittently over the next few days as teams register for their first event.
Thanks for the inside look at how the events were planned and the criteria that got used to figure it all out. The ability for teams to go from “well that’s stupid” to “oh, that makes sense” is great. Nothing like a little transparent enlightenment to start the new season.
Since people complain season after season about MAR Champs at Lehigh, how much more would it cost MAR to use another venue?
