Petitions, 110% Support, Devil's Advocate,OH MY!!!

FIRST General Forum
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Posted by Kristen Kelso.

Student on team #131, C.H.A.O.S., from Manchester Central High and OSRAM SYLVANIA/Fleet.

Posted on 10/6/2000 7:11 PM MST

As Mr. Kelso said in the General Forum:
CHAOS was not looking for anyone to bend rules or start a letter campagne. My original note was just to see if other regionals are filling up and to kindly give a gentle warning to teams that did not sign up yet, YOU BETTER DO IT SOON.
~Although it does feel good knowing that we have so many teams behind us…we aren’t trying to get all of you to bend over backwards for us. I have personally met some GREAT people through FIRST this year and most of them are from the New England area.{I am looking forward to seeing their success in 2001!!} Dreaming about what it will be like to actually be on CHAOS when they go back as Defending Champions is definatly something I find myself thinking about often. But no matter what happens FIRST will be FIRST…and no ‘partner in crime’ will be going back on ANY plans for the NE Regional!!!
Kristen Kelso
Team 131

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Posted by Joe Johnson.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]

Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 10/7/2000 5:29 PM MST

In Reply to: Petitions, 110% Support, Devil’s Advocate,OH MY!!! posted by Kristen Kelso on 10/6/2000 7:11 PM MST:

I have a question for FIRST.

If they were going to hold a set of slots for late forming rookie teams, why didn’t they make that information public knowledge?

I suppose that most teams would have had no problem with FIRST posting that Regional XXX had YYY open slots and ZZZ slots to be held in reserve for late forming rookie teams. It seems to me that it would not be too much bother to keep this list along with a waiting list. After registration closed, teams would be allowed to shift around a bit based on their positions on the waiting lists and what venues didn’t fill their alotment of late forming rookies.

It is more work, of course, but I think that it could be managed without too much of a head ache. In this way, team will not get surprised by a regional getting ‘full’ when the numbers showed openings.

So…

What do you say, FIRST? Maybe next year?

Joe J.

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Posted by Eric Rasmussen.

Engineer from FIRST.

Posted on 10/13/2000 11:32 PM MST

In Reply to: Open Question to FIRST… posted by Joe Johnson on 10/7/2000 5:29 PM MST:

: If they were going to hold a set of slots for late forming rookie teams, why didn’t they make that information public knowledge?

I can’t answer this part, because I wasn’t involved in the decision making process. However, I can hopefully clarify something important below.

: I suppose that most teams would have had no problem with FIRST posting that Regional XXX had YYY open slots and ZZZ slots to be held in reserve for late forming rookie teams. It seems to me that it would not be too much bother to keep this list along with a waiting list. After registration closed, teams would be allowed to shift around a bit based on their positions on the waiting lists and what venues didn’t fill their alotment of late forming rookies.

: It is more work, of course, but I think that it could be managed without too much of a head ache. In this way, team will not get surprised by a regional getting ‘full’ when the numbers showed openings.

The good news is that the capacity remaining shown on our web registration system already accounts for the reserved rookie slots. Therefore, if it says that the capacity remaining is > 0, then anyone can still register. After capacity reaches 0, then you need to get on the waiting list where rookies have priority. In reality, even though the capacity remaining says 0, there may still be several ‘invisible’ rookie slots that are open. And, of course, if teams back out or we don’t get enough rookies to fill the remaining slots, then they will be available to the veterans on the waiting list.

Lastly, for those keeping tabs on the whole thing, I have added a link today to allow people to monitor the capacity remaining for all events without having to log on to the registration system. Use the link below to see it.

-Eric

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