I have a question out there for all you forum goers. I am wondering if there was any talk of Regional Locations/Venues. I have heard through various anoynmous sources in the FIRST grapvine. That Pheonix + Seattle are being talked about. I have also had it confirmed through reliable, anonymous, sources that there will not be a Regional in New Hampshire for at least the next two seasons of FIRST. I’m just wondering if FIRST made any mention of Regional locations/Venues that are being looked at.
Bob Hammond suggested that Seattle & Cleveland are likely, Toronto is possible.
15 Regionals in 5 weeks.
My guess for a schedule from the hints they have put out plus looking at the calendar & thinking about Disney’s habits:
jan 5 kickoff
feb 19 shipping
week off
feb 28 regional week #1
mar 6 regional week #2
mar 13 regional week #3
mar 20 regional week #4
Easter
apr 4 regional week #5
week off
apr 18 Finals
That’s going to make it awfully close between the shipping & the first regionals. And seing as Easter is a Catholic holiday, it wouldn’t make sense not to have a regional that weekend. Of course, that’s just my opinion.
It makes plenty of sense not to have a regional Easter weekend. That’s generally when families get together or go on vacation, does Spring Break ring any bells? Besides, the holiday calendar is based upon Catholic/Christian holidays. You don’t see much for the Jewish or any other religious holidays.
David Brown told me that Cleveland is gonna have a regional next year. He mentioned that NASA up there will support it. He also talked about probably Seattle. He also talked about Phoenix Additionally cities of Portland and Toronto were mentioned as possible locations two years from now.
It seems likely that FIRST will put nationals towards the end of April. Unfortunately, this is spring break week for half of the high schools around the country, and is one of Disney’s busiest times of the year. I spoke with the travel coordinator for another team, and he said that airfare during this time period is already very expensive if you were to reserve it now. Additionally, there are very few flights were more than 20 or 30 seats are available at a reasonable cost. If FIRST does indeed make nationals during this part of April, does anyone else see this as a significant problem?
*Originally posted by Carolyn Duncan *
**It makes plenty of sense not to have a regional Easter weekend. That’s generally when families get together or go on vacation, does Spring Break ring any bells? Besides, the holiday calendar is based upon Catholic/Christian holidays. You don’t see much for the Jewish or any other religious holidays. **
Even though you might not have known this, they scheduled the nationals the same day as passover. I think if they wont stop nationals for an important Jewish holiday, they wont stop the competition for other holidays.
Gabe Goldman
Head of Design Team; Public Realtions Mananger
J.R. Tucker Robotics Team
Even though you might not have known this, they scheduled the nationals the same day as passover. I think if they wont stop nationals for an important Jewish holiday, they wont stop the competition for other holidays.
Gabe Goldman
Head of Design Team; Public Realtions Mananger
J.R. Tucker Robotics Team **
I doubt they’d hold nationals over Easter. Easter is a much bigger holiday in the US than Passover is and also I believe that Good Friday is a National Holiday (someone want to verify this?). Also, by comments made at the NH forum, my bet is that Nationals will be returning to late April this year.
I doubt they’d hold nationals over Easter. Easter is a much bigger holiday in the US than Passover is and also I believe that Good Friday is a National Holiday (someone want to verify this?). Also, by comments made at the NH forum, my bet is that Nationals will be returning to late April this year.
Matt **
Late April?!?!? are you serious? that would mean that they are either doubling up less on regionals per weekend or jsut pushing it waaayy back for some reason. i don’t like that idea because thats’ starting to get into even hotter weather than it already is. I thought that the date they had before was perfect. maybe thats what you get for an expaning organization.
I really wont like it if they move it to late April…the past 2 years Nats. have fallen perfectly over our spring break from school…so that means we only have to miss like 2 days of school and we can stay there for about a week w/o having to worry to much about making things up…
It sounds like FIRST is considering again what they did a few years back - '99 I think it was…I admit, being a HS student back then, making up the extra work is a bit of a pain, but hey, you do get to say you get an extra week of spring break =)
Late April?!?!? are you serious? that would mean that they are either doubling up less on regionals per weekend or jsut pushing it waaayy back for some reason. i don’t like that idea because thats’ starting to get into even hotter weather than it already is. I thought that the date they had before was perfect. maybe thats what you get for an expaning organization. **
It’s not FIRST’s decision as when to hold Nationals for the most part. Basically, they want a weekend in April and Disney determines when they can hold it. They did this back in '99 and it was hot. But then again it also wasn’t cold in the morning (was I the only one getting cold in the pit in the morning?). Personally, I could use more of a break between regionals and nationals. They won’t spread out the regionals more but instead just provide more time between them and nationals.
The pits were cold in the morning because they ran the air conditioning all night, but there weren’t any bodies in there. As a result, it was very cold in the morning and once people got in there it started warming up.
I don’t remember it being particularily hot in '99, but I rarely pay attention to the temperature unless its really hot or cold.
Late April?!?!? are you serious? that would mean that they are either doubling up less on regionals per weekend or jsut pushing it waaayy back for some reason. i don’t like that idea because thats’ starting to get into even hotter weather than it already is. I thought that the date they had before was perfect. maybe thats what you get for an expaning organization. **
Just was reading over these posts, and was reminded of a few things that Bob Hammond said when I was talking to him at the team forum here…as far as doubling up regionals, they’re doing even MORE of that now, with the new events…they were forced, because of scheduling conflicts with the sites, and not wanting to have more than 4 events one weekend(due to the limited number of FIRST staff that exist to man all of the events), they were forced to put in a 5th week of regionals, and so having Nationals the first week of April no longer worked out. And because of spring break timing and the easter holiday, it’s not real easy to do it in the middle of the month. So, end of April becomes the only alternative.
Just was reading over these posts, and was reminded of a few things that Bob Hammond said when I was talking to him at the team forum here…as far as doubling up regionals, they’re doing even MORE of that now, with the new events…they were forced, because of scheduling conflicts with the sites, and not wanting to have more than 4 events one weekend(due to the limited number of FIRST staff that exist to man all of the events), they were forced to put in a 5th week of regionals, and so having Nationals the first week of April no longer worked out. And because of spring break timing and the easter holiday, it’s not real easy to do it in the middle of the month. So, end of April becomes the only alternative. **
I find that interesting because I was under the impression that none (or almost none) of the regional facilities contracts had been signed yet. Perhaps I’m mistaken or perhaps they already know the available dates. But I still say FIRST needs to hire more staff.
