Say, when are the dates for various regional competitions released? Is it at kickoff?
Im pretty sure that its sometime in early September actually.
http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=454
Watch for important deadlines on this page.
Locations for Regionals and dates should be released in Sept.
About 10 weeks to go until your team needs to register for your initial Regional. Some Regionals will fill pretty quickly.
I think that events that are certain to occur with the exact dates should announce early (FIRST announcing early).
With the cost of airline fares skyrocketing, we would prefer to book our trips well in advance, if it allows us to get a much cheaper rate.
I’m in Dallas now, and my fare alone from Hawaii from $1164! 
(booking 4 months in advance). I realize its the summer, but spring time is also peak season for traveling.
Actually, I don’t think event dates can be officially released until ALL the regional dates are set. The reason being venue availability. For example, if Regional A uses Venue A and it’s available on weeks 2,4 and 5, and is set for week 2; and Regional B uses Venue B and is available week 2 only then FIRST may switch Regional A to a different week and put Regional B on week 2.
They officially release regional dates as soon as ALL the regionals are set. This is probably for the best. Imagine setting your travel arrangements for Regional A, only to find out later that it’s been moved to a different week. I imagine FIRST would get some pretty ugly phone calls from frustrated teams if they released regional dates without all the regionals being set.
I dont see the logic.
Conflicts will happen with x amount of regionals > no. of weeks …and venues are setup (the ones that I am aware of) based on other factors OTHER than conflict with other regionals.
I dont see how the Hawaii regional, for example, would factor in when the other venues have their “week 5 regionals.”
Based on what I implied in my previous post, I still dont see why announcements cant be posted, if certain regional dates ARE certain as opposed to waiting until all regionals/venues/dates are confirmed.
actually regional dates got moved around once, i think it was for 2007
FL regional was set originally for a week 4 regional mar 22-24, then it go moved back to mar 8-10, and then it finally set to march 15-17
got a flyer today confirming the Vegas regional during week 5 for 2009 and a save the date reminder.
Interesting…I wonder if other regionals do this and/or planning to send out already.
The SBPLI Regional date is set for the 5th week, but the venue contract is just a handshake right now. While the date is public knowledge, until the contract is signed it won’t be officially published.
FIRST headquarters has to agree with the proposed date so as to insure a field is available, but venue availability is the primary driver. Those venues that have several open weekends can accommodate being shifted for whatever reasons you choose as Jon mentioned, e.g., to spread out the playing field usage or to avoid over saturation in an area for teams and volunteers on a single weekend.
The 6 months official FIRST notice we get (September - March) is probably sufficent at least for the local team attendees. I get less notice about our school events calendar…
I sympathize with locking in airfares from Hawaii :ahh: . We always signup for Championships during the open registion period, because we don’t want to be buying tickets if we qualify after week 5.
thanks Mark.
This makes much more sense now.
The Hawaii regional committee looked at all of the weeks and decided that having it during our spring break was the #1 and probably only possibility as its choice. Some of us suggested week 1 (our first regional) primarily due to cost for Hawaii teams that wanted to compete in mainland regionals. The robots would then not have to make two round trips from Hawaii to the mainland.
Given that other regionals may be more flexible in having their regional based on the other factors that you mentioned is good reason to wait until the official date.
Time is money though.
Though this isn’t the case for every regional, I believe a few of them are locked into spring breaks (Boilermaker seems to be set on Purdue spring break, second weekend due to the venue availability). Though this isn’t fullproof, you might want to consider looking at regionals that have a very specific venue issue that forces them to be on a spring break or especially later or early.
A polite email to the regional committee might work well - they’re under a lot of stress I’m sure, but it wouldn’t hurt you to try (keyword patience). Having a few particular regionals in mind when you prepare to travel with your team, even if you do not lock down travel arrangements right away, might accelerate the process as other regional dates are fixed.
Dates for the Oregon and Seattle Regionals are as follows:
Oregon Regional at Memorial Coliseum in Portland
Week 2 March 5-7, 2009
Seattle Microsoft Regional at KEY ARENA in Seattle
Week 5 March 26-28, 2009
Good luck to everyone
We hope to see you at these events!!
SKUNKWORKS
FYI–Oklahoma City Regional is week 1. We had an incredible experience last year! Looking forward to it.
We ship on Tues, and 9 days later–compete:)
Week 1:
Oklahoma City Regional
Week 2 March 5-7, 2009
Oregon Regional at Memorial Coliseum in Portland
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5 March 26-28, 2009
Seattle Microsoft Regional at KEY ARENA in Seattle
Las Vegas Regional
SBPLI Regional
Week 6
So this is what we have so far. I’ll keep updating this.
What day is kickoff??
I believe January 3rd. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Really? I thought it was at kick off.
Well, you learn something new everyday =p
wow. airfares are getting ridiculously high.
where do you guys go for your kickoff? I was wondering because you team is from Hawaii. Do you guys go to one on the West Coast?
Las Vegas is going to be the 5th week again.
When is Florida :rolleyes:
Keaton
There are regional kickoff locations all over the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere. Better than just having one in NH like they used to! So they’d have a Hawaii kickoff.