You have to have dodgeball! It will be a huge hit.
Because of the gamepieces, 2006 was a great season for dodgeball. I heard it was especially good at IRI – too bad I couldn’t stay.
Probably, this year’s gamepieces will enable another entertaining social activity. Maybe frisbees?
With softballs for gamepieces, the FVC crowd can just bring their mitts and start a game of catch (out beyond the parking lot, please).
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Of the days, I think Friday is the best option. Teams have Thursday evening to shake down any robot issues, and my experience is that many teams do not stay over the night after the competition ends.
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The attraction of a social for me was as a pace-changer, so I’m all in favor of holding a social off-site, be it a team-run social in a rented out hotel’s hospitality room, or in a local Science Museum.
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My opinion is that 10:30-11:00 is a good time to close up the social.
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I’d expect a team-run social to have access to food (Burger King, Krispy Kreme, etc… down the street), but for a FIRST organized social, I think a free buffet is in order.
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Entertainment-wise, I think the main purpose of the social is to socialize; the secondary purpose is to eat food, and the tertiary purpose is to enjoy the activities. Entertainment is nice, but I’d rather the money be put toward the buffet.
A LAN-party has been mentioned quite a bit in this thread (7 times) though, and while I’d prefer a DJ, I can see how a massive Halo 2 tournament could compete with that. Why not ask your regional event supervisors if they could set a room aside for a LAN party, and then have the party be BYOC (Bring your own computer)? If you had enough people interested, I don’t see why it would be an issue (except maybe for power requirements depending on the size of the party).
So what does it come down to? Quoting Greg Marra here, “fun is funner than no fun.” So no matter what, try to have fun.
Thanks to everyone for their inputs on the “ideal” team social…This is why the CD forum works soooo well! Judy’s idea about the magician/comedian is EXACTLY the type of brainstorming we all need to do.
The Finger Lakes Regional committee is beginning to make plans for hosting an inter-team social event at the March 2007 FLR and getting input from all of you on CD has been invaluable in planning the social…Keep the ideas coming!
The RaChaCha Ruckus committee did host dodgeball at the intermission of the off-season event held a couple of weeks ago. It was hilarious and a lot of fun.
Even if your team social event is not held in the same venue as the playing field, or if the 2007 game somehow precludes using the field for “fun” events, then think about doing atheletic events such as volleyball and dodgeball at some nearby facility…
The 2007 Finger Lakes Regional is held on the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology, so there are lots of other buildings in which to host a team social…except the swimming pool (safety issues). See y’all there!
When the UTC Connecticut Regional was at the meadowlands (a big concert venue) there was a comdedian act followed by a magic show. The year before the same hypnotist who was at nationals also performed there.
I really like the idea of having some sort of performer to entertain the crowd, but at the same time I wonder how that really allows the teams to “socialize”. I like the socials in Philadelphia because they have people walking around to entertain, but its much more of a “social environment” with just a lot of big space and food. I really like the idea of having social events at these competitions, it allows us to put the stress of the competetive aspect of FIRST behind us for a few hours and gives us a chance to make new friends.
Also, I like the idea of bringing the social away from the venue, just for a little change of environment. But it does take a lot of careful consideration as to how to get there, will it be big enough, etc.
I also like the idea of having separate friendly competitions during the social events. Perhaps just silly games like dodgeball or relay races or stuff like that. But coming from a teenagers perspective, I think we’d all be happy with just some time to talk and some food 
That’s why I was thinking maybe of having him do a show or two over the course of the night, so you’d have to option of doing other things during/instead/etc. Plus, as far as I know, a lot of the organizers are gunning for renting out the arcade again (which has an area for LAN gaming). I always find it interesting that everyone is so up for that. I was never really one for going out to play on my computer… to each his own. Maybe I’m just getting old.