In thememe posted in this thread, the meme reminded me of the actual source slide-deck progression tree,
The slide in question refers to “FRC Flex Event” in red, but I have no idea what they were actually intended to be. Like, some are specific to “region” groupings, but it’s overall not very detailed.
Any help would be appreciated.
From December 2012:
Sounds like an early concept of what have become district events.
Flex events, included Vegas, were allowed some leeway with things like who we contracted for production services and such. We were less bound by HQ guidance. As I recall we didn’t have to use Show Ready if we didn’t want to as and we had a little more control on monetary issues. I guess you could say Districts are an extreme example of this;)
Edit: I checked with cohorts on our planning committee and even though we didn’t have to use Show Ready we have used them every year of our regional. We handled some of the production decisions like AV from Solotech who does all of the Cirque shows. Pretty sure most teams who have been to LVR will attest to the quality of our events and SRE has been a big part of it.
Same for Long Island, New York.
SBPLI is an independent organization that contracts with FIRST to run programs on Long Island.
So flex events were intended to be lower cost regionals, that allow more flexibility in negotiating lower prices for event costs.
I might be barking up the wrong tree, but have those savings ever been passed to teams?
That’s not how event funding works. Event funding is separate from FIRST.
Team costs and event costs are covered by different organizations.
There isn’t extra money left over, there’s just less sponsorship required.
Do flex events exist today? Are there some regionals that are not bound by the same requirements list as others?
All Regional events are bound by the same basic list of requirements.
This is supposition on my part, but where they differ is that for some events FIRST makes the contracts (using approved FIRST suppliers), while others are handled by local organizations, like SBPLI/Long Island FIRST, who can make local contracts for less cost and better handle unique local complications such as union involvement/rules.
Flex events still exist in the Regional Planning guide quality standards. https://www.firstinspires.org/sites/default/files/uploads/resource_library/frc/rpg/rpg-section-11-quality-standards.pdf
Except district events existed since 2009.
I have heard of RPC’s and District Organizers that pass on extra funds in the form of grants to local teams.
I’d really like to see Flex events re-established. There are a lot of benefits of Districts that save teams, regions and volunteers money.
Just because some areas don’t have everything in place to move to Districts, doesn’t mean those areas can’t save some money (and pass the savings on to sustaining their local teams!)
-Mike
This may sound like an easy way to cut costs, but this is not something you want to do.
Even though districts do run without SRE, they definitely can feel the void they used to fill. SRE’s people do so much legwork and coordination with FIRST and their providers before the event, it would be incredibly difficult to replace them for a one-off event like a regional.
Districts can squeak by without because they handle all their own logistics. Each regional runs “self-sustained” in that everything they need gets shipped to them, set up, torn down, and shipped away. All this happens via third parties FIRST contracts with. SRE has the expertise to be able to make them happen and do a better job than volunteers. And this doesn’t even get into the amazing groundwork SRE does during events.
I’ve volunteered at a number of district events, and there have been a number of times where we wished we had professional event managers to help with venue contracts (surprisingly tricky), day-to-day event management, and general logistics. Trust me, you will miss the professionals when they’re not there and event quality will suffer.
Although I can definitely get behind moving regionals to smaller/cheaper venues.
Be careful what you wish for.
AV and expensive venues is what runs up the bill, not event mangement firms like SRE.
I’ve worked on teams planning both FRC events, and non-FIRST corporate events of similar scale. The quality differences between having an event management firm in your corner are vast, and make their cost worth every penny.
Also, event mangement firm’s knowledge of the industry for negotiating and enforcing contracts is crucial. I’ve know of a few events that didn’t hire an event management firm. The lack of knowledge and contract negotiation in the events industry lead to massive costs overruns at those events.
Cut back A/V, get outside of union overpriced venues, and you’ll see the savings.
Thanks for the feedback on this point.
I agree that having SRE to negotiate large contracts with venues and contractors is valuable.
However, I will argue that the need for SRE goes way down as the number of contracts and overall event cost goes down.
A $200k Regional? SRE is a value added.
A $10k District? Or in our case, a $4k Offseason? SRE is not needed.
Step back for a second, this is a sport for high school students. Our sport should be able to scale up like other local high school sports do. We need to get to a point were professional event management firms are not needed to serve our local high school students. Many areas in Districts are already there or on their way. It just makes sense.
-Mike
I’m sure teams that started their season in California regionals in high schools last year for the privilege of participating in Einstein at South Champs would have preferred SRE at the latter over the former.
I thought SRE didn’t do district events and off season events are team run as far as I know. Many people I talk to who favor districts over districts always tout the flashiness of the event. SRE is a big part of accomplishing that look. I’ve worked closely with them for years at events. I can’t think of doing large scale FIRST events without them.
That is his point.
There were some people called the Sullivan Group taking over for them but I never once saw who they were and on my radio their channel was dead silent every time I went there.
I’m imagining graffiti scrawled on walls at events now of “Who is the Sullivan Group?”… Maybe we need to check the Paradise Papers for mentions.
One of my lead queuers says he spotted a group of ladies in gray sitting at a table in the volunteer room talking among themselves< he says that who the Sullivan group was. My main point of contact at the event was the VCs and FIRST staff. It was very unusual being at a championship without SRE there. Far as I am concerned they are invaluable to the regional and championship experience.
Can you go into further detail as to why you believe that SRE is invaluable for the regional experience? I understand champs, but for the average regional I’m not yet seeing what SRE provides that many people experienced in running FRC events do not already provide. We have off-seasons here in California such as Chezy Champs and Beach Blitz that match the production quality of our regional events, and while I know these aren’t the norm in FRC, it shows it’s possible to run a high quality event without a professional production company, so I’m curious what aspects I’m not seeing.
