New York 2013

[FueL]

The event shouldn't be based off of any specific guides in the first place, because you'd just have all the answers if you happened to bring the right guide..

[caseyotis]

The event shouldn't be based off of any specific guides in the first place, because you'd just have all the answers if you happened to bring the right guide..

That's what I said. ._. Our regional was obviously based on the Guide. It was PowerPoint slides with pictures of leaves, berries, and flowers (these pictures didn't come right from the guide). But the second slide was a question that came straight from the info section of the Audubon Guide. What did Native Americans use this tree for? What industry is it part of? Etc. etc. And we didn't have to memorize it. I'm going to try to actually learn this year, in the offchance that we make it to the State this year, which I'm really hoping for.

[FueL]

The state test last year was really nice. They had preserved samples and the questions were really fair, but a little on the easy side. Lots of random trivia.

[caseyotis]

I wish they had preserved samples here. ;_;
Trivia would be found in the guides, no? Or do you probably have to study to know the stuff?

[socaptain]

So my team is planning on competing in the Capital District Invitational this January, and we will also compete in regionals, and we don't have a doubt that we will go to states. However, I have a problem. As captain, I work with the two other captains to try and fit everyone into events, and the invitationals and states schedules are fairly similar, which means that we could readjust people to their events fairly easily; however the regionals schedule just came out and upon running the scenario for every team member, almost everybody has a conflict (except for a few builders) and some people have upwards of three of the events that they've been preparing for in a single time slot. So does anyone have any advice on how to plan for/schedule events so that there will be minimal changes?

[caseyotis]

So my team is planning on competing in the Capital District Invitational this January, and we will also compete in regionals, and we don't have a doubt that we will go to states. However, I have a problem. As captain, I work with the two other captains to try and fit everyone into events, and the invitationals and states schedules are fairly similar, which means that we could readjust people to their events fairly easily; however the regionals schedule just came out and upon running the scenario for every team member, almost everybody has a conflict (except for a few builders) and some people have upwards of three of the events that they've been preparing for in a single time slot. So does anyone have any advice on how to plan for/schedule events so that there will be minimal changes?

It's impossible for you to really get advice without anyone knowing what this time slot actually is. But that is really tough. I don't know any way other than switching people around until everyone's satisfied and able to compete. You're going to have to compromise, and if you can't, try what our team did, maybe?

We had the schedule in front of us when we decided who was doing what. Then, while looking to see if there would be no conflict, everyone on the team made a priority list. With that, we were able to put people down to do what they really wanted to do. From there, we coulf fill in the blanks and get everyone happy with what events they would be competing in.

[OldSpice]

So my team is planning on competing in the Capital District Invitational this January, and we will also compete in regionals, and we don't have a doubt that we will go to states. However, I have a problem. As captain, I work with the two other captains to try and fit everyone into events, and the invitationals and states schedules are fairly similar, which means that we could readjust people to their events fairly easily; however the regionals schedule just came out and upon running the scenario for every team member, almost everybody has a conflict (except for a few builders) and some people have upwards of three of the events that they've been preparing for in a single time slot. So does anyone have any advice on how to plan for/schedule events so that there will be minimal changes?

I don't know how much this will help, but I'm one of the captains on my team and we have to schedule three teams for our invitationals. What I did was take each team number "group", ie: 7-15, and grouped all the events together that conflicted, so we knew that each person could only have one of those events.

I've attached an image to show you what I mean. Each color is a group of events that conflict. (this is one of our teams for the same invitational you're scheduling for)

click to view (Click to Show Hidden Text)

[img]http://i.imgur.com/aDgAk.png[/img]

As for states/regionals, we schedule for states and then have substitutes for regionals/invites if there's conflicts.
Hope this helps

[60004]

Of course, it's not actually possible to schedule for states since the schedule has different conflicts for different team numbers and team numbers aren't published yet. I bet OH, MI, PA, CA, etc. have figured out a better way!

[EastStroudsburg13]

Well, seeing as the PA schedule is not available until March, I'd say we might not have figured out a better way. Then again, for us, every region has approximately the same range of team numbers allotted to them each year, so at least you know about where you will be if you make it.

[juicemanman]

Im doing rocks and minerals is the test in stations

That might be a better question in the rocks and minerals section.