View Full Version : What kind of welcome home do you get?
Hey everyone,
Good job and congratulations on all of those who attended the FIRST Robotics Competition in Atlanta over the weekend. Good work for anyone who has particpated in the program this year. I know for some of us the season is not over yet!
Anyways, when I was in high school and I always remember returning to classes the next available school day and feeling some sort of achievement. I knew I had did something the couple of other hundred people in my school will never do.
1) Because they're too lazy.
2) They just do not have the time.
I know a couple of times, some folks in high school have said "oh the nerds are back" lol. That one always use to make me chuckle. Fools, someday they'll be working for us, am I right?
But anywho, what kind of atmosphere have the rest of you returned to?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/pics/bin/firetruck.jpg
But that, of course, is only when we win the competition. :yikes:
Back when I was a student, reception by the other school peers was usually a mix of amazement/jealousy (at least a week off in USA :D)/Haha you're waaay behind in assignments! sort of thing.
I got 30 degree weather and 6 inches of snow (AND ITS STILL SNOWING) when I got off my plane at 3 PM. I don't know what we will get at school, I'm a rookie so this is my first time going to NATs and such.
RudimentaryPeni
24-04-2005, 22:59
we got into LA at 12:30 last night and was greeted by poor service and smog, then traffic. Then a party got out in Santa Clarita and all the kids with nice mouths decided to go to In-and-Out. Then i got home to a shut down house at 2:00 finally. It really does feel great to be back home (thats not even sarcastic)!!
Quatitos
24-04-2005, 23:23
We get a very much appreciated day off of school to rest from nationals. Very good time to finish(coughstartcough) all the homework that you missed.
"... you mean we have a robotics team?...."
YES WE KEEP TELLING YOU!
-_-; they don't care about us as long as we are in school on monday.
Joe Ross
26-04-2005, 03:31
We were met at the airport by balloons and flowers, and about twice as many people as I expected. From their we went straight to the school where there was a TV cameraman (from the ABC affiliate) and a local newspaper and reporter.
In the past, it's been much more low key ;)
From there we went straight to the school where there was a TV cameraman (from the ABC affiliate) and a local newspaper and reporter.
Here's a link to the Daily Breeze article. I hope the link works OK. It does not include the picture that came with the print version. The Breeze people seemed pretty nice, and spent a lot of time interviewing the students and taking pictures. There were only a couple errors that I noticed; my mom pointed out that they even spelled my son's name correctly. :D The only real problem I can see is that our alliance partners aren't mentioned at all. :(
Article (http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/1505492.html)
The Eyewitness News report, though brief, was pretty good, too.
Both groups of media people got this right: they interviewed the students rather than the mentors.
BTW, it's still hard to believe we won.
Parents showed up and took their kids home. The usual greeting we get. We'll be lucky if we get mentioned in the local paper (we got a one paragraph side story fro winning FLR and a big ad from the regional commitee a week later).
FIRST has a long way to go to get into the public's short attention span.
banztito
26-04-2005, 07:06
Nothing really, hahah. Everyone that basically was involved in robotics was there. Since were still in vacation it wasnt like our school was just going to throw us a party or anything like that. But well, ya know, obviously the parents were really proud of us and stuff.
Parents showed up and took their kids home. The usual greeting we get. We'll be lucky if we get mentioned in the local paper (we got a one paragraph side story fro winning FLR and a big ad from the regional commitee a week later).
FIRST has a long way to go to get into the public's short attention span.
I know this might be pretty rough for some people but hey... It's the truth...
:ahh: Sometimes you cannot expect FIRST to do everything!:ahh:
[Sure they are amazing for pulling off what they do... but they have a full time staff of what... 30 people?]
It's hard to get "positive" events [like the complete and utter awsomeness of FIRST] into todays news between the stuff they see as "good" news... you know... shootings, murder, accidental death, the MJ trial... If you want your team to have better publicity, You/Your team needs to start making the connections with the local paper, radio, & news stations before the events... Make it your goal to get them excited about the program.
-------------------------------
Back to the topic...
It was a rather quiet return this year for MOE as everyone was exhausted... especially since we took a bus down this year instead of flying. We left at 10:00pm from Atlanta and got back to Wilmington ~1:00pm. I ended up lying down ~2:00 on Sunday and slept straight through till 6:00 monday morning... almost missing getting to school on time because my alarm clock was still in my luggage.
We have had problems getting publicity because the paper always says "We have done articles on you in the past and we don't like to repeat". That may be why CNN had such minimum coverage and focused on FLL this year.
Beth Sweet
26-04-2005, 10:39
Just because I'm still on HOT's listserv, here's how they got welcomed home this year.
MOEmaniac
26-04-2005, 10:49
Seeing as how my team is made up of multiple schools and how I am 1 of 3 from my particular school. Since I was the only one of the three to dye my hair, and I go to an all boys private school that doesn't allow the students to dye their hair. You can imagine the welcome back hazing that I got. Honestly it doesn't bother me, I mean it used to but now it's just like "yeah so what I have green hair, thanks for pointing out the obvious." But I did get a positive welcome home greeting from my close circle of friends who all were asking how we did and how was it.
Bill Moore
26-04-2005, 11:40
Just because I'm still on HOT's listserv, here's how they got welcomed home this year.
Sweeeeeet!!!!!!
Every team should be welcomed home this way, whether they got an award or not. They all participated and took risks, those are the important points on the road to success.
blckconsolation
26-04-2005, 12:00
We got a "you didn't win?" from the friends and a "you're very behind in work" from the teachers.
Exciting, isnt it.
Daniel Brim
26-04-2005, 12:05
We've gotten a "Beach Bot's welcome" before, but not so much this year. The school hardly knows we exist now. They only recognize us when it's convenient. The local media, as you've seen, is very supportive here. It was great to see Beach Bots in the Breeze.
Oh yeah, I got welcomed home to "So Beach Bots won, heh?" from my parents. It was overdue anyways :)
Feeling slightly jealous in a good way,
Daniel
alphaone
26-04-2005, 15:25
Yeah we traveled back to san jose with Harker and Los Altos (1072 and 114) and after we landed the flight attendant congratulated all of us on doing well in atlanta, and we got a round of applause from the whole plane. Then we were greeted by a bunch of parents (all wearing team 254 shirts) after we got out of security and back into the airport lobby area. No media there or anything... apparently nobody cares about the second place alliance lol. Back at school they had a little blurb about our performance in atlanta in the daily announcements thing (which are written and displayed before lunch by projector), and they had a typo where we were the ChessyPoofs instead of the CheesyPoofs :rolleyes: A lot of teachers and students knew how we did though and congratulated us. Other teachers and students asked how we did and were happy when we told them how we did. So all in all, its all good :)
Oh and a lot of my relatives were watching (glued to the screen they said) on NASA tv and the webcast. They were all really happy. At first they thought that it wasn't gonna be very fun watching the competition, but now they're hooked :D
ARcanUSNUMquam
26-04-2005, 19:58
Two words.
My bed.
Beats three cushions stolen from two couches on the ground for 4 days.
I also got a week's worth of homework from 8 classes. Times like these when I miss my free period. (Some people skipped out on school on Monday though, and I fell asleep 3 times in class. That time change is horrible. Perhaps a West Coast place for 2007 Champs?)
Jill1022
26-04-2005, 20:12
We got home at 2:30 am Sunday, so obviously no one was there to say congrats.
It wasn't even mentioned by anyone but like two of my teachers the next day. Bummer. Oh well, I talked to everyone so much about it that I'm sure they dont want to ever hear about it ever again.
We had a chilly welcome home. Just above 32 degrees.
Our drivers were in the only picture with the article about how the local teams did at nationals, in the Grand Rapids Press.
My non-robotics friends wanted to know how we did.
here's what my teams welcome home was:
4 hour delay in Atlanta
Arrive in Detroit MI round 8 Sunday evening
Dinner at a McDonalds at 11 ish Sunday night
arrive in our school parking lot at 1 am on Monday Morning
Go to school at 6:30, but i slept in till 8:30.
Have everyone ask me Why am I wearing my uniform, have a shop rag in my back pocket, and am wearing a silver medal round my neck.
not the best welcome home party.
whakojacko
26-04-2005, 22:21
Yeah we traveled back to san jose with Harker and Los Altos (1072 and 114) and after we landed the flight attendant congratulated all of us on doing well in atlanta, and we got a round of applause from the whole plane. Then we were greeted by a bunch of parents (all wearing team 254 shirts) after we got out of security and back into the airport lobby area. No media there or anything... apparently nobody cares about the second place alliance lol. Back at school they had a little blurb about our performance in atlanta in the daily announcements thing (which are written and displayed before lunch by projector), and they had a typo where we were the ChessyPoofs instead of the CheesyPoofs :rolleyes: A lot of teachers and students knew how we did though and congratulated us. Other teachers and students asked how we did and were happy when we told them how we did. So all in all, its all good :)
Oh and a lot of my relatives were watching (glued to the screen they said) on NASA tv and the webcast. They were all really happy. At first they thought that it wasn't gonna be very fun watching the competition, but now they're hooked :D
Ya the congrats was nice. Too bad the way back didnt invovle giving mark leon easy calculus problems which he misunstood to be near impossible ones and spent the whole flight working on :).
alphaone
26-04-2005, 23:23
Ya the congrats was nice. Too bad the way back didnt invovle giving mark leon easy calculus problems which he misunstood to be near impossible ones and spent the whole flight working on :).
Mark Leon was on the flight? Or are you talking about your flight to atlanta?
Either way that's pretty funny :p
i got the welcome sight of my bed, and a few bewildered room-mates. they thought that i was joking when i said i went to atlanta, and was actually hiding in my room for four days. i still don't think they believe that i left town.
Billfred
27-04-2005, 00:43
As I hauled into my room a suitcase, about half of a twelve-pack of Diet Pepsi, the box to my cell phone (I got it once I got into the car on Wednesday), and two Metal In Motion shirts:
"Uhm, most people this time of year try to move things out."
--Billfred, who will be staying up all night after his last exam for one more cram session; cramming everything into boxes and bags, that is!
Ryan Albright
27-04-2005, 00:54
Girlfriend picked me up from the Airport. Got home, Roomate walks up to me and said were where you again?O ok ready to play some Counter-strike? So played counter-strike to early hours of the morning and then remember i have finals and projects said screw it and went to bed for like 16 hours
BaldwinNYRookie
27-04-2005, 01:43
Welcome home? Unfortunately the reaction from our school will most likely be...
"I keep seeing people wearing those shirts, what is Chaos Inc?!"
"What is 1546?"
"There's a robotics team?"
"Hey that's great... but, uh... what is it you do exactly?"
"So you guys like... fight robots or something?"
"Loser."
"nerd."
"My club/team is cooler."
(I swear there are kids that think their club/team is more fun and "cooler.")
"You guys raised all that money to go... and lost?!"
First of all there has never been (nor will there ever be) a school club/team that even comes close to being as cool/fun/exciting/rewarding/awesome as a robotics team...
Second of all... Atlanta was worth every penny. I wouldn't have hesitated if the cost to go was twice that amount.
dachickindapit
27-04-2005, 10:43
I don't know what time the students got home on Sunday (I didn't get to go), but they were welcomed back into town by the sign that Beth posted. They were also given Monday off school. We had a team meeting yesterday, where TV stations and several newspapers were present. There are signs at the entrance to at least one of the high schools and the sponsor's entrance drive. One of the high schools is holding an assembly for our team Thursday, and apparently giving us all the space in a newly added "Atrium" for banners and trophies. The Board of Education wants to honor us at their next meeting, and there was an article in the county newspaper yesterday about the successes of all the Oakland County teams (AdamBots, Chief Delphi, and Killer Bees), as well as mentioning our alliance partners (Thanks guys!!).
We don't normally get this, but our schools do typically recognize the team in morning announcements and the regularly scheduled pep assemblies.
alphaone
27-04-2005, 10:49
I don't know what time the students got home on Sunday (I didn't get to go), but they were welcomed back into town by the sign that Beth posted. They were also given Monday off school. We had a team meeting yesterday, where TV stations and several newspapers were present. There are signs at the entrance to at least one of the high schools and the sponsor's entrance drive. One of the high schools is holding an assembly for our team Thursday, and apparently giving us all the space in a newly added "Atrium" for banners and trophies. The Board of Education wants to honor us at their next meeting, and there was an article in the county newspaper yesterday about the successes of all the Oakland County teams (AdamBots, Chief Delphi, and Killer Bees), as well as mentioning our alliance partners (Thanks guys!!).
We don't normally get this, but our schools typically recognize the team in morning announcements and the regularly scheduled pep assemblies.
Yikes! That's quite the welcome :eek: Glad you guys got a nice welcome back :D
I thought this was pretty cool on the front page of the school's website:
http://www.ndprep.org/
whakojacko
27-04-2005, 13:27
Mark Leon was on the flight? Or are you talking about your flight to atlanta?
Either way that's pretty funny :p
That was on the way there, he might have been on our flight back but i didnt see him. Woz was also on the flight both ways i believe. Next year all the south bay teams should be on the same flight, THAT would be interesting :)
Greg Ross
27-04-2005, 14:56
When one of our members arrived home, she found that another neighbor team had put up a welcome home sign. (See attached picture.)
alphaone
27-04-2005, 15:16
That was on the way there, he might have been on our flight back but i didnt see him. Woz was also on the flight both ways i believe. Next year all the south bay teams should be on the same flight, THAT would be interesting :)
Yeah that would be pretty cool :D
I'm not sure if you all have morning announcements at your school, but a couple of my teammates and I were mentioned on the announcement, saying what a terrific job the team did at nationals and complimenting our animation and inventor submission. After that, our 30 second of recognition on the announcement did not continue into the hallways. I received compliments from my teachers, who were all curious as to how my team did...
Atlanta was soo awesome! In my opinion, better than Houston. :D
sheepgirl115
27-04-2005, 16:10
When one of our members arrived home, she found that another neighbor team had put up a welcome home sign. (See attached picture.)
The team that did it was team 981, Frazier Mountain High School!!!!! ;)
alphaone
27-04-2005, 20:14
The team that did it was team 981, Frazier Mountain High School!!!!! ;)
That's some awesome gracious professionalism right there!
You guys are super awesome for doing that 981! :D
TheShadow
28-04-2005, 12:28
Our team was welcomed home with a resounding "meh." It was snowing, we had been on the bus for 13 or 14 hours, we were tired (and once off the bus), cold, and wet. The school doesn't really care that much about the team. There is yet to be any mention of us.
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