All you wonderful and pasionate FIRSTers!
 

Can I make a reading recommendation to all you wonderful and passionate FIRSTers.

Read the book "Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Changes in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer, Md. Johnson"

To summarize: Change will happen in your life, expect it, prepare for it, accept it, live with it.


(Dave- you bet me to post #200!):yikes:

Re: All you wonderful and pasionate FIRSTers!
 

My adult son introduced me to that book, then I introduced it to my husband and bought copies for my teens and 12yo stepdaughter.

the voice of the people :)
 

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by M. Krass
"Dave Lavery! You screwed up, you stupid moron!"
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Gee, thanks.

-dave


And you thought everyone was too afraid to say what's on his or her mind. Way to speak up for the people, finally someone had the nerve. Director of the Solar System may wield power, but it can't stop freedom of speech!

:)

PS - All in fun
Don't worry - Dave is sharp enough (normally) to notice that the above quote from M.Krass was not actually a comment from her to him.

While I won't try to refute that particular reference in her post, I will clarify one item she pointed out might be a misconception by people, solely because he made a post requesting team input:

I hope everyone knows that the criteria which is now in place was developed & discussed by MANY people, and that the final version is not in any way the version that any one person proposed or argued for. Rather, it is an amalgam, for better or worse, of views that many different segments of FIRST stated they felt very strongly about (sorry, as "just" an English teacher surrounded by engineering geniuses, I must throw out fun words sometimes just to avoid feeling too IQ inferior in this world). So he can only be blamed for "some" of the problems you may have with it - but probably not all.

This thread is officaly offtopic.
 

Its more of "Way to go, Dave." or "Now look what you did Dave"

Anyway, its OBVIOUS thats exactly what he does, which is why we blame Kyle.


Wetzel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Move along, nothing to see here.

Hey M Krass,

What do you think of all the exegesis on what you have written, especially by Dave and Jason?
[look it up - I was just try to keep up with Jason Morrella using big words - I bet even Jason may have to look that one up. You see my wife is also an english major and she gives me a word of the day; this one was from last week]

Anyway, when they start teasing you, that means they like you.

Raul

I know I'm little bit late joining this party, but I figured I'd toss my two cents in anyways. I think FIRST did a good job of representing their ideals by allotting 1/3 of the current year's qualifying spots to Chairman's and Engineering Inspiration teams. This is not the way I would have designed things, but I respect and understand the consistency that FIRST is showing.

That being said, consider the following hypothetical situation; Say the three time national champions, team 71, were to go through the upcoming season being no better than finalists at any regionals they attend. Let's also say that they don't win a Regional Chairman's or Engineering Inspiration award. This situation is not very far fetched at all. If these events were to happen, team 71, one of the most storied and decorated teams in FIRST history would be attending the Championship Event in Atlanta.

Does this seem right? I'm still trying to answer that question myself. I'm not really sure at this point. I think once regional season begins, we'll be discussing many actual situations like this one. Hang on to your hats kids, this season should be a fun ride.

Any thoughts? Do tell...

The Team That Bill Built...
 

The possibility of Beatty not being at the Championship Event has been crystalized some of my thoughts on this subject. And so, I give you the following rant:

Do not think for one minute that Beatty will not be at the Championships!

As proof of my sincerity in this matter, I will accept all wagers on the following sucker bet... ..er ah... ...proposition:

I will bet even odds (one 12 can case of Mt. Dew to one 12 can case of any other soda) that The-Team-That-Bill-Built, Team 71, will compete at the 2004 FIRST Championships.

Any takers?

But beyond this, even if my predictive powers are not up to the standards of the Great Kar Nak (spelling?), the world will not stop revolving on its axis... ...really.

If Beatty or Wildstang or Buzz or Bombsquad or Rage or Kingman or Cheesy Poofs or even a REALLY essential team like Chief Delphi ;-) fail to make it to the Championships, FIRST WILL GO ON!

Does the NCAA require that Duke make it to the Dance of 65? Does Miami and Nebraska ALWAYS have to be near the top of the BCS ranking?

I think that FIRST has done a pretty good job trying to have their actions match their Mission.

And, by the way, their Mission is not to run a fair robot competition -- the robot competition is the means to an end, which is changing society. Judged by this standard, I think the new method of getting to the Championships is a step in the right direction.

Specifically, it balances our desire to have the Championship Event include the best robots with FIRST's desire to incentivize the vast majority of teams that will never be FIRST power houses AND ALSO reward teams for Chairman's Award type behaviour.

It is a tough job but I think FIRST has made a good decision.

Joe J.

Re: The Team That Bill Built...
 

I'll take it Dr. Joe, not that I don't think that Beatty has a good chance of going, I just want to take the bet...You're on.

Re: 2004 Championship Eligibility Criteria!!!
 

hey guys i just wanted to bring this thread back up and ask one thing... Since FIRST has now let everyone who wants to register for nationals, what are your thoughts on the criteria and do you think now that it is fair or what are your thoughts on it now?

~Mike

P.S.~ Please i do not want this to be a post war or a flame thread, if it becomes that again, i will have this thread closed!

Re: 2004 Championship Eligibility Criteria!!!
 

does "everyone" include rookies? if they did allow everyone to sign up, i don't think they told anyone, 'cause there's still 4 spots left open.

Re: 2004 Championship Eligibility Criteria!!!
 

I'm also a bit confuzzled. So tier 1 teams who have not prequalified are now allowed to register for Atlanta? Does this mean there are open spots or just that a team can register in hopes for a spot to open in the future? When a team registers now, do they have to pay right away, and if not, when is the pay date?

Re: 2004 Championship Eligibility Criteria!!!
 

when i said everyone, i mean that all the teirs are open for registeration since december 17th. On that date FIRST opened registeration for a lottery style selected amount of teams to nationals from teir 1. I know not everyone can register and if you remember, rookies were labled as a teir "0/rookie" level. I am not sure if they will be allowed to preregister for nationals?
~Mike

Re: 2004 Championship Eligibility Criteria!!!
 

Not everyone is eligible yet. We are a tier 1 team, earned three awards, Leadership in Controls, Website and Animation,(last two are not FIRST judged awards) and are still not eligible. We even paid for our first event and then got a fantastic NASA grant leaving us with a hefty balance due back to us from FIRST. We would love one of those last 4 spots, but realistically, we are looking at qualifying the good way, winning one (or all) of the qualifiers at our regional.

Re: 2004 Championship Eligibility Criteria!!!
 

Thanks to both Dave and Mike for your response. I was reading the thread where the FIRST Email Blast announced registration was open for those Tier 1 teams selected by lottery and found that it was open until the 24th. So I am wondering, what now that the 24th has past? Are there still those 4 slots open and if so who can register and when?

Re: 2004 Championship Eligibility Criteria!!!
 

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. Are they going to open up those last 4 spots? If so, when?