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Gracious Professionalism
What does Gracious Professionalism mean to you? Stories and examples are more than welcome!!!
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One of my examples:
Last year at regionals, my team's robot damaged another team's robot, and we asked if there was anything we could do to help them repair their bot. |
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Many would say it is both gracious and professional to make sure your robot will not damage another team's robot.
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I'm disappointed that this question doesn't have 200 replies already!
Gracious Professionalism is loosing and congratulating the winning teams and really meaning it! Gracious Professionalism is winning and congratulating the losing team and being truly happy that they were there to compete. It's offering advice, materials or tools to help someone that may beat you. It's facing up to the challenge of the competition. It's coming back and losing, It's coming back and winning, it's acknowledging that what makes one of us strong, makes all of us strong. Best example I can't find but of a team who lost their robot but was given parts and help by other teams to build an entirely new robot in order to compete. Most of all it's about inspiration. Something I have gotten from every group of kids I've mentored since I first became involved. Steve |
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At a regional event last year we damaged a critical component of our robot. I local team drove back to their school and found what we needed to go on. No questions asked, didn't ask for payment, didn't ask for it to be returned. This item probably had a street value of over $100.
At nationals last year our team made a rookie mistake and we were not ready with charged batteries for the quarter finals. We could have had 10 extra batteries when it was all said and done with the outpouring of support from teams around us. A mentor from a local team also happens to be a robot inspector for our local regional. Last year (and again this year) he gave up a valuable work day to leave his team and come over to our school to give us courtesy inspection. This was very important because we were a rookie team and we would not have passed inspection for several reasons. He saved us a lot of frustration. The list goes on but you get the idea. There is always someone there to extend a helping hand regardless if they are a stranger, competition foe, neighbor or live 1,000 miles away. Thanks FIRST community! |
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All of what was stated above is a great example of GP. However, most people forget that it goes beyond just FIRST. GP applies to everyday life. If you don't believe me, check my link below for a great example how it applied to my life.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...885#post628885 |
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Team 1523 was the recipipient of GP at the 2007 DeVry University Mission Mayhem event. Despite being beseiged with robot problems, we made it into the final matches; playing against the alliance of experienced Teams 233, 180 & 108. When MARS suffered a major part failure and had used up its time, these amazing competitors used their time-out to ensure MARS could finish replacing its stripped gear plate & continue play.
See this thread if interested: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...548#post641548 This is only the most recent and dramatic of many examples MARS could give. We try to embody the GP shown by role model teams like those mentioned above. It adds not only to the respect you have for others, but also to your own self respect. Thanks for all the life lessons FIRST! |
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GP is Team 399 making thier entire shop available for Rookie Team 2339 without any limitations, along with their advice, skilled mentors, and experience. They also check up on us to keep us on track:)
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Gracious Professionalism is a modern update on the Golden Rule in my book. Do unto others as you will have them do unto you.
I just wish more people in FIRST would remember to apply it outside of the shop, the competition venues and Chiefdelphi. [RANT] I've been noticing alot of people in FIRST posting online about FIRST and using it as opportunities to openly bash alliance partners or to engage in vulgar trash talk on Youtube. Obviously they feel insulated by online anonymity and selfishly think that no consequences will befall them never once taking a moment to think that that fate will instead be bestowed upon their team. I wish these people would take the time to consider all of the long hard hours of hard work many students and mentors before them and currently have put into the team and now because of their own selfishness they are sabotaging for the sake of an ill thought out good time. [/RANT] |
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I'm glad to see this thread created during build this season. Thank you, Lindsey!
I've been thinking of the many examples of Gracious Professionalism that I've been privileged to witness or be a part of and I honestly wouldn't know where to start with specific examples. Many acts of kindness and generosity have come from rookie teams over the years. They are busy with their competition/season and yet they find ways to reach out and help others and each other. I've seen it time and time again and each time I am amazed. Watching students, parents, and mentors in the team I'm a part of, 418, consistently learn about and exhibit Gracious Professionalism over the years has been a deep source of joy and pride for me. Continuing to meet the members of teams from around the world and to talk with them and learn about their struggles and successes as a robotics team that competes in FIRST is an experience that I value and will hold as one of the most important things I've ever done with my life. I'm very lucky that my family supports the travel and the time that it takes to be a part of our FIRST community. Watching engineers, mentors, and volunteers working with students under the stress of competition and seeing the cooperation, interaction, mutual respect that exists among the teams is a very special opportunity. Every person who reads this, knows and understands what I am saying. If you don't now, you soon will. Not everything is rosy - some teams struggle with Gracious Professionalism and what it means, just as individuals who make up the teams do. But there is always that opportunity to grow, develop, mature into a member of a FIRST team who embraces and reflects Gracious Professionalism in a way that Dr. Woodie Flowers would appreciate. Jane |
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In 2006, we were in the finals at Pittsburgh. Our alliance had won the first match, but one bot was damaged. After using up our time-out, the other alliance called their time-out for us. The robot was repaired and we went on to finish the last two rounds.
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When I want to teach my students what GP means, I tell them a little story about our rookie year.
We were a first year team with no engineers, just some college mentors who had been on FRC teams in high school. We built a robot that we worked really hard on for 6 straight weeks, and went to our only regional, West Michigan. We were so excited to go out onto the field, but the first time we went out, we went to grab a tetra. The grabber that we worked all 6 weeks on fell apart, never to function again. We left the field trying to figure out what to do for the remainder of the competition when Team 33- The Killer Bees walked over and handed us a forklift. When they saw us struggling to put it on, Jim Zondag walked over to us. When he realized that our programming code was messed up, he sat down in our pit. He worked and reworked our code until security literally threatened to turn the lights out on us. He sat there after his team left, after everyone but our team had left, and not only helped us fix our code, but insisted that our students and whole team understood what he was doing. Jim gave his time, his knowledge and taught our team a serious lesson that day. No one forced him to do it, and no one would have thought any less of him if he hadn't. There's a reason that I have yet to meet anyone in FIRST who does not have the utmost respect for 33, and it starts with the GP at the top. |
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There is so much gracious professionalism at competition that you could go to competition with a bot frame and people would give you pretty much everything you would need to make it run.
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I have seen many instances, ranging from teams sharing shop space to giving up timeouts (and parts!) for opponents to building robots for them to let them compete (I can think of three cases of this; the "One Day Wonder" of team 4 and the misdirected and replaced robot of 14__ are two of them).
But one of the best examples was at Arizona 2004. Back then, two teams on an alliance were on the field, one remained as a backup but had to play at least once. Teams 330, 1212, and 585 were in the finals facing another alliance (I forget just who). After the first match, 330 and partners were up 1-0 in matches--but 330 had had a serious problem. One of the ports on the controller was broken. One timeout was called, then another. Still no 330 with 585 on the field. The count started--and suddenly the entire arena is shouting to stop the count! 330 came sprinting around the curtain, robot in tow, and put their robot on the field barely before the match started. The head ref stopped the match before it started and asked the other three teams if they wanted to allow 330 to play. Remember, these three teams are one match in the hole. 330 is about the best scorer on their alliance--a chance to even the score at 1-1 in a 2-on-1 match and maybe take the regional is in their hands. Those three teams made a choice: 330 would play. 330's alliance went on to win the match and the regional. These teams showed GP in the heat of battle, and the judges noticed. Three Sportsmanship awards were handed out that evening--to those three teams. This is the only time more than one has been handed out. |
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At a competition last year, we were using our shooter robot from aim high.
our brilliant programmer wanted to drive. well, he managed to flip it over and crush the hopper. it was nothing short of a mangled mess. and we had another match immediately after. we were like. crud. and then a team from heaven, i swear. i apologise, i cant remember who. they had plastic netting and zip ties and said "forgot your zip ties? well, here you go" and they subsequently made a hopper in about 15 seconds. thank you mysterious hopper making team. thank you. |
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Let's Socrates this thread up a little bit. We have been given many examples of gracious professionalism, but these are just the bees. I'm looking for the hive.
What is gracious professionalism, and can it be taught? |
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-- If you would like each person to provide their definition, I think that is happening in this thread already with excellent examples that are the honey, produced from the understanding and implementation of Gracious Professionalism. |
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I have found that GP can be taught, but the best way to do so is to experience it. It is also easy to teach it incorrectly. For example, I have a friend on a VEX team who's lead coach, quite honestly, talked his students into building an inferior design because winning with the origional design would have been un-GP:confused: The kids got sick of the phrase, because the question "but is it Graciously Professional" was brought up for every idea having to do with the team.
The best way to teach it is to tell stories, and get the students to put themselves in the place of the team recieving help. Some that I have seen, from all 3 levels of FIRST: -At a FLL competition, there were two robots using the pneumatics system. Neither team had any spare cylinders. One team's cylinder cracked, rendering it useless. The team with the broken cylinder had one more run, which was coming up very soon. The other pneumatic team offered to remove a cylinder from their robot for the other team to use. The cylinder was removed with efforts from members of both teams, used successfully, and then reinstalled by both teams just in time for the team with the good cylinder's run. -My FLL team went to the world championship in 2005. A few weeks before atlanta, they went to a local tournament, and made a horrifying discovery: that our mat, which had been in use for six months, had been roughed up by our robot's motion, and had considerably more friction than the brand new competition mats. The tournament director allowed us to take home two of the new mats from the competition to practice on. -A vex team's laptop crashed. The programs were still avalible on a flash drive. A team about to face them in the finals not only lent them their computer, but also pointed out a way to optimise their autonomous mode. -In FRC last year, our team discovered a major design flaw during our inspection, which required major work. Two neighboring teams, and even our inspector, pitched in to help us out. As for what gracious professionalism is, I think it can be summed up by the statement of a former member of my former FLL team: Quote:
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It can certainly be learned. |
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The discussion and helpfulness that goes on within this website is a great example of gracious professionalism.
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As a HS teacher each year I get new team members and each year we have to teach them about GP
"Why would we give our opponents a working motor?" type questions are addressed. As are the cheating questions. "can't we add this after we are inspected?" "Who will know if we spent 800 dollars on that part?" Etc. The veterans and myself start by saying GP. And usually back up to explain GP. We talk about a match a few years ago when our robot collided hard with our opponent and a rope came lose from our machine to entangle the other machine. We both pulled and tugged until we finally fell over while the other machine broke free. We knew we were in the wrong, that rope wasn't attached correctly and it was our fault. The refs deliberated for what seemed to be a long time when the head ref finally come over and told us we had been disqualified because of entanglement problem. While this was occuring the pit crew from my team was making sure we hadn't damaged the other teams machine. We use this story to help the newbies try to understand GP. It is hard to define GP, some people will cheat in front of their grandmothers. Ultimately I think GP means play by the rules because you respect the game and don't want to cheapen it. As some one said above its the 21st century version of the golden rule. |
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Aha... I remember that. I was the head ref who made the DQ call. I recall talking to the drive team of 360. They were not happy with the outcome of the match, but they took the decision in stride. I think that this DQ knocked them from the #1 seed, if I remember correctly. GP... it's tough to describe, but I see it every day. Today, I got an email from a customer: "where is our shipment?" Right before I dig into this shipment, I see another note from this customer: "oh, we got it... someone else signed for it". It was a simple note. She didn't have to send it. But, it saved me the work in finding her shipment info. I appreciated that. GP really comes out at the competitions. It is seen there. However, it is learned during the build season. Veteran students and mentors are obligated to pass along what they have witnessed in previous years. It's our job to teach. Andy B. |
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How fortunate I am, Cheif Delphi! When I ask you for the one of gracious professionalism, you present me with a swarm of them, which are in your keeping. Suppose that I carry on the figure of the swarm, and ask of you, what is the nature of the bee? And you answer that there are many kinds of bees, and I reply: But do bees differ as bees, because there are many and different kinds of them; or are they not rather to be distinguished by some other quality, as for example beauty, size, or shape? How would you answer me?
Jowett translation |
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Culture change is a part of the big picture when thinking about Gracious Professionalism and its impact. Maybe that is an aspect that is worthy of exploration. The impact of Gracious Professionalism on different levels locally and globally. Within teams, during build, at the competitions, after the competitions and following graduation. How does the time spent working with mentors and students modeling GP - influence our society, our future, our big picture that we create? When it is taken out into the real world on the professional level and the personal level, what is that impact? The spread of understanding the importance of science and technology today and tomorrow through Gracious Professionalism. Using it in day to day operations. |
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Can Gracious Professionalism be taught? I don't believe so ... at least not in the traditional sense of teaching. Oh, you can teach the definitions if Gracious Professionalism, just like you can teach the definitions of honesty and integrity. But the true meanings of Gracious Professionalism (and integrity and honesty) will be lost if they are not LIVED. Only by living by GP, and leading by example, is gracious profesionalism truely taught.
At least thats my belief. |
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The great thing about FIRST is that most students would never hear about Gracious Professionalism without experiencing the FRC. They have the opportunity to "live it", discuss it and hopefully practice it. Where else would they come in contact with this ideas without FIRST?
My short experience with FIRST tells me that they (the students) embrace the concept. And it is something they walk away with that will be with them the rest of their lives. |
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I think the best examples of GP are when a team's behavior doesn't merely help an opponent. Many are willing to do that. It's when giving that help also has the possiblility of harming the giving team in some way that true gracious professionalism shows through. That's why I like the examples given like the FLL team sharing a part which could have jeopardized their own next match, or teams using their time out so their competitor could get fixed and play. I think GP can also be likened to doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. |
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A switch broke off of our OI from shipping and another team generiously gave us a spare they had. GP behavior means helping out teams in need and graciously competing in competetion.
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last year at the lone star regional our team was having trouble with the drivetrain and one of the teams 647 cyberwovles saw that and like three of there mentors came and rebuilt or entire drivetrain and even builted chain tension right before the finals and we thank them very much cuz we got to the championship we never had to worry bout it again.
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LET'S HAVE SOME MORE REPLIES!!:D
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Last year we were surprised to win the Peachtree regional, and be able to go to Atlanta for the Championships. However, we did not have the money to get hotel rooms, or get a bus. Another team, En Tech 281, who was unable to go to Atlanta gave us the money they had saved for their hotel room, and our "rival" school let us ride with them on their bus. They didn't ask for any payment of gas, and over those four days, we became pretty good friends. back at school, the other students were appalled. the "enemy" gave us a ride, and then we hung out with them?
I'm having a hard time explaining GP to our freshmen and rookies, and I'm finding that our "old" members often forget is as well. I'm wondering how most teams use GP? Is it just something you do for the judges, only something you do at competition, or is it in the shop, and our lives in general? |
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During Nationals last year, our team was plagued by faulty gearboxes that kept popping their drive chains every time they shifted. Despite heroic efforts by our pit crew, we couldn't find the problem. Thank goodness we were next door to M.O.E! Despite being in competition against us, they spared to expense to help us fix our issue. After a temporary fix involving threaded rod and lots of patience, our transmissions lasted through the off-season until finally giving their last earlier this year.
I reiterated this story to a friend who played football a while ago. He couldn't understand why a team would actually give some of their resources and members to another team. I told him that it was all in the spirit of GP, and that's what made FIRST so spectacular. |
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Wow that goes deep. I would think that it's the type of team that would help other teams if they ever asked for it, even if they were 'rivals'; which the biggest thing is that we're pretty much one big team, going in the same direction--the future.
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asking a rival team within your city to have a practice match to see what to expect during the competiton, and not using the results to cheat and see what thier weaknesses are and exploiting them
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I'm surprised that no one used this example: at the 2008 summer Olympics in China it was time for the Women's Freestyle event (sorry can't think of which one off the top of my head). One of the contender's suit had ripped which would have made her unable to compete. Dara Tores, one of the athletes competing, went over to the judges and asked if they could wait until the swimmer could change her suit before starting the race. I guess GP isn't exclusive to FIRST.
As for a definition of GP: GP is wanting everyone to do great, with you doing the best. Sorry about bringing back a long-ago thread, but it still seemed like a relevant topic and I didn't really want to make a new thread for it. |
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This year at the Waterloo Regional, my team won the Gracious Professional Award for helping many other teams with supplies and even one of our team leaders helped one team with their programming. The judges liked that and had us win the award. Another thing that we did was for one team, when we didn't find the piece that he needed, he said he didn't need to bother us, we still looked for that piece. We were very graciously professional at that regional
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At champs this year, we had just about every major component of our bot fail:
Before our first match, we had to replace all of the bumper mounts, as they had gotten severe damage during the PDX regional. after that match, we had to replace our "Bottom rollers" (paint rollers that drive the ball lift) we then noticed that every match, the bot was getting a bit slower, and found out that we had roasted our drive motors. they had to be replaced. before our second to last match, we had our front roller (ball collector) break completely, and it had to be replaced. problem: the spares were a few thousand miles away, in Portland! in all of the pit times when we were replacing parts, or fixing parts, we had teams coming by to help us out! I'm sorry i can't name all of you, but without you, we would have been out of the competition. Our team learned a lot this year, and i hope that next year, we're the ones helping out. -Z |
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GP is something that is always present in FIRST, from the whole concept of alliances to picking to having pits and sharing with teams, but a few examples stick out in my head.
In 10,000 Lakes, our intake roller bent a good 3 inches up, so it would spin wildly off center. If we kept it on it could end up cracking our whole chassis basically or leading to other equally catastrophic failures on the robot, but we didn't have the 25 inch shaft needed to replace it, since standard sizes end at 24 inches. Our options would be to make ball collection significantly harder by removing it, or use it, wait for it to fail, and become a glorified kitbot. I don't think anyone outside of the pit crew knew how totally sunk we were. Some kind folk from Team 93 went and machined a new roller and shaft for us. It ended up weighing a few ounces more, but it was not a problem at all, and they helped us even when they had a match with us. They still ended up winning thanks to a stupid mistake on my part, though. :) The best part? I have three more examples of that. In FVC, our team took a completely failed robot and built them a squarebot in 15 minutes, which was a lot of fun. The next year, that team helped my new FTC team rebuild a modified squarebot to go on to beat them, and win the entire event. After that, in Atlanta the FTC team next to me rebuilt my manipulator with me, and I ended up winning a match with that! (Even though the drivetrain failed, repeatedly and catastrophically, every match) The thing is, when I tell this to non-FIRST people they're shocked that it would happen. When I tell it to FIRST people, it's not "expected" but it's the kind of thing that happens everywhere. And honestly, it's pretty amazing to be part of an organization where helping your opponent potentially beat you in the name of fair, fun, friendly competition is not only applauded, but the norm. |
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This year at the Traverse City event Big Mo (314) was struggling with their control system, they had programmed in C++ and were having major issues. Jim Zondag volunteered to help them and proceeded to rewrite most of their code in Labview. From that point on they actually had control of their robot.
Thanks Jim, Im sure there were about a dozen teams in Michigan this year who had their year made better by you. [Rant] After giving an example of what GP is I would like to point out a few things that it is not. GP is not a way of criticizing others, it is not a way of stifling criticism, it is not to be applied to others. Too many times I see people say, "it is not GP that team xyz won 2 regionals." Or they say that to question the GDC is not GP. These are wrong, plain out wrong. Each person will have their own definition of Gracious Professionalism, it is like a swiss army knife, you use it in every situation but each person has their own idea of what is on it. [/Rant] |
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This year at the 2009 San Diego Regional a rookie Brazilian team 3032 had no robot as a result of a shipping mix up. Several teams (341, 1538, 1266, 812, 968.... and many others) got together to build them a robot at the competition on practice day.
On that Thursday, these kids were not divided by teams, there were no matches, there were no judges. All you could see was a bunch of caring individuals that came together to help someone in need. When the robot finally was turned on and it worked, the joy that erupted was something I won't soon forget. It was a beautiful sight to see these kids celebrating something so important. Something they all had worked on together. For the better part of the qualifiers the Brazillians were in 8th place with their new robot and eventually ended up in 18th. But more importantly they had the opportunity to learn within just several hours everything that is great about FIRST. The caring, the joy, and the ties that bind us together all converged that night in San Diego. |
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This year at the GTR, a team came to the regional with only 3 students. An amazing feat in itself. Unfortunately, one team member went home sick, leaving them with only 2 team members. We stepped in and sent 2 members of our pit crew (myelf included) to be with their team for the rest of the weekend. Although we never went up against our own team, we were willing to do so.
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A great example of that was on Thursday, and a team had NO programming done for the robot because they only had about 10 kids on the team. So our awesome software team, in about two hours wrote a program from scratch and had them competing all weekend. They also did that for several other teams OVERNIGHT until about 3' o clock in the morning. Another great example from one of our mentors is that he was at his first FIRST Robotics Competition, and suddenly our team apparently started chanting "Fondy Fire" over and over again. He was completely and totally surprised because in our area for other sports, we sorta dislike the Fond du Lac High School sports teams. So his daughter just brings him out of it and gets him chanting. That was his first experience with GP. |
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At this year's Greater Kansas City Regional, our team's trailer was unhooked from the Suburban and stolen. Thankfully, this happened about 10 minutes after unloading the robot and most of our tools/pit supplies. Like most KC area teams, we struggle annually to meet our financial responsibilities, and the loss of a $2500 trailer was definitely not in our budget.
We were humbled on the last day of competition when over 20 teams at the regional presented us with their $100 MasterCard gift cards. It was truly a mentor tearfest. The donation was very appreciated. Our trailer has been replaced. Our faith in human-kind restored. As we told MasterCard, "Computer hardware....$500. Single-axle trailer.....$2500. FIRST and Gracious Professionlism....Priceless." So rewarding to be part of something that nurtures such generosity of spirit. We build so much more than robots in FIRST and I am proud and humbled to be a part of that. |
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My friend on our team helped re-wire another teams entire electrical board.
Members on my team still maintain an excellent relationship, even when we have large arguments. My friend and I want to teach members from another teams how to build an efficient robot and team. My same friend and I are going to try and start teams in different high-schools around NJ. |
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Could we avoid patting ourselves on the back too hard? It just seems that I've read a lot of posts here of people bragging about their GP or something. I'm more inclined to enjoy a story of how a team helped you, rather than a story of how you helped a team. The latter kind of makes it sound like a charity or something.
BTW: Complimenting your own team apparently has a similar effect. Though not quite as much of an effect. |
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This is a story I heard at FIRST Place 4-6 years ago. I hope that they still tell it today.
At one of the first nationals/internationals, when one team walked into their pit they were greeted by a FIRST representative telling them that FedEx had lost their robot! The team was given two options. Either, not compete or tryto rebuild their robot in one day! Amazingly, a bunch of teams pulled together to help this team. They stayed up all night, and while the new robot was not as good, the team (with the lost robot) was able to compete. This is what GP means to me. This story has inspired me to try to include GP in my life. |
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