[dodar]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Not quite. This is making FIRST more about Lego. "And their kits" is the key phrase.

For awhile I thought FIRST actually went out of their way to make sure that politics doesn't affect teams and team members, lest the organization un-inspire them. But not now. They're literally saying that if you love FIRST, give these guys money and use their product. They have tied their nonprofit organization and lofty ideals straight to an inferior product.

The disgusting thing about this to me is not just the politics. Any organization has political battles that will make your stomach churn. What pisses me off is that this political battle is at the expense, literally, of every FRC team out there. I feel it's our job as mentors to shield the students from this bull, to make sure they're inspired and to carefully skirt them away from the messes of any large scale organization. But at this point, it's too $@#$@#$@#$@# hard.

What the hell am I supposed to tell a student who asks why we can't use aluminium that has a pre drilled hole in it? What am I supposed to tell them when our Tetrix motors smoke within 5 minutes of use when we have perfectly good Vex motors sitting on a shelf unused, and non Tetrix catapult designs derailed by Update 1? How can I rationalize all of the very, very public flaunting and politics of the FIRST organization that they catch wind of? I'm out of answers - and these are not rhetorical questions.

Seriously, I'm stumped. I'm here because the ideals of FIRST are things that I love and want to push for more than anything else - but FIRST themselves keep making it harder and harder.

So does that mean that the aluminum that we got in the FTC kits from the FIRSTChoice thing are illegal to use now?