John,
This really is OUR culture. It's YOUR culture, it's MY culture.
I can speak only for myself, but MY culture has been shifting dramatically since I joined the program as a freshman in high school 8 years ago. I remember having a pride about our "zero mentor input robots." I remember being one of the crowd actively boo-ing 254 in the finals of the 2005 SVR competition. I remember all the bitterness walking in the pits at the Championship in 04 through 07, seeing teams sponsored by Ford, Motorola, GM, etc. While I have had a few negative experiences with power house teams like these (nobody is perfect), I can honestly say 99.9% of this bitterness was born out of jealousy. Jealousy of the nice machining, cool pits, and blue banners. Jealousy about stuff that doesn't even matter! It's all about inspiring the kids here people! (And I get inspired in the process
)
Flash forward to 2011. Serving on the Davis Regional Planning Committee has given me perspective into the bigger picture of what FIRST does. Through asking "powerhouse" teams questions about their robots and team structure, I've found that they are meant to be a resource and friend rather than rival and enemy.
In 2010, Karthik took the time to answer in-depth questions I had regarding their unstoppable 2008 robot. These answers were key to the success of 1678's kicking mechanism that year. I have also used many of the 1114 team structure documents on their website to re-structure the team I work with here in Davis.
I've also had the opportunity to visit the 254 shop a few times. Most recently, I brought team 1678 to NASA Ames (a 2 hour drive!) to practice on their competition field the Sunday before ship. We got to do a lot of practice, which was awesome, but it was so much more than that. I came in telling the kids (who had never seen a 254 bot in person), "Alright guys, 254 is going to have an awesome robot. Learn as much as you can. See how they build. Watch how they drive. How they wire. How they do everything."
Being able to set the tone for the day allowed my students to get exponentially more out of the experience than just a jealous glare at an incredible machine. We were encouraged to look at the bot in-depth and ask questions. And I did. My kids did. It was awesome! Just my humble attempt at shifting the FIRST culture I guess...
This is kind of a tangent, but they also fed us like no other! So much food, and we were encouraged to eat as much as we could! Thanks 254!
Long post, I know, but to sum it all up, power house teams are a
resource, not an
enemy.
Maybe FIRST should take time at the competition to celebrate the awesome things in team's chairmans award submissions? If I knew half the things these powerhouse team's did for others, completely unrelated to their dominant competition robot, I'd have a much harder time jumping to vilifying them.
-Mike