|
Re: A plead to FIRST, anyone else agree?
I have mentored FRC and FLL teams for ten years and I have to agree with the original poster's comments regarding FIRST and the message it shares.
Whether or not nerdy is nice or nasty is not entirely relevant. Broadcasting that you're not nerdy is a pretty sure way to highlight your nerdiness.
The games have become overly complicated for easy consumption by the general public. We study the game for 7 weeks before we actually play, only to find out that we don't understand all of its nuances. Ask yourselves how much time you spend explaining the game and the competition structure (randomized qualification matches, ranking points, coopertition points, alliance selection, etc.) to visiting relatives, let alone the other guests in the hotel lobby (the folks you're really trying to attract in order to "spread the word").
FIRST has created an amazing program for promoting interest in the field of engineering. It spans the globe. The competitions are exciting. Everyone - students, mentors, sponsors, guests - is inspired by the ideas and solutions developed by others. The enthusiasm is contagious. The only way that can happen is by FIRST promoting itself to potential sponsors, but I think FIRST has gone overboard in its promotion.
In our rookie year we were fortunate enough to qualify for, and attend the Championships. The competition was fun and exciting. Then we sat through the closing ceremony - for a long time. Our other mentor, myself and all of our team's parents felt like we had just sat through a pyramid-marketing convention. Aside from presenting teams their respective awards, the speeches were about how important FIRST is in encouraging students to pursue careers in science and technical fields. The speeches weren't about inspiring or encouraging youth toward those fields; they were about FIRST. Over the course of the last several years I have heard the phrase "...the message of FIRST..." more often than I have heard the actual message. That is shameless self-promotion. I believe the constant repetition that FIRST is about this, or FIRST is not about that, only serves to detract from the mission of most of the program's participants: inspiring young people to exceed everyone's expectations.
Largely as a result of our experience, we do not advertise ourselves as a FIRST team. To be sure, we are a robotics team that competes in FIRST, but we are primarily a team that shows kids that, when challenged, they can rise above themselves; that problem-solving is rewarding; and that they have the power and the ability to succeed.
|