[AndyH]

This year especially, I have several concerns with FIRST. I realize that they have a right to do as they choose, but we have a responsibility to evaluate our participation in FIRST.

Here are two of the things bugging me:

1 - Where is Woodie? He is the educator; Dean is the salesman. In my opinion, FIRST is heading away from the former and toward the latter.

2 - Whatever we do, FIRST is always asking for more. Not, "We know that schools are really cutting budgets, and we appreciate that you have made this a priority. Let's talk about how we can keep this affordable." Instead they ask, "What can YOU do for FIRST? How can you get more teams involved, etc?" Perhaps they should also focus on keeping current teams involved. FIRST seems to no longer care about sustaining. Growth is the only goal, and it's HUGE for them. In my opinion, this has gotten more and more obvious over the past few years.

Notes - I know that they have done the light bulbs. That doesn't actually help make the program more affordable. It's more promotion for FIRST. A REAL savings would be to not require us to use motors that burn out frequently and are $20 to replace. For FTC, Lego is clearly making a fortune.

Also, we DID try to get people involved. We made a huge deal in our community to get people excited about the championships. Now we don't even know if there will be room for them to sit, but that's another thread...