[Cuog]

I would say I have very mixed opinions on some of this. I guess I'll start with the bad and end with the good for those that like to be a little more optimistic.

First and foremost in my mind is the cult like nature of FIRST lately(maybe longer but its struck me heavily in the past few years). The current expansion methods seem right out of the cult playbook, there's #1(Dean) that everyone needs to worship for his amazingness($$ Segway etc.), next get some celebs to talk about you for a second and publicize that sentence to death. Don't forget the most important thing you can do as a member of FIRST is to get more people to join. My opinion is that this is the wrong way to grow FIRST. It is a great program focused on gracious professionalism and mentorship, and I think if it were allowed to grow naturally the program would be so much better for the students. I think that the push for more is leaving those who have already joined FIRST out in the cold. It's a little bit of one in hand two in bush scenario, and I wish FIRST would stop dropping the kids in hand to chase those hiding in the bushes.

Second, and what hit me hard, is the focus on Engineering only. For those that forgot FIRST = For Inspiration and Recognition of SCIENCE and Technology. This past year, I have stepped up a lot more to what has been the hardest challenge for me so far: mentoring my old team. During my time mentoring I've spoken with a number of people from educators, business people, members of FIRST, parents, and many more. All of them are excited to hear about the help I've given in sharing my experience with the students, and helping the bridge the generational gap. They're excited to hear my personal projects, building a small machine shop, the cars I'm building, the electrical and programming challenges I give myself build amplifiers and gadgets. Then things turn, they ask what I'm studying in school. I tell them Environmental Science. They all give me the same look that says nothing more than "Oh, what a waste" and the conversation is over. All through High School, I didn't know what I wanted to do for a living, but I knew I liked building things. I came from a line of engineers, I enjoyed FIRST, so everyone everywhere told me to become an engineer, it seemed to make sense, so I did. When I got to engineering I found it very much wasn't for me. While I've been pretty decent at math and problem solving, it just pulled the soul out of me, and I had no desire to continue. It turned out my passion had been machining, something I've been working on heavily in my spare time with what little money I have to spare. My area of study moved to one of my interests that most people wouldn't guess: Environmental Science. Had anyone spoken up against the wave of engineering to encourage me to pursue machining originally I would have taken it, but instead, I got to take the long way.

They're small problems, but I feel they're the cause of most of the things I hear complaints about, and I think they're holding back FIRST's potential to be truly great.

Now the good:
Spectator games: I know FIRST isn't as successful at this as some would like, but I am glad they are making the effort, and I hope with practice they become proficient at making games enjoyable to watch, and enjoyable to design toward.

Mentorship:
When I was a student on the team my team prided itself in being 100% student run/managed/led, because we didn't have the advantage of working with skilled mentors, I feel that I missed out on a good opportunity. I'm glad that is not the direction FIRST is taking, and I am quite glad my team has left that tradition as well.

Coopertition:
I'm glad to see this idea embodied in FIRST as well. A level of competition is a great fuel for creativity. I very much like the way this is balanced with the idea of cooperation. Some years the execution in the competition isn't optimal as some have already given details. I feel we should all forgive what is such a small misstep in the scheme of things.

For the TLDR crowd:
FIRST needs to stop being a cult, and remember they're for more than just engineering.
FIRST has done great at making an accessible competition focusing on mentorship and coopertition and should continue to improve these aspects of the organization.

As far as the "nerd issue" I would just like to point out that mainstreaming typically nerdy ideas seems to be very successful; just look at the success of recent movies like Tron, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings etc. coming from a nerd heritage can be very advantageous, but that doesn't mean you need to embody the downsides of nerddom. Keep the good and throw out the rest, and make it better.