[Andy Baker]

Martin,

This is an excellent thread. Thank you for starting it. This is an ongoing issue that we, as a community, need to continue to be diligent in addressing. I believe that we must look for opportunities to tactfully and graciously address this situation, much like Wayne did with judges at the Boilermaker Regional (let me show you how students are involved!).

I often get customers calling in to AndyMark, asking about various things. Many of the customers who call the most often are new mentors and they sometimes vent about these "professionally built robots". Although they are not asking for my opinion, I eagerly and tactfully take the opportunity to voice my opinion about this and describe the "I" in FIRST. Almost all of the time, I am able to get them to see this new (to them) side of FIRST, citing that FIRST is not a science fair project and that involving professional engineers, skilled tradesmen and business leaders is a good thing.

What we forget is that there are new FIRSTers every year. Not only are 20-25% of all of the teams new to FIRST, but there are personnel turnover on another 20-25% of the veteran teams. This adds up to approximately 40-50% of teams being led by new team mentors. Due to this, we must remain consistent and diligent in repeating this opinion of keeping the "I" in FIRST and seeking out occasions where we can tactfully take the time to explain that it is perfectly OK for adults to be involved with this wonderful program.

Sincerely,
Andy Baker