Quote:
Originally Posted by Nemo
Admission is free. It would be strange to charge $2000 for a team to do all of that stuff when all they have to do is show up and do that stuff as it is now.
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A good point but I have a good answer. If "Inspire" teams without robots were given special structured opportunities with opportunities to attend special workshops it would be worth the charge. Also bringing a smaller group of team leaders would be more affordable for some teams. More importantly: Many schools will not let students go unless there is some "official" invitation to attend and the school can justify it as a sanctioned activity. Schools are paid per student for the student to attend class each day at their facility so they are careful which activities they let students take off class to attend. I hate to admit this, but when I took off work and took my son out of school to attend the Atlanta World Championship, I had to call him in sick, otherwise under school policy it would have been an "unexcused absence" even though we were attending the FIRST championship and the school had a FIRST team. (I contend my son had previously missed no days before and had good grades so I feel the absence was justified and the learning experience he had at championship was educational.) So inviting schools to attend championships in some official capacity, (maybe through certain awards or special invitation or award) which honors them and gives the team an opportunity to attend minus the robot gives credibility to the teacher who requests permission for her team to attend.
Another thought: Maybe this is a bad idea, I am just throwing it out there. Could there be an extra field for a B championship, played by robots who are rookie teams, wild card teams, wait list invitees, and teams who might qualify other ways but maybe don't have the experience of championship under their belts? Perhaps teams that have a slower or problem robot but have great community programs which qualify them to attend World.
I am not complaining here, because FIRST is not about the robots, but in one of our matches, one of the rookie teams was confused and failed to show up, and the other team showed up with the wrong bumpers, and was not allowed to play. So it was our 1 robot, against 3. Again, this is just how it goes and we were just happy and honored to be at championship, but perhaps if these teams had a chance to compete at championship on another field and learn how the system works, (Championship the first year is overwhelming) it would be a good thing for all. And all the matches would move quicker with less teams playing for the World Championship honor. Perhaps this is a bad suggestion, but it is something to think about. And maybe this idea could solve some of the issues I am reading about. It also would serve as a field for emcees, announcers or referrees in training. As I stated before, just attending World Championship without a robot is an amazing experience and one I wish more students,teachers and mentors could experience, good robot or not.