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Unread 07-04-2014, 15:42
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J-Blondie J-Blondie is offline
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AKA: Janelle Williams
FRC #2194 (Fondy Fire)
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Re: Where's the Gracious Professionalism?

By making this post, I no way intended to "sugar coat" the issues that teams faced this year. It is clear that there were plenty and yes, teams have the right to be upset. But as others in this thread have stated, it's about how you respond to the situation that shows who you really are. Teams have every right to be upset when they lose a chance to play as at SVR, but as I told one of their mentors, it was amazing how their team responded. They accepted the decision made, as heart breaking as it was. I have no issue with teams being upset whatsoever.

What I have an issue with is people just assuming that certain people are to blame in such a situation. I understand the need to place blame with someone when you feel wronged, but I think that the entire situation needs less "blame" and more "solution". I fully expect tensions to be high into championships and into the post-season, it's part of what happens. My post is just a comment on the lack of understanding I have seen this year and a lack of compassion for the volunteers who are largely getting the blame for situations that most of us know nothing about directly.

The advice I have to this community specifically is that, it's fine to ask why, but it is NOT okay to make premature accusations and assumptions about individuals who you don't know and situations you don't know anything about. It's better to question what happened, but wait for an explanation before assuming that someone is not worthy of a Head Ref position or question their intentions or intelligence. This is a good thing to remember into championships as well, especially for those of us not attending. Watching via webcasts or even just being in the audience, you aren't going to know all of the details until they come out.

Once again, I have absolutely no issue with teams being angry, and I get that there is a lot of money at stake with each season for all teams and that there is hours of work put into building the robot, but that time is also spent building a team, and if your team is still standing at the end of everything, that's great, but as a competition, my point is that not everyone is going to win, and honestly I have seen much more grace and compassion out of teams who have suffered the worst of the season than I have from some individuals assessing a situation without all the facts and details. I have personal experience with having hope crushing situations both in and out of FIRST, so I'm not just someone who wants to preach the whole gracious professionalism value without having any understanding of what it means or how it feels to feel terrible with actions resulting in something that crushes everything you have worked for. I REALLY DO GET IT I PROMISE.
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Proud Mentor of FRC Team 2194, Fondy Fire
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