[mathking]

Daniel that was a very well written post. I refereed this year (at Queen City) and it was the first time in a few years I had volunteered at an official FIRST event. I had forgotten how different the perspective is when you are in a volunteer role and your team is not there. I gained new insight not only on how to play this game, but on practices I would like my team to emulate.

As for the negative interactions, alas those are a pretty consistent fixture. I have found that the number of people who act like jerks is still pretty small compared to the total of participants, but that probably makes their behavior stand out all the more. I am much more willing to forgive and forget when it is kids, but adults need to know better. While we should all try to remember that individuals are not their teams, teams should always be aware that their individual members' behavior affects how others see the team. And that one or two negative interactions take a long time to get over.