[Kimmeh]

Can we seriously talk about this subject instead of making posts about how a dead thread was revived? Please?

This thread was started right before the 2007 season. Approximately 1300 teams competed. It was the year that MOE won Chairman's. At the end of 2014 season, over 2,700 teams competed and Team RUSH earned a HoF spot. Between the time this thread was first posted and now, we've gone through EIGHT seasons. Enough time for a full turnover of students. Twice.

In that time period the number of competing teams has doubled. We've seen the introduction of districts. Almost every team bags their robot now. They're no longer at the mercy of when FedEx shows up. Un-bag windows and withholding allowances are standard. Practice bots are aplenty. More and more teams are playing at least two events. The increasing number of districts alone makes that a reality.

I've heard many mentors complain about some of these changes. They feel like build season no longer lasts just 6.5 weeks. Even if you "finish" your robot in six weeks, you can always still improve. And because you've got the withholding allowance, why shouldn't you? Instead of taking a break, you should be making spare parts or fine-tuning the manipulator you withheld. We've made it easier for teams to compete, but have we also made it harder for students and mentors to have life outside of robotics?

I understand that FIRST is very much "real life engineering". You don't have enough money, you're under-staffed, you're not quite sure what the customer wants, requirements change, and they want it yesterday. And by yesterday, we actually mean last week. And sometimes, you have all of those problems at once! Many of our mentors deal with this at work. And then they mentor a team where they're juggling FIRST, work/school, and a home life. (We're quite the masochists, aren't we?)

Are we taking FIRST too seriously? Spouses joke about losing their other half for a few months every year. In high school, my parents and I joked about changing my address to our build site because I spent far more time there than I did at home. And for some, it isn't really a joke. Between school and robotics I left my house at 7:15 and didn't get home until at least 9:00pm, if not later. Students and mentors alike get sick because they're not eating or sleeping properly. Grades drop. If someone isn't on the team or with you at work/school, you don't see them for a while.


I would like to us to examine why we let ourselves get so caught up in FIRST. FIRST is so much more than a "high school competition". Trust me, I get that. Are we truly taking it too seriously? I'm sure than to an outsider (or some parents/spouses/friends) our time investment and level of commitment is absolutely insane. Is there a breaking point and are we approaching it? Alternately, for those of you who have been around for a longer time: have you found yourself/team less invested? If so, why? If you maintain what you consider to be a healthy balance between robotics and not-robotics, how do you manage to do so?