OK - So I'm going to be a bit of a broken record here... I know I seem overly grumpy but, dang it, it's so easy to get this sort of thing right. As a community we need to avoid wearing FRC or FIRST blinders.
These announcements are that FRC state championships are going to be endorsed/sanctioned by state bureaucracies. These are not announcements that "
robotics" is an official / high school sport. FRC is not the end-all, be-all, of "robotics". FRC is an excellent part of "robotics"; but it is only one part of "robotics"; and by several measures it is not the even the biggest or best part of "robotics".
If "robotics" did equal FRC, and FRC alone, FIRST (and I as someone who has invested hundreds of hours in FIRST's success) would have failed. The cultural shift FIRST seeks can not be gotten by only forming FRC infrastructures. Many would argue quite effectively that FRC infrastructures should be put into place
only after other programs' infrastructures exist to create a solid foundation for FRC activities....
Switching gears a bit - This is both
excellent news on many levels, and maybe not so good news of a few others.
Some of the things to consider are that:
- Team membership rules created by the states are probably going to slowly start to encrust the FRC events governed by these organizations, and then effect student participation in the teams.
- Many/all aspects of Mentor and volunteer participation in the teams that compete in these events) are probably going to slowly start to be affected/governed by the state organizations sanctioning these events.
- Expect that state rules and regulations will begin to creep into determining when and where teams may do their business (activities like building the FRC robot).
- Expect a constant low-level of confusion about how non-school FRC teams participate in state championships (and the events that feed into to them). FRC teams usually are associated in some way with a single school, but that definitely isn't required or always true; and it certainly isn't true for other, popular, non-FRC, robotics programs that also deserve our best efforts.
- Etc.
To exaggerate a bit to make a point, let me quote Mark Twain, “No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”
To sum up: Please, please embrace (and
ensure your actions reflect) the fact that neither FRC, nor FIRST, nor any other single STEM program is the right "robotics" solution for the entire culture we seek to change; and be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.
Blake