[PAR_WIG1350]

Originally Posted by Foster

I'm going to guess that this will be unpopular.

You are not looking at a request for comments or a request for proposal from FIRST. You are looking at a done deal.

Two champs (and feel free to call them Half-Champs) with FRC/FTC/FLL all sharing the Championship Inspiration is what FIRST is offering. What they want.

They are not going to listen to "but Mom, this isn't the way that I want this".

You need to go to the town hall and listen.

You need to ask who, what, when, where, why, how questions. (And not What were you thinking when you came up with this).

-- What was your goal
-- What were your criteria
-- How were they weighted
-- When do you think events will happen
-- etc.

When Government has town hall meetings, they expect people to come and whine and then they do what they want.

When politicians have town halls, they have people that ask carefully scripted questions to elicit the "correct" answer. Watch for these people, let them ask their questions, they may add a clue. And then they do what they want.

When companies have "Town Hall Meetings" the expect to explain to people what is going on at a glossy high level" -- Your job is to sit there and nod, but it's possible to ask questions that will reveal the next level down of details. But remember they then do what they want.

Reminder, FIRST is a company, but they are somewhat political in the way they act since they have sponsors, etc. But they have decided.

If you are thinking of standing up and suggesting a change, let me suggest you stay in your seat and let someone that will ask a "nice" question to help us learn more. Your idea isn't worth anything to them. They have decided.

We need to learn more about why they did this and what the goal is, driving factors, pain points, etc.

For example, lets call these half-worlds or super-regionals or hemisphere championships. To move to a World Championship can be carting 6 teams to a location and playing. To inspire millions of roboteers and want to be roboteers it may mean another 400 team event. That is painful and expensive if they wanted that, they would have said so.

Once we know the details then we can help make it great.

I'd suggest that this thread die and a new one start of "things we would like to know". We know FIRST reads CD, so maybe if they have a list of questions before hand they will have answers.

I look at this like standing in front of the GDC on Saturday afternoon. "Totes? Stacking Totes? Like some factory drone? Really, what is the competition in that?" and here we are 14 weeks later ready to declare a champion.

Good luck!

From Frank:

To meet our lofty goals, though, we will need your help. As Don said in his video, we want to engage members of the community in coming up with the best solutions possible to the challenges presented to this two Championship approach. The concerns you’ve expressed are valid. Over the next several months you will see a number of initiatives intended to engage the community in helping shape what these Championships and activities surrounding them will look like. As an example, we are currently planning a town-hall style meeting at the 2015 FIRST Championship that will allow the community to engage directly with Senior FIRST Leadership on this important change. In all of this, we need your help in doing what you do best – solve problems. I’m personally very interested in hearing your ideas about how we may be able to arrange for final matches between the winners of FIRST Championship Houston and FIRST Championship St. Louis.

While the existence of two events is set in stone, this seems to suggest that they are open to some degree of input regarding the nature of the events. If that isn't the case, then the next question would be "What kind of example are we trying to set for students by eschewing compromise?". (This would not be an appropriate response in the examples you gave because those examples lack the context of a high school robotics competition)