[gblake]

Not necessarily. Every team has the freedom to choose their own path. I don't think they should be penalized because that isn't the same path HQ chooses.

That is an odd collection of sentences. Odd because I think what they convey is that the program should change its plans to align them with participants who chose to diverge from the program's core values.

Either that, or your use of "penalized" is specious.

I don't think the program is penalizing anyone. Maybe groups who choose to diverge from the program's path are be penalizing themselves?

To everyone who might feel like this decision somehow penalizes their group or wrongs their group, or makes their group a victim of some sort of injustice; I have to echo what WilsonM wrote earlier...

Haven't you been listening to what the FIRST elders have said for years and years (listening to the fundamentals of what they said - not just cherry-picking marketing slogans)? If your group isn't aligned with the vision that they have outlined, then your group is choosing to be out-of-step with the program.

Choosing to be out-of-step is fine, but try not to be shocked or outraged when/if it bites you in the backside occasionally.

Blake
PS: FIRST the non-profit business might sometimes pick controversial ways to implement its mission/vision, but I don't think it has purposefully or accidentally stepped away from it with the Championshplit decision.