Thank you for the history, Eric. It is always nice to learn about the beginnings of the organization that so many of us have dedicated our passion to.

You make a very clear statement about FIRST's main purpose being inspiration, something that I myself and I'm sure most others will agree with. Inspiration and recognition are without a doubt the goals of everyone here. And I will also agree - FIRST is not about the competition. It is about inspiring others to pursue excellence and recognizing the achievements of those who do.

However in order to understand how to best accomplish this mission, we need to understand the best ways to inspire and the proper way of handling recognition. And I believe this is where the disconnect is between the people involved in FIRST. We are all striving for the same goals, however our solutions on how to accomplish these goals are different. A rule I live my life by is that there are no bad people in the world. Everyone wants to do something good. Everyone in FIRST knows the importance of inspiring the future, recognizing others for their outstanding accomplishments, and the irreplaceable positive impact it can have on the world around us. These people dedicate their passion to this program because every single one of us knows it works. We may differ in what we do and how we do it but we are united in why we do it, and our motivations and end goals are the same.

When it comes down to it, every debate in FIRST, be it the championsplit, mentor involvement on teams, or resources and time allocation, is based on what we as individuals see as the best way of accomplishing these goals that we all believe in. In fact many times a lot of us get so caught up in arguing between our methods of accomplishing these goals that we weaken how effectively we can accomplish them just to prove that our way is better.

Some people see the competitive aspect of FIRST as a distraction from the fun of the whole thing. That those who focus on winning detract from the students' experience via mentor involvement and the creation of an unfair playing field. Conversely some believe that the competitive aspect of FIRST is one of the most effective methods of inspiration, and that a competitive team culture will not only push students to pursue excellence, but also be more likely to help them achieve it. I'm not going to say which is right or which is wrong, or if there even is a truly right answer.

I will say this: Step away from the idea of FIRST being a competition or not a competition. Put down the idea of how teams are run and how they should be run. Tell me what you think is the most effective way to inspire excellence in those around you, and the best ways to recognize it for those who have accomplished it, and tell me why. And this is open to everyone who reads this. I want to know what everyone thinks are the best ways of accomplishing our shared missions.

When the FIRST community finds the best ways to do these things, the answer on how we should act as an organization will be clear.