[marshall]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

You (and FIRST) are missing the big picture. Gathering data on and maintaining contact with alumni will benefit the entire organization tremendously in the future, if they do it right. If FIRST gathers "Where are they now?" type anecdotes as well as aggregated data, they (and we) can use it for justification that FIRST robotics leads to <insert adjective> better life outcomes for participants, compared to students who did not participate in FIRST. This sort of data can help mainstream FIRST into schools, grant eligibility, and social acceptance. Furthermore, by making the alumni connections and building a network of alumni, FIRST has the potential to connect its alumni with careers, in a similar fashion to how they currently connect students with scholarships, and Deans list students with universities.

Many well-established universities and organizations have alumni associations. The reasons they do are not superfluous.

There are also implications for FIRST from an organizational standpoint. I point to Minnesota and the http://www.mngofirst.org folks as examples of what alumni organizations can do for improving the quantity and quality of teams in a region.

There is A LOT more to the alumni discussion beyond collecting data and money. Go talk to universities about their alumni networks and how important they are.