Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan Anderson
I don't see anything disturbing or off-putting about that document. It seems quite reasonable to me. It basically says not to think that you "deserve" a Key Volunteer position before you've demonstrated yourself, and suggests how you can go about doing that. Unless there's something else that people are being told beyond what it says, I do not understand why anyone would be upset by it.
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I'd like to start by stating that these are my own thoughts and opinions, and do not necessarily reflect the views of any groups I am or have been a part of.
I was a student at the presentation at which this document was distributed. In my opinion, the document itself is not inherently negative and would not, on its own, make me feel unwelcome or uncomfortable volunteering as a part of Minnesota FIRST. That being said, the context in which the document was distributed made me feel uncomfortable and has discouraged me from seeking volunteer roles as an official regional volunteer.
As a student who attended the presentation, I was surprised for several reasons. The meeting at which the presentation occurred was part of a regular sequence of meetings in which university faculty and outside corporate employees give talks about their work. That particular meeting had been advertised as a "an inside look into life as an engineer and success after college from *speaker name redacted* who works at *company name redacted*", and was something I had genuinely looked forward to based on the extensive industry experience the speaker seemed to have and my interest in the company they work at. Unfortunately, once the meeting began it quickly changed focus to discussing FIRST volunteer feedback.
Overall, the demeanor of the meeting felt very negative towards volunteers, specifically college age students. Perhaps I misunderstood the speaker's intentions, but as someone who was on an MN FRC team in high school and was looking forward to potentially volunteering at a Minnesota regional, the impression that I left with was that the authors of the document felt college students were likely to screw up and should not be trusted with positions of responsibility. There was a strong emphasis (at least in my opinion) that we were unable to separate our volunteering from our past connections in FIRST, and that we shouldn't expect to be given any meaningful positions due to our age.
I hope to volunteer for FIRST in the future, but unless things change, I doubt it will be in Minnesota.