[E3 Robotics Ctr]

Originally Posted by Dibit1010

Sometimes districts are annoying. It's one more step to get to St. Louis

I thought the same thing, that was until Indiana jumped on board with Districts. And I have to say I enjoy them much more.
1. It helps those teams with lower funds attend more than one tournament.
2. It allows the Progression of Districts, District Champs, then Worlds.

I liked that it that it could cut down on the huge influx of teams attending Worlds. (I think it was 25%+ FRC teams attend world, with 600 teams spots and 200 of those got in because of a wait list..... I mean really? You are not filling all of the FRC spots and still you expand FRC but not JrFLL, FLL, or FTC numbers at all?)

Sorry back on track now.

Originally Posted by Karthik

In Ontario the large majority of key volunteers (FTA, LRI, Head Ref) are either a college students or have recently entered the workforce. These folks are some of the best volunteers I have ever encountered in all of FRC. I was just at the UMass-Dartmouth district event where I was blown away by the energy and skill displayed by the young volunteers working the event. In addition, I'm responsible for recruiting our key volunteers for VEX Worlds. 39 of our 73 key volunteers (MC/Announcers, Field Techs, Head Refs) are FRC alums in university or have recently entered the workforce. FRC alumni are a passionate and dedicated group who can most easily relate to the pressures that students go through in this program; I have a hard time seeing why anyone wouldn't want to channel the energy and talent these young people bring and use it to sustain and grow their local events.

Originally Posted by paunatime

This is 100% ridiculous.. Alumni in college are some of the most hardworking and understanding of the FIRST program.
"Rare " are not college students that hold roles such as:
over 6 FTA's in Michigan
over 20 Robot Inspectors in CA
over 3 regional committee members in Southern California
over 20 senior mentors being college aged
over 20 referees
More things like MC's, Game announcers, ect are also widely filled by college students. These numbers are just specific to the location I mentioned, these positions for college students are present nearly everywhere (except Minnesota). College students do well in this situation since they are the MOST passionate, understand the teams, and know the program. Alumni give back by volunteering since a lot do not have the time or resources to mentor.

I'm 2 years out of high school, I have filled nearly every key volunteer role you can imagine.
So many of my colleagues in FIRST CA that hold key roles are young college students, and that's because our state as a whole realizes that this generation is preparing to take over FIRST and we are utilizing them as volunteers that have experience inside teams.
The problem is that a lot of people play the "older age" card as a "maturity" card. The two are not mutually exclusive.

I love that there are those people like Karthik and Pauline Tasci and countless others that have the passion that creates such great young leadership! At the same time I recognize that not everyone in college age/20's has that type of passion, dedication and maturity it takes to be in a Key Role or a leader within FIRST & it's events. I know several people that are still a Junior or Senior in high school that have the ability to be a Key Role person RIGHT NOW! while at the same time I know people older that do not have what it takes to be in those Key Role spots. I know there is always going to be the people that hold the idea of "you are too young to know/understand/be good for this role" I still see that as a shrinking group of people as the Leadership does become more of a younger generation.

Originally Posted by Tanis

I'm going to go ahead and answer the original question: How do I help my area move to districts?

First, a few disclaimers: I am from Minnesota. I am not on the RPC, though I was on it for a year and know all of the members. I am a key volunteer, and I graduated college relatively recently (that is, I'm not an old man shooing rascally kids off my lawn).

As much as I hate to say it, I don't think most college students would be good fits for many of these tasks. It's not because I think college students are immature or lazy, it's because of the time commitment many of these tasks require. College students should be focused first and foremost on college, and it becomes difficult to do that if you are trying to coordinate fundraising for 13 district events with executives from dozens to hundreds of companies. There is a reason that many have suggested that a 501(c)(3) is necessary: managing districts can easily be a full time job for a group of people.

Originally Posted by Tanis

That being said, these tasks can and should be divided amongst people. Regardless of who you are and where you come from, if one of these tasks sounds like something you would be good and and are interested in doing, talk to your RPC about how you can help out in that area.

Saying to your RPC "I want us to switch to districts" isn't likely to get you anywhere. Saying "I want us to switch to districts, I think I would be good at doing X, and here are a few ideas I already have on X" is much more likely to lead somewhere.

So much this response! Districts takes a LOT of work. It needs to be something that everyone works on together on and asks What can I do to help make this move to Districts happen, along with sitting all at the same table to give input and ideas.

When is comes down to it, remember what FIRST is really about, it is about those students and helping to inspire them, we are just the volunteers at this point helping to create that path for them to get to their goals easier.