The vast majority of the FIRST experience is positive. Sure, there is always the Byzantine process that is inspection, and there are the occasional troublemakers that show up in any large crowd, and Recycle Rush was an underwhelming game, but negative issues/points are the exception rather than the rule.
The biggest improvement that could be made to the FIRST experience is to have MORE of the experience. Last year, 3946 won a berth to CMP, and it was transformative to our team members, and possibly to the team as time goes by. While the best teams in FRC were at CMP, we always get a fair cross section of CMP-playoff caliber teams at Bayou Regional. The things that most inspired our team members at CMP were the maker fair, the sponsor booths, and Karthik's strategy seminar (OBTW, in reverse order). Finding a way to bring a slice of these experiences to regional (and district) events would be a big improvement to a great number of teams.
Another improvement that occurs to me is something we are working on locally - that of finding a way for nearby FRC teams to work together more often. This is the first year we have mentored rookie teams (two of them!), and I can say with confidence that their rookie years were much more successful than our rookie year on many fronts. This is the first year when we had more than a
very few hours interfacing with members or mentors of other FRC teams outside of FRC and FLL events. We strive to build up our relationship with our neighbors in full realization of Gracious Professionalism. It may not be exactly FIRST phrasing, but this is how one of our recent drafts of our core values defined GP:
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We build each other up, including our competition. Compete with grace, succeed with grace, fail with grace: always learning, always teaching, always inspiring.
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