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Unread 01-07-2016, 12:40
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Re: California District Proposal

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Stratis View Post
But really, you're going to drag out something posted 3 months ago about Minnesota into a thread about California? Why don't we keep those discussions separated and focus on actual productive posts. That's, literally, the only thing I've been asking for in all my posts in this thread. Because, believe it or not, I'm interested in the issues other areas are/have faced, the solutions they've used to solve them, and the results they've seen over the long run. It may be applicable to my area in the future.
You're right Jon! Why don't we keep the posts productive? I promise from here on out, I will remain on topic and/or just remove myself from this thread entirely. I have the luxury of getting off work early on Fridays, so sometimes I can go down to the river, take a nap at home, or prepare for a robotics meeting. Today, I decided to use some of my time to re-read every single post in this thread and try to find any similar words to the effect of what you and Eric described.

I made an effort to go look at every post possible, hoping to see it the way you do. I was really hoping someone said something to the effect of "This is the way we want to do it over your area, and with *handwaving here* it'll happen" or "That can be fixed, just use some imagination and creativity". Throughout the entire thread up to post 120, the only real thing happening in the thread was a series of exchanges that were mostly like this: "I have this concern"-->"here's what we do" or "here's what we have thought of for that." I'm really sorry if the idea of sharing these experiences in this way have made people feel personally victimized. I really doubt a neutral observer would see it that way, but your perception is your reality.

After that, there was a single slightly malicious post. It was very emotionally charged and probably could have been less direct.

From there, we keep maintaining discussion. People bring up a concern, someone shares a way they solved it. Pictures and documents to illuminate the discussion are shared. Joe P even was able to sum up the discussion in one of these documents, which I hope was helpful to the people involved. There was a slightly tangential but very important discussion regarding the well-being of international teams. While California hosts fewer international teams than some of the posts could lead one to believe, they certainly host more international teams than Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington DC and State, Oregon, Michigan, New England, and Indiana combined! There was really great discussion about that.

However things really seemed to take a turn for the worse.

Brandon Holley, who is without question probably one of the best active mentors in FIRST, shared the same concern I have with Eric's take on the posts above. It appeared to me, a lowly outsider, that the discussion for all intents and purposes was productive and the sentiment Eric described was not at all present in the thread until he himself stated it. It felt really disappointing that all of the conversation up to that point potentially could have been rendered for naught as those from outside California saw themselves being edged out of the discussion.

Then you decided to tell Brandon and the rest of the thread that essentially helpful and constructive advice was not to be found in this thread if your Location didn't list California. You implied that the sentiment of the thread was that "well, everyone else has solved the problem, you don't have an excuse". I think you might be mistaking that for another thread because, as I have said, I really haven't seen that in here. The real coup de grāce came when you played the Gracious Professionalism trump card on Brandon ******* Holley and expected people were just going to be cool with that.

I guess it could be fair to say "wow, this is just like the Minnesota drama" when I would argue that it really isn't. People that know things were answering questions of people who didn't in both directions. "I don't know how this works in districts"-->"This is how" and "I don't know what it's like in California"-->"This is how" were exchanges happening all over the thread until you made the decision to implicitly draw parallels to Minnesota (and Eric made them explicit). The people who are far stronger willed than I am ignored you, but alas, I am not that kind of person.

I went through the whole thread with an open mind, trying to see it your way, but I come to the end of it more bitter than before. I guess it's my fault for taking the bait; I just can't seem to follow the wise words someone said: "If your [sic] from a district, stop posting about how an area you don't play in and you don't help run should make a big, sweeping change."

Keep it professional.
-Wil

Last edited by Cory : 01-07-2016 at 13:23.
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