Quote:
Originally Posted by ASD20
This is something interesting that has not been brought up yet in this thread. From my personal observations (I'd be interested if anyone has actual data on this), Friday Day 1's are a lot quieter than Saturday Day 1's. It seems that for the most part, the only people there on Fridays are teams (and many teams do not even have their full team) and maybe a few non-mentor parents. However on Saturdays, there are more students from teams, families, friends, and local spectators. The vibe on Friday day 1's also just feels a lot more laid back whereas Saturday day 1's, it feels like competitions get off to much more of a running start (when there isn't 45 minutes of connection issues before the first match). I know that all competitions still have day 2 on the weekend to "make it loud," but 2 loud days are louder than one (maybe?) and matches are just more exciting when there is a large crowd.
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Agreed. Some of our school board members (Director of Science, Director of Math, Superintendent of Technology) all came to stop by our pit at NYC on Saturday and Sunday with their families and young kids.
After getting feedback from them, they not only understood FIRST a lot more by being able to come to watch, making them more likely to work with us on things like funding, space, and more events, but their kids (around age 6-9) were so inspired and wanted to do FIRST in their districts. Apparently 2 of the 3 kids of our Superintendent of Technology said that they want to be engineers now, after being able to come to watch the competition for two days.
Some of my family was able to come watch over the weekend, and they understood FIRST a lot more as well. Having them come watch meant a lot to me, and made it just that much better.
Seeing the crowds full on the weekend during events really gets the atmosphere a lot more energetic and makes me want to compete even harder.
All in all community and personal involvment in FIRST has increased a lot thanks to FSS events, at least in my experience.