Change and Growth are not easy for any organization and especially stakeholders. I have experienced this with my team as well as being in FIM. I applaud
FIRST for listening to their stakeholders and addressing their concerns. I believe they have done a great job working with the community to come up with a solution that meets the concerns that were brought up. I list this "problem" as "one of those good problems to have".
I get to work on problems like this all the time.
Let's be real. Students are passionate about learning well into the summer. I literally have students coming to me and basically begging me to get into the school to do more planning before kickoff. They beg me to come to school on days the school is off. They beg me to get into the school on a snow day. (For those of you who live in the north, you know this is crazy talk) I am REALLY proud to be a part of this awesome organization that inspires kids to learn, then learn some more. NO other program does this like
FIRST does. I would say VEX but I just let them take that robot home with them. LOL They are like "Mom, Mr. Spiece let me bring it home to work on". Mom says, "It's 1am and you have school in the morning."
Anyhow, I have not announced this to the kids yet but I can't wait to tomorrow night. They are going to be fired up about going to hang with Dean at his house. They are going to love this idea and I am going to do whatever I can to help them make this happen.
My mentors have even offered to shave their heads if they make it to Einstein. So, if you see a 60-year-old engineer, wearing orange with a freshly shaved head, you will see a bunch of awesome kids right behind him ready to take on the world.
As for the logistics, this happened recently in FIM where our State Championships is on the west side of the state. Us, as adults, find ways to help the kids to make it happen.
Like I tell my kids, "Yes there is more money out there". We just have to ask! We are going to have work, we are going to do it together and we are going to get there. Once you have cooked over 50,000 Turkey Legs in 7 weekends, you start to learn that, Yes, it can be done.
Talk to your kids, come up with a plan and go get it. Once you find out you qualified, you have 14 weeks to come up with that money. Go find it! If there is anything I can do to help, I would be happy to help out.
Well, I think I made my point here. I am sure someone will have something to say about but remember why we are here. Remember what makes champions and remember we are all leaders and leaders sacrifice for their teams.
Here is a video from John Maxwell on Leadership:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpzkgQ33RVc