When I first joined Team 519, in September of '02 I didn't have the slightest idea of what was going on. Thank goodness for off-season competitions. This is not my point though.
When I saw the competition, I noticed that there were team uniforms, and sponsors galore. I didn't think much of it though. As I walked around the competition, I noticed how nice teams were to others, and I was amazed. Then, when they were announcing the team names... is when I was trying to listen to the team names, but I was overwhelmed with SPONSORS. I could barely hear the team number at all either.
What am I trying to say?
I think FIRST is about corporate exploitation. Why should our sponsors be put first? I understand that they give us thousands of dollars to fund us, but this is just too much. The major engineering companies know what this is about, and they like the publicity of their name being around a FIRST Robotics Competition.
FIRST needs to change their image, FAST and it needs to be a complete transformation. If they want to grow at all, they need to focus more about the benefits, and NOT about the traveling and the pizza (Although Yummy
)
Now, at the remote kickoff, it wasn't as bad as I thought. I didn't see these hideous banners hanging everywhere.
Also, something that hasn't been mentioned yet... Dean Kamen is a nice guy. He desperately wants FIRST to grow, but I don't think he knows that he IS the inspiration for many people on FIRST teams. All FIRST staff, including Dean himself, should be there for students when they need it. I am aware that FIRST has grown to amazing proportions, so they say that they cannot do this anymore, but I think they could. If FIRST wants to grow, they need to reach out to MORE of an area, than New England. I understand that's where FIRST was born, but what about the rest of the country, and the world for that matter?