[Al Skierkiewicz]

WOW!,
I like everthing I have read here except this part of the Dean 1998 speech...
"What this organization is about is not education per se." For me it is about the "education". I have opened new ways of looking at work problems as a direct result of my working in FIRST. I do not only learn from Wildstang engineers and students, or even from Andy Baker, Joe Johnson or Ken Patton (and I have learned a lot from these people and others too numerous to name). I do learn from all of the people I meet and talk with and the robots I see. I am excited, thrilled in fact, when meeting anyone I have never talked to and getting to start up with a common subject like robots. Anyone who comes into this great "community" and misses those opportuities is really missing a lot. My idea of the best FIRST has to offer lies in these few examples.
1. A student has an epiphany, decides that it would be a good idea to plan on attending a college or university when they had no direction before.
2. A team member who is heard to say, "I didn't know you could do it that way! I will have to try that."
3. "Don't be discouraged, you can ask anyone of us for help and we will gladly help you." or "Go ask Team XXXX if they have a (name your part) to spare."
4. A first time attendee asking "Why are you cheering for that team, they just beat you?"
5. Hearing "Good Luck" or "Hi Al!" or "nice bot!" 500 times a day and knowing that those guys are not always talking to you but they mean it every time.
6. Having a working relationship with 20,000 people, without having met most of them and knowing that I can turn to anyone of them, ask a question and get an informed, intelligent response as if I knew them and worked with them everyday.
It is for reasons such as these that my wife Dottie and I continue to be a small part of this competition and sell it wherever we have the chance.