[Elyse Holguin]

Originally Posted by MikeDubreuil

I think it's important to remember our history and the mission of FIRST. FIRST was initally called the "US FIRST Robotics Competition." The name is still used in the domain name usfirst.org. The mission was to increase the number of students intererested in technology, to benifit the United States. This message is still clear when Dean Kamen takes the podioum and gives a speech on keeping technology related jobs in the United States.

Introducing FIRST to other countries is a great idea, but it is inconsistent with the entire original mission of FIRST. One of our growing pains is how to incorporate the original mission while allowing global participation. Dean Kamen continues to ignore other countries in his speeches, and keeps us focused on the United States' problems with the technology sector. In my opion Dean Kamen has yet to waiver in his original American mission.

I apologize for going off topic again, but...

The mission of FIRST has changed in time to include students interested in technology worldwide. Originally, yes, FIRST did want to benefit students, mentors, and engineers in the United States, because that alone seemed like a goal that would take a long time to reach, but once it was attained the bar needed to be raised.

Introducing FIRST to other countries is not inconsistant with the original mission, it's only a continuance or an expansion of that mission. Many Canadian, Brazilian, British, and Mexican students and engineers have benefitted from FIRST just as much as the Americans, not to mention all of the Lego League kids from even more countries. We can't just alienate them by only including Americans in the mission of FIRST, because FIRST has gone worldwide, as Cory pointed out.

/off topic