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Originally Posted by roboteer49
Hey everybody!
I have a simple mission to get Dean, Dave, and Woody to build a robot for next years competition. I brought this up in the 2005 radical game design but i want it to actually happen. Don't u want to see a segway hanging from the bar? I think they could compete against the national champs in a exhibition match. They would have one robot that could take up 2 robots, a super robot. I'm calling upon u, the chiefdelphi memebers, to help make my dream possible. Since I don't know them I want everyone when they see him to tell them to build a robot next year. Because I want to see it and I know u do too. What do u guys think?
DEAN-BOT IN 2005!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Dave already does build a robot, along with the rest of Team 116. I have heard him state on repeated occasions that, while he could step away from his team and concentrate on just the "larger issues" of FIRST he won't. Because he feels that the only way to really understand what is going on "in the trenches" is to be an active part of a team. These days he may also find it useful in staying in touch with one or more of his children. A benefit without price.
I think it would be a good exercise for Dean and Woody to build a real FIRST robot. I'd also include a few others from headquarters on the list. You have to actually try and accomplish something within "a system" to truly understand the limitations of that system and the frustrations of others who are working with it.
But I think it would be an even better exercise for them to take a year off from their FIRST duties and just be part of a team. Because, as they have repeatedly stated, FIRST is NOT about the robots. As an engineer, I feel pretty confident that we can resolve most issues with the robot, one way or another. It is the Team issues I have the most struggles with.
So some sort of rotation program where Dean or Woodie or Eric and other key members of the FIRST headquarters staff take a year off and just be part of a team for a year would help them understand Team issues better. It would have to be a rotation because we couldn't have all of them taking off at once. In the case of certain people, it would have to be announced at the end of the current season that so and so would be on a team next year and so would not be participating in the game design process this time around.
Of course this would lead almost inevitiably to jealousy from teams they were not part of. There would be all kinds of remarks about "advantages" real or imagined. Especially, if a formerly mediocre team they became part of suddenly became Champions or even won a Regional. Also, Dean and Woodie are people and at times even the best of us can be very hard to live with. So there would probably be times of conflict and a certain amount of viewing the "real" person. Often this is not a pretty sight.
So it might be better to just leave well enough alone.