14 years ago, Dean Kamen approached many COMPANIES and invited them to get involved with this new thing called U.S.FIRST. He approached, GM, Motorola, Johnson & Johnson, Baxter Healthcare, Boston Scientific, Xerox and many others. He asked them to offer up their best design engineers and enter a contest, partnering them with high school students.
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Originally Posted by Collmandoman
I dunno.. gah I guess I'm just frustrated at macroeconomics...
I don't mean this rude... If I were in a large company and I saw FIRST.. I would give everything free.. or if I was in a small one-- everything would be at cost . If everyone did this.. the kit would be less.. and thus every year you wouldn't pay 6k.. which would enable more students to be inspired(because more team would be able to go). I know this is hard for small companies, and I understand why they have to do this. I think FIRST should target only the very large companies that understand the ideas of FIRST and give everything at cost, or donate(I know several already do). A free kit would be nice.. and maybe it's on the FIRST horizon. Or maybe I'm a fool
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The next time you are at a competition, look up at the vertical blue banner and see who the "Founding Sponsors" are. They are listed there for a reason. These companies DID give much for free, for many years. Some of these companies have been supporting FIRST even though their stock price stinks and their share holders are frustrated.
In some fairytale world, I can see where companies care less about their bottom lines and give all of their profits to any charity who puts out their hand. But, companies have to make tough decisions in order to stay in business. Sometimes those decisions mean that they cut their sponsorship to a worthwhile organization, or they just try to charge enough to cover their costs. Other times, companies (like the one a friend and I started) are made to HELP FIRST teams while still being somewhat profitable for us.
"a free kit would be nice"... Yes, and I would like a free Porsche parked in my driveway. What makes students in FIRST entitled to handouts?
What I have seen in FIRST is a large group of young, energetic thinkers who actually believe that if they want something, they need to go out and earn it. FIRST is not about handouts. FIRST does not breed young people who think that they are entitled to freebies. At least I sure hope that it doesn't.
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Originally Posted by Collmandoman
Does it seem OK to you for sponsors to ask to be recognized? Why or why not~
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Yes, is it perfectly OK for a sponsor to ask to be recognized. With any business plan, deal, agreement, or partnership, some sort of "deal" needs to be struck to make the thing work. On the FIRST team I am on, the "deal" is that Delphi sponsors our team while our students and adults do much for the community. This makes Delphi look good. At events, we compete hard and try to do the best we can. This makes Delphi look like a positive sponsor of FIRST. In our pit, we proudly post a Delphi banner. The kids eagerly hang this up. Yep, Delphi corporate sent us this banner, and asked us to display it. It is part of the deal. Our team graciously and proudly agrees to this deal. Also... part of our deal is that our students need to pay (or fundraise) a portion of their costs for the year. This is our way of making the kids take ownership of their participation on the team. They are not getting a free handout. Some kids bust their behinds and work hard on our projects for the community. In the past, these kids have had less to pay to cover their fair share (this is all spelled out in our team handbook on the
TechnoKats website).
People who have issues and problems with a corporate presence in FIRST need to learn their history. FIRST would not be here without these supporting corporations, large and small.
(I know I am getting winded, but bear with me here)
I want to close with a little story. Gather around uncle Andy...
In 2000, we decided to host an off-season competition called "IRI". We started small, and had about 21 teams lined up to come. We had a great place and a good date. All things were going well. As we were dealing with the details of this, we realized that we needed to get a field controller package from Innovation First. As you might know, they were a very small company in 1999 and only began their work on field controllers in 2000.
So... I call down to Texas and talk to Tony at IFI. I asked if we could rent one of their field controllers. He said "yes" but did not have a set price for what it would cost for us to rent a complete system. My words to him were this:
"hey... you guys are doing great things.
I want you to make some money and do more. How about $500 for the system, and if we break anything, we will cover all costs?"
Tony agreed to this and graciously supported us. He also wanted us to tell FIRST how they were supporting us. I saw no problem in that.
My point is that we loved what they were providing for us FIRST teams. We WANTED them to make money off of us. We WANTED them to succeed and prosper. We WANTED them to get recognition for this so we noted it in our event program. We loved this deal. They helped us succeed. They made money. This is what we call a "win-win".
End of story.
What gets my goat is that people come across and question corporate involvement in FIRST and scoff at the fact that these corporations ask to be recognized. How about a little faith in the current system? I am all for educating people, as long as they listen and show some appreciation for what is good.
ok... man... I feel like I am in Hyde Park, on a soapbox. whew.
Andy B.