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Unread 10-04-2005, 00:52
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AKA: Kim O'Toole Eckhardt
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Re: Should teams be allowed to attend multiple regionals?

Quote:
Originally Posted by AJunx
Again, my memory of his exact message is suspect at best, but I do believe that Mr. Kamen has explicitly told us to do everything in our power (whether that includes funds or not) to inspire those who have not yet been inspired.
My only issue with a lot of the comments in this thread, is that it all seems to be based around funding. True inspiration does NOT come from funding. And a lot of the teams with financial resources, may not have an overabundance of engineering resources. Take our team. We have a very stable and very generous sponsor: Harris Corporation. However, when it came down to the six weeks, we really had about 10 engineers (for 30 students). And probably half of those were part time (meaning they could only make it a few times a week). Looking at these numbers, next year, I would not start another team. I would use the engineers I have to give quality time to the kids that we have. I feel its better to give a smaller number of students a truely inspiring experience, than it is to give a large number of students a mediocre experience. Additionally, the logistics that go into starting and running an additional team are HUGE! I spent over 45 hours a week outside my job just to get 1511 up and running, and get everyone organized. There is no way we could have handled doing that for a second team. My hat goes off to teams like the triplets of Toronto who can gather, organize, sustain and put forth multiple teams.

Additionally, further support for my "inspiration does not come from money" pitch, is that we can go to the middle schools with our robot for free, do presentations and mini seminars for them for FREE. We can introduce other schools to FIRST for FREE... at zero cost to us. We even held a large community scrimmage for 10 local teams, and we paid under $500 for EVERYTHING! It was still a very fun, very inspiring event.

So in the end, if teams have the funds to attend multiple regionals, I still say go for it. Give the students as much competition for their hard work that year as you can afford. And especially now that Championships are not "anyone can register" a lot of teams are using multiple regionals to 1. give the same experience, or 2. to have a better shot at getting their kids to championships. Plus think about your seniors... this may be there last shot... shouldnt they get as much out of this year as possible??
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Kimberly O'Toole Eckhardt <3
Principal Systems Engineer & Program Manager
History - Team 176, Team 229, Team 1511, FIRST Volunteer!!
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Excellence - is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible.
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