I get that a lot of people here are trying to say that its hard to measure inspiration... but let me take this to the real world, as I do see a great point in starting this thread.
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Point 1: A lot of companies ask their mentors just this... how can you give me numbers, metrics, anything logical that quantifies what exactly I am spending all this money on??
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While we cant exactly define inspiration, we can put some metrics to it like what is the increase in high school students that go on to higher education? How many kids on your team go on to careers in science and technology (ie this thread!!)? What schools are they going to (this thread)?? And how do I get them to come work for me when they are all done?!?! Companies want to see some value out of what they are doing. True a lot of them will do it no matter what the answers to these questions are... but if we can back up what they give with great facts (which FIRST actually does if you look at some of their reports), that relate to your team, it really helps justify it, especially to any people in the company who may think there is a better way to spend that money.
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Point 2: Metrics are real life engineering.
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I've mentioned this before, but I am actually part of a group that is initiating
CMMI in our company. Part of the improvement cycle in the engineering world is to take metrics on how you are currently doing so you can determine how and if you have improved. This is HUGE now adays as every company is trying to get ahead. We have to put metrics to nearly everything we do. The other day we were discussing what kind of metrics we could take on our testing process, failure rates, number of revisions to documents, etc.
Metrics are a way to judge how you are doing, and also look ahead to see how you can improve. I think this thread was started with a similar intention. He's not asking "what does inspiration mean" He is asking how can we begin to quantify inspiration in one way, not every way, not the big broad picture, but how do we put some math to this to present to our companies... how do we justify FIRST's mission. Have we really been inspiring students? or are most of them just doing what they would have done without all this extra money being spent on them.
*puts the soapbox back in the closet*
