[Rich Kressly]

This is the year that we all realize the mission of FIRST with far greater success than ever before. How? Instead of making huge plans as an individual, we ALL make an individual promise to carry out these important, attainable goals.

- Relish you role, accept it as imperfect as it may be, and enjoy it. It matters not if you are a mentor, student, alum, or a support-person. You may never get a chance at it again.

- Choose one person on your team, the one no one else is paying attention to, and inspire.
- Choose another person on your team, the one who has really stepped up and hasn’t been noticed yet, and recognize.
- Choose a third person in FIRST, from somewhere other than your own team, and do one of the above.

- Only think of Gracious Professionalism as a standard to work toward personally.
- Never use it as a gauge to point out someone else’s shortcomings.

- Compete harder than you did last year.
- Share more than you did last year.

- Get to know a different part of FIRST this year, one you know very little about.

- Do/Learn one thing this year that betters your future.
- Do/Teach one thing this year that betters the future of your team.
- Do one thing this year that leaves FIRST in better shape than you found it in.

- Have the courage to carry the FIRST message into the rest of your life.
- Be willing to say, “I participate in FIRST because I want to change the culture for the better” even though you know many will not understand and may even laugh at you.

It’s impossible to know who’s life you will change forever. Don’t miss an opportunity. I’m an optimist. Have a great season. This is the year.

Namaste…