Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Noah Melamed
Teams are provided with the KOP
plus they can purchase $2000 worth of parts/supplies/material from the following suppliers:
|
Why not just pay $2000 less to begin with and spend the money however you want?
I think this thread is ridiculous. If you think FIRST should be leveled, you are missing the point. Yeah sure, you can say kids on small underfunded teams are walking away with a bad taste in their mouths.. but what about the kids on the wealthy teams? How do you think they feel when they don't even have a chance to get their hands dirty, and have put absolutely nothing into the robot.
Example: I was a freshman on my high school's team in 2003. The students helped come up with the strategy, but the robot was entirely built by engineers. We weren't allowed in the shops at Johnson and Johnson, so we didn't even know what the robot looked like until the last day of the build. We did OK in our competitions, but didn't even get into eliminations at Championships. That same team lost all of their sponsorship and engineering support the next year due to budget cuts. That year, the teams robot was built by 3 high school sophomores, a freshman, and 2 juniors. The robot ranked 4th in NJ, and was sitting in either 1st or 2nd all day Friday at UTC. So, don't come to me with sob stories. If you want it bad enough, you'll toughen up and put more work into it.
Its not about the money. Its not about the machine shop. Its about the dedication of the students and mentors on the team. Life isn't fair. Its the people who realize this fact and work hard to overcome adversity that succeed.