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Unread 07-11-2006, 23:19
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Chris Fultz Chris Fultz is offline
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Re: Ideas to move in the direction of making FIRST competitions 'fair'

From the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

fair
Function: adjective
a : marked by impartiality and honesty : free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism
b : conforming with the established rules :


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Wow, I am feeling a lot of love (not) in this thread - Brandon, thanks for the cool down period.

From the definition above, I would say absolutely FIRST is fair. Everyone starts the same day, gets the same rules, gets the same kit. Everyone has the same opportunity to recruit mentors and sponsors and create great machines.

Is everyone as succesful at doing that - no, they are not. Do veterans do better - probably - they have more experience - but that does not make it unfair.

We also need to remember that we all have different definitions of success. I subscribe to the "it's not about the robots theory" and see success in so many teams that is way beyond what their robot does or does not do on the field. How many students are moving to engineering careers, how many are getting scholarships due to FIRST involvement. How many college students stay engaged after high school. What new technology or capability did your students learn. I could go on. If your only definition of sucess is the robot on the field, then we only have three successful teams each year - the three that win the Championship. I don't believe that to be true.

A new Rolls-Royce mentor went to the IndianaFIRST forums last Saturday. One of his comments to me was "When I saw how many colege kids stayed involved, I knew it was something special".


Sorry for the Karthik-like response, but since he went short, someone had to step up.


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Chris Fultz
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