*stands on soap box*
Giving a cash prize would not be in the spirit of FIRST. Yes, the purpose of FIRST is to change what we celebrate, but it's also to change HOW we celebrate it. I think Dean puts it best in his kickoff speech:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Dean Kamen
FIRST is not about building robots. That's gonna be hard for you to believe, when for the next six weeks you don't eat and you don't sleep because of robots, but PLEASE, (every speaker so far as made some alusion to it), but I want to remind all of you that FIRST got started for a simple reason. We have a culture that gets what it celebrates, a free culture, and even kids are free to do what they want, and we celebrate extraordinarily well the world of sports and entertainment. And I think we do it so well we sometimes forget that those things aren't the SOURCE of our wealth, they're a result of it.
(...he goes on a while, which I've omitted because it's unrelated...)
...I'm begging all the mentors, no matter how exciting and intense the competition gets, like other sports, sometday we will be THE sport, the 21st century sport, the sport that is a part of the culture everywhere, I'm begging all of you to remember, we have a much bigger set of goals to keep at the front of our mind all the time than whether your robot wins or loses. Some of the robots will lose, some of them won't even run, but all of the participants shuold be winners, they WILL be winners if we keep track of what's important. So, my first message is just, for all of you veterans this is a booster shot, FIRST is an extraordinary group of people doing an extraordinary thing, let's not ever lower our standards or forget why we do this. And to the students, I'll remind all of you, we don't want any of the trappings of sports that , frankly, are an embarassment or inappropriate for things as important as what we're doing here. Helping create the next generation of people that will determine the fate of the world.
So, as usual, i have my homework... (and, it goes on from there.)
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If you didn't read all of that, which is completely understandable, it's long, I hope you read the boldfaced section.
Personally, I consider one of those 'trappings' to be whatever prize you get for winning. FIRST is most certainly NOT about winning. It's about the connections you make with the people you work with, something that is very important in the long run. Please understand that I am
in no way trying to undermine the achievements of those teams who have won, that's not what I'm trying to get at here.
Essentially, we are not the Superbowl. We are not the US Open. The aim of FIRST (as I've been taught it) is not to win. Why should the teams that DO win get money out of it, when the team that's been working all season just to get enough money to pull a robot together, and comes through in the end not get anything?
Money for winning just DOES NOT make any sense to me.
$ 0.02 deposited. Now I'm done.
*steps down from soapbox*