[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by dlavery

... the thread was re-opened to allow discussion about one very important aspect of that expereience that has been glossed over so far:

Having made the choice to send this particular sub-set of their team to an event, what did Team 842 learn as a result?

I think that if you talk to them about the experience, you will find that they learned both some expected and unexpected lessons. A few have been briefly mentioned already. They deserve further discussion, because they are important, and very revealing. And there are a few more that have yet to be mentioned, including some surprises.

Thanks for vectoring the thread again, Dave. Now I am on the edge of my chair, because I love surprises.

My team (like most in FIRST, I suspect) needs to get more girls involved. At recent FRC events our traveling crew has been about 25% female and that tracks closely with overall participation. Having worked with, and reported to, several scary-smart female engineers during my quarter-century in the profession, I refuse to believe that my team's level of female participation can be attributed to individual capabilities. I know there is talent that we are not utilizing -- and by finding ways to bring it out we can make the team more competitive.

Eagerly awaiting lessons from 842's experience.