Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Flowerday
If a company wants to help support FIRST and/or teams, I generally think we should accept it. I don't think it's a good idea for FIRST to take on the responsibility of deciding whether a given organization meets some FIRST-defined moral standard. Look at it this way, no matter what a company has done in the past or what you think of their business, as long as they're supporting FIRST aren't they trying to do at least some good?.
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I would tip my hat to Anheuser-Busch if they were ever to support FIRST. Although they sell beer they do not promote underage drinking, and as long as they stay in the back, than money is money. I think it is unfair for FIRST to limit who can and who can not sponsor a FIRST team especially with such an expensive program. As long as FIRST says that teams/companies can not put certain types of pictures/text on their robots that promote drinking, it shouldn't be a problem. For a couple of thousand dollars many teams would gladly change their team colors as a way to thank their sponsors, not necessarily by having a huge beer logo on all four of their bumpers.
Do you think that changing your team colors to that of your sponsors' is a sign of respect that FIRST could recognize and let be?
There are a load of people who love robots, [and I'm pretty sure that beer companies are included in this catagory], so why not let all of the help out in any way they can? If you're against that than we might as well just stop being sponsored by companies that lay off employees or have buisness contracts with "bad" companies [ex: Booze/Tobacco]? Why stop there, and stop engineers from these companies from helping out their local teams as well and the whole 9 yards!
*RANT* Sooner or later I think we're going to have to give students/mentors/engineers/volunteers tests to make sure they haven't done anything thats "ungracious" either. */RANT*
Pavan.
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