Quote:
Originally Posted by TechieSam
To the earlier poster, can you clarify what you are inferring when you said the FLL/FTC relationship shows bad business ethics? I've seen people say FIRST makes bad decisions sometimes, but bad ethics sounds much worse and might not be the right choice of words.
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I was talking about when Lego and FIRST made an agreement a few years ago requiring that FIRST charge teams more to participate in FVC than in FLL. Was the same time FIRST removed all references to FVC being for middle school kids, all to help Lego keep middle schools from moving on to FVC from FLL. Just doesn't seem right for FIRST to sell out one of their groups of schools and programs to help another. I always thought all three FIRST programs were equally important were truly a bridge to each other. But letting a for-profit company jack up the prices on other FIRST schools and teams showed me that it's was just about teams being a market for Lego to control and maximize their profits. I don't even blame Lego, they are a business, but I don't understand FIRST agreeing to it. So that's what I meant about running the organization like a business can also lead to some shady business ethics like we see in the real world sometimes.
It's not secret information, I learned about it last year at a meeting and a number of committee members and partners know it, but there hasn't been a lot of uproar about it so I guess it's not as a big deal to others as it is to me. But to me, I think its a sad day when FIRST or any non-profit starts looking out for the for-profit interests of corporate partners at the expense of schools and students.