[EricH]

Originally Posted by Carol

If you don't agree with FiM, but want to see FIRST grow to include most if not all of the schools in the nation, and expand worldwide, how would you manage the growth? If FIRST (FRC that is) expands to 10,000 teams (versus the current 1300-1500), do you think that the current model would still be workable?

FiM's methods, but WIDE OPEN and with the Culture Changing awards rated much higher than zero.

The main thing that annoyed me initially was that this was sprung suddenly on the teams and required--you had to be in it to compete at all. After seeing this thread, add that they're not counting the culture change awards as they should. And, after the early manual release, the confusion created by the Awards section (there is a thread on this elsewhere).

If they'd been more open, and had said, "Hey, we want to do this, what do you think?" it would be another story. Everyone could have put input in and (hopefully) had it used to make this better.

With 10,000 teams, the current model isn't workable. But the FiM model seems to be already in place in a number of other events (BB, BEST, etc.). What sets FIRST apart is mentor involvement and Gracious Professionalism. If you're not going to include those, or you're only going to pay them lip service, you may as well go to the other events. They're cheaper, and you do the same basic thing, build a robot.