[archiver]

Posted by nick237 at 03/21/2001 5:29 PM EST


Engineer on team #237, sie h2o bots, from Watertown high school ct and sieman co.


In Reply to: Glass always half empty for you Nick?
Posted by Jason Morrella on 03/20/2001 11:18 PM EST:



Jason. Your missing the point of my posts, telling me I see the glass as half empty or half full is not true, I see the glass as " half missing " and its the missing half that Im addressing.
If we as members of the FIRST community do nothing or say nothing then were are sheep and have no interest in impoving this great organization. As with every organization there is room for improvement and by speaking our minds possibly we can achieve those goals, speaking vegative gets changes its not dissent.
FIRST was informed during the off season, at last years forums and the year prior to problems that teams were having, if you were at Ruttgers and had to wait three or more hours to get in you would know how they fixed that problem.
FIRST does a great job, and we as teams are told to excell in our task by FIRST each year and continue to improve the game but FIRST has droped the ball a few times this year and its this droping of the ball that FIRST needs to be aware of.
Dont confuse discontent with concerns because I am a perfectionist and im concerned that FIRST is losing its
perfect rating. Some times some thing can grow too fast and then the whole organization suffers.
My mother always told me to look after the little things in life and they will take care of the big things. I hoped that I was trying to take care of the little things before they became a disaster.
Last year two of our students were hurt trying to get the robot off the field, one fell over the 18" rail and one was hurt trying to manouver the robot cart around the corner off the stage at the UTC Regional.
We asked if they could put a gate in the frame work so you didnt have to step over it, we also asked for lights on the side of the stage and a less degree of turn off the side stage.... "guess what" nothing was done and again a student was hurt.
Those are concerns not complaints. FIRST didnt listen.
Enough babble, have a great time in Florida and hopefully next year will be better.
nick237

: So much energy complaining and making negative comments towards FIRST. What amazes me about FIRST is that for EVERY SINGLE THING you can find to complain about they do another 100 amazing things that you choose to ignore or not appreciate.
: About the number of teams making the playoffs in Orlando - running a 340 team event is truly an incredible feat. No one seems to give FIRST credit for creating a system that will result in MORE TEAMS THAN EVER BEFORE leaving Orlando with awards and trophies. While 40 teams make the playoffs - there will also be 4 rookie all stars, 4 #1 seeds, 20 division champions, 5 finalists and 5 champions, in addition to all the other awards. So more kids than ever will return home with awards. I think that's a pretty fair trade off for having less teams in the playoffs.

: (Yes, you can ALWAYS find little things about the game or rules that you could change afterwards - that's easy. Some of the points you bring up are good & real - no one at FIRST would deny that and no one will ever debate that the competition is not and never will be perfect). But what FIRST does is pretty amazing, and the game is MUCH better and MUCH more fair then you give FIRST credit for. Perfect, no. I have my own list of things I think could have been done better or could have improved the game this year. But as Andy Baker said, we'd rather concentrate on the game and the competitions ahead of us, prepare the best we can, and have the best time we can. The kids put in too much time & work not to have fun. The off season and team forum are the times to give CONSTRUCTIVE criticism & ideas to improve things for next year.
: Those who imply FIRST doesn't listen to teams or care what they say are just plain wrong and out of line. I commend all the people at FIRST in Manchester for listening to teams as much as they do. I commend all the FIRST people and all the volunteers for putting on such great events for the kids. Keep up the great work!!!!!