[Swan217]

Originally Posted by Don Wright

I also know you know some key people here in Mi... and you can regularly find Gail's phone number posted all over the place on these forums. Did you even try calling her?

Yes, I talked with the number of key people that I know in MI, who either blew me off or didn't know anything. I don't know Gail, but what I do know is that I've been trying for the past month to contact the MI board for a discussion, and was told this weekend that the MI board pretty much told me to go to hell.

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

Years ago I couldn't imagine FIRST without this board.
Today, I wonder if I should even promote this board to my kids at all.
Its a darn shame.
Maybe its time we should all get back to the basics...the joy of building something amazing with the people you care about.

When Dave started promoting CD at kickoff a few years back, I immediately knew it was a bad thing. CD has always had flareups of criticism and politics, and I knew that exposing the general FIRST public to these things without the benefit of historical context was going to lead to misunderstandings. I have never promoted the site to students because I agree with both Andy and Paul - it's our job as mentors to shelter our students from the politics that get in the way of inspiration. The part that will haunt me about blowing the whistle here is that after keeping this situation from them all year, my students are seeing this, which makes me angry that I was forced into this situation.

Originally Posted by Paul Copioli

FIRST HQ's job is not to inspire, it's our job as a mentor. We need to shield the students on our respective teams from the political mine field that is FIRST (and any large corporation).

I was never a student in FIRST, but pretty soon the majority of mentors will be former FIRST students (which will put me in the minority). I think that this year I may concentrate some of my WFA speeches at Regionals talking about how FIRST changes as you move from student to mentor as I fear Pavan Dave's sentiments are common among many former FRC students.

I think Paul is one of the best people to speak to this topic, since he watched me grow from a shy high school student to an influential mentor. When I started mentoring, I was still trying to recreate that "high" I felt when I had my first "inspired" moment. It took a solid three years for me to learn that my role as a mentor needed to change and I needed to be the inspiration for the next generation of students and stop looking to recreate the "good ol' days" of being a student. I have to thank Paul for being one of the mentors that had to whack me over the head with that reality, even if it took a few whacks. I think everyone should listen to what people like Paul and Ken have to say, even if like Ken said, they don't share your point of view.