Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Rotolo
I see newer teams that have had no contact with another team until a Regional; that's almost criminal.
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Don, this point really spoke to me.
Due to the nature of our team's structure, we were like this up until a few years ago. We knew of the existence of other teams in our area, and they knew of us but there was never any sort of communication or sharing between any of us. We had a narrow minded idea of what FIRST really was, and many of us, myself included, though that it was just a robotics competition. We always seemed to be one of those "nobody" teams at every competition we went to because of this.
After a while, there was a shift in thinking. As we grew through High School we began to learn more and more about what FIRST was all about. The biggest asset to us was Chief Delphi. Some of us spent hours reading posts and talking to people and learning . This change was reflected in our Robots, but more importantly in the bonds we built with other teams.
In retrospect, I realize the reason we didn't know what FIRST was, was because we didn't have anyone to teach us. Our mentors didn't really put much worth in networking and meeting teams and getting out in the community and learning new things. I think the best way for us as a community to move forward is to make sure that we teach each team what FIRST is all about.