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Ken Patton's comments
Posted by michael bastoni, Coach on team #23, PNTA, from Plymouth North High School and Boston Edison Co.
Posted on 5/13/99 7:11 PM MST Ken et al, I am placing this up here because someone keeps shortening the threads. I appreciate your thoughts on sustainability...I see sustainability or the lack of it...as the single largest detrement to FIRST...and I believe lengthening the cycle time for a 'season' solves all the problems...so here goes some fresh input. Let's look at what a typical team that fully participates in FIRST does through the course of a typical year.These are actually the things FIRST is asking us to do. 1) Sept through December Organize classes, meetings and curriculum to support full involvement in FIRST 2) Jan Through March. Design and build a competetive robot in 6 weeks and then spend the next 6 weeks making spare parts (Cause if you don't make spare parts your not as competetive as the other kids and they won't want you on their team.) 3) January through January Produce a competetive chairman's award...and for those of you who have never tried it...it is a year long effort. And it far out weighs the effort and resources required to build a robot. 4)September through March Produce an a 30 second animation.Again this takes equally as many hours to do as it takes to construct a competetive robot. ( And is currently the second most popular aspect of the whole program for our Team) 5) March through May Attend multiple regionals. This is how FIRST generates funds. 6) Sept through December Start and maintain Lego league teams mentored by Participating FIRST students on your teams...organized and produced by SOMEBODY. 7)March through July Start and maintain local post season 'Gymnasium events or nearly full blown regional events currently termed Community Events.....(Far and away the most joy we get from this program) 8) January through January Produce and develop effective PR campaigns for FIRST at the local, community, and national level. The wonderful folks in Plymouth have been doing all these things for the past 5 years...I am humbled to even be a part of it,,,but be assured these things listed above are being done by these committed folks...and being done well... So Ken, I am asking only that we change the lens through which we view this thing called FIRST...and then only slightly in an effort to accomodate these 8 action items... If we can agree on some basic premises we can go forward. But we will need to answer some questions for ourselves before we can do this...I do not pretend to answer these questions for any of you...I only ask that you reflect on them. 1) Which of the above 8 action items is most important in advancing the mission statement of FIRST. (Now this could be argued for years...cause building robots with engineers is fine, but it goes nowhere without good PR.......and making animations is for many far more accesible and rewarding than making Robots) 2) What is the mission statement of FIRST anyway... I hear it said different from alot of different people. 3) IF you had to decide...which is most useful in advancing your percieved aims of FIRST....building the ROBOT or PLAYING with the robot....If it was life or death, one or the other...which in your own heart would it be?? Only one choice....and it's in your own heart you have to answer. I know we all like both...but we're searching for truth here, we need answers to formulate a direction to move in. Now with those thoughts swimming in your heads...add a few of these. 1)Many teams build robots without professional engineering help per se..and Dean says that's OK, and they are very competetive.Many of you had them as alliance partners. 2)Some teams field Robots built entirely by engineers and Dean says that's OK too, and these teams are also very competetive. Many of you had them as alliance partners too. 2)Many teams only build the robot and it's obvious that they can sustain that effort yearly...cause 1 out of 7 ain't bad (Meatloaf revisited) The finnish... First grows on the backs of those teams who work hard to do all aspects of what is asked...and it is that level of participation that is not sustainable...How many Chairman's Award teams are still intact and functioning at full efficiency? I'll let you research that for homework. I ask the question...are we doing what we say we are doing.. are we fighting the good fight if we scale back in order to just stay in the game? Or do we have the obligation to do it the best we can each and every time...The folks in Plymouth like folks everywhere,like knowing they have given something their best shot...and doing all those 7 things every year year after year...IS NOT SUSTAINABLE...building a robot every year is, fine I agree, it's not a problem and under the plan I advance you can still build a robot every year if you want to.... but the plan I propose, frees teams up a bit to do the other 6 things necessary to make FIRST what we all want it to be... I am not asking for less....I am asking for more and I am running out of ways to say it....I am asking for people to consider all aspects of FIRST and to realize that the efforts put into making the Robots should pay off better....we all deserve more inspirational and definetly educational bang for the buck...and simply extending the season, the cycle time for the product redevelopment will help make this possible...and so much more..Kids like playing with the robot along with their engineering mentors..sure engineers do techno magic...but they are also wonderful companions who are caring, trusting, funny and good role models for kids in search of their place in the world...I'm asking you to spend less time in your development facilities and more quality time out with the kids playing with the robots you worked so hard to build...otherwise your running on a treadmill and not getting where you really want to be, and that's in the hearts and minds of the kids... The kids....it's really who this program is about..it's not about machines really...it's about kids and people. All these kids are not going to grow up to be engineers, but we can be darn sure that we will help them all grow up to be good, decent people by showing them good decent behaviors to model...and you do not necessarily need to build a robot every 12 months to do that..And yes it is VERY IMPORTANT that these kids associate these fine values with us techy types...it's a good thing. So...I will defend your right to disagree with me...to the death. But I so want you to fully understand what you are disagreeing with... Thanks Ken...and you must know how grateful I am to simply be able to share ideas with the high caliber of the men and women, students and engineers, parents and teachers of FIRST....because by simply even being a part of it, you all make very impressive statements about who you are and what you are about....we are all a community of people who a willing and able to 'walk it like we talk it' Good night |
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