Team Contact Information

[tribotec_ca88]

Greetings...

I've searched forums from several other websites (including all of CD) but I can't seem to find a place that has a list of team e-mails (or main contacts)...I was thinking of starting one myself, but I just wanted to check and see if anyone else knows if this sort of information is already available. I really need to get in touch with some teams but I can't seem to find anything...

any help at all would be greatly appreciated!!!
Good Luck to all teams!

[Ricky Q.]

All teams main contact information is avaliable through the TIMS system, if they choose to share it. Your team's main contact can access this.

[Denman]

while there isn't a list as such, on www.firstwiki.org there is a lot of teams info
just type the team number and it will come up with their info if anyone has added it

[tribotec_ca88]

I've started to gather some e-mails but having to enter each and every single team's website one by one is getting to be a long and tiresome process...

Originally Posted by Ricky Q.

All teams main contact information is avaliable through the TIMS system, if they choose to share it. Your team's main contact can access this.

I had thought about the TIMS system, but since I'm not our team's main contact, I left out that option. But I guess now that it seems to be an interesting resource I'll have a word with our mentors...
Once I finish it, I'll try to see if I can make it available for other teams...

[Manoel]

Originally Posted by Ricky Q.

All teams main contact information is avaliable through the TIMS system, if they choose to share it. Your team's main contact can access this.

Well, I asked before, but no one could point me WHERE in the TIMS it can be found. And really, if you know the TIMS site, I can't be that blind to have missed it after a hours going through a very narrow choice list.
This contact retrieval capability did exist in the old system, then it got disabled for a long while, then (apparently, at least) it was shut off with the new TIMS.

Originally Posted by tribotec_ca88

I had thought about the TIMS system, but since I'm not our team's main contact, I left out that option. But I guess now that it seems to be an interesting resource I'll have a word with our mentors...

And Camila, as much as we all appreciate your efforts, I'd be a bit cautious of releasing this list indiscriminately (that is, if you do manage to get info for the main contact in every team), considering people put their e-mails on the FIRST site knowing that it'll be restricted to a small, select number of people, and some of them may just have privacy issues. Just a heads up!

[dez250]

From what i understand, it was a privacy issue and you can no longer retrieve team contact information through TIMS. Personally i know i dont like my contact information available to everyone and i think you may find out that there will be privacy issues brought up with this idea.

[Stephen Kowski]

Originally Posted by dez250

From what i understand, it was a privacy issue and you can no longer retrieve team contact information through TIMS. Personally i know i dont like my contact information available to everyone and i think you may find out that there will be privacy issues brought up with this idea.

well I believe there used to be an option to keep other people from seeing that info if you didn't want them too, but what about the people that want to make that information available to other teams to contact them? well in that case they are sol....

[RoboMom]

Due to concerns about privacy, you can not access others information from the TIMS. As Senior Mentor I had to sign a confidentiality statement. I am very conscious of this and try to be careful not to give out others info without their written permission. It makes it harder to reach people, but that is the way it is.
It makes it difficult for individual teams to distribute mass mailings to teams. The best you can do is make use of resources like Chief Delphi to reach people and compile your own list. But please don't post your list without their permission.

[Stephen Kowski]

Originally Posted by RoboMom

It makes it harder to reach people, but that is the way it is.

Does that have to be the way it is? Seems like a one size fits all policy that makes this a large problem to communicate with other teams. Is there any way FIRST can reconsider some elements of this policy such as those who choose to make their information public can do so via TIMS??

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Stephen Kowski

Does that have to be the way it is? Seems like a one size fits all policy that makes this a large problem to communicate with other teams. Is there any way FIRST can reconsider some elements of this policy such as those who choose to make their information public can do so via TIMS??

If a team does not want to be contacted then they have the right to hide their information form others. It may not seem graciously professional but it is thier right to act in such a manner.

[DarMagi]

well i know about privacy issues, and being a small team, im sure we are open to ideas and mailings from other teams, but the deal is... i choose to put my personal contact information on this forum, if anyone one so desires to pull that information to contact me, than as team captain i will pass that information along to my team on the next meeting, but other than that, i ahve no problem with a database of all team contacts, and well mine is already on this forum, but yea good and bad idea, lol take it easy all!

[tribotec_ca88]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

If a team does not want to be contacted then they have the right to hide their information form others. It may not seem graciously professional but it is thier right to act in such a manner.

Oops sorry I hadn't made myself more clear...
I was thinking of writing a list of contacts that would ONLY be published after each and every single person on that list APPROVED the idea. I wouldn't be crazy enough to gather e-mails and post them out on random sites lol. It would be something organized, restricted, and only available to the FIRST community (or maybe to a few select from the FIRST community...). I completely agree with the idea of privacy, because I know I wouldn't like to have my personal e-mail loaded with spam and junk mail from unknown users...

[KathieK]

I have had this conversation with Jenny this year. It is difficult to communicate with teams without a way of reaching them all. Last year we hosted a Regional tailgating breakfast and many teams got off the bus saying, "We didn;t know about this!" because we had no way to reach them all.

It would be great if the TIMS system included some choices for team leaders such as, "Do you wish to be notified of FIRST team events in your area?" If the team leader opted in, then a blind mailing list could be created. Somewhere on the FIRST site, perhaps in the pages that list all the teams in the state, for example, a link could be made available that would generate an e-mail to all teams that signed up. The sender would not be privy to the e-mail addresses, and the teams could have the option of joining the list or not.

[RoboMom]

Kathie, Stephen and everyone else concerned about this,
Believe me, I find this just as frustrating as you do. My request would be that you try (mentors only) to attend a team forum this year and comment on this with constructive suggestions. If you can't attend, send me a quick note with your concern and I will make sure it is heard.
Here's hoping we can make this better for everyone next year.

[Stephen Kowski]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

If a team does not want to be contacted then they have the right to hide their information form others. It may not seem graciously professional but it is thier right to act in such a manner.

I was not challenging that at all....read my post again "who choose to make their information public"

If I wanted to make my info public I CANNOT.....