FIRST Alumni Community

[Anne Shade]

Most people aren't checking the FIRST site as regularly anymore so in case you've missed it: FIRST just added a link to FIRST Alumni Community. Looks like they are trying to start keeping track of FIRST alumni. Take a few moments to fill out the form!

[Jessica Boucher]

Great first step! But oy, the skewing, the skewing! Especially with the "years involved" area.

Appropriate early primary market research (aka informal focus groups of active alumni) would have probably shown that alumni do more than just exist on teams: they volunteer, sponsor, kvetch on CD...you know what I mean. So the number is going to be different than would come up if the question was asked "years spent as a student on an FRC team".

Furthermore, "years involved in FIRST" doesn't take into account the people who count their years being carried to competition in the womb while their sibling/parent/friend was competing (ok, I'm exaggerating...but once again, you know what I mean.), but all in all it skews the data even more.

Hopefully, this isn't the end, but instead a gateway email aggregator so that a more detailed survey can be administered...if you know what I mean

[Anne Shade]

I agree that the form does not include some needed information. More team and regional involvement details should be asked. The part which asks the most recent FRC team affiliation can be misleading since they don't ask in what capacity that involvement is in (student, college mentor, engineering mentor, NEM?). It should also ask what the person does for a living now.

That just the information I can think of now, I'm sure more could be included. Hopefully this is still a work in progress and more information will be collected later. Keeping alumni information could be very useful for FIRST to collect impact data in the future.

[RoboMom]

One of the main finding that came out of the recent Brandeis evaluation was that it was important for FIRST to provide a basis for ongoing contact with alumni to track longer term outcomes.
It's a good first step that they are starting this database.

[BandChick]

It's just a start, and like anything else it takes time to put ALL the necessary information together. You all have FIRST experience and you have seen teams grow from year to year. There are 10 year teams that still have more to learn before they're in the "perfect flow."

It's a great first step though, and I'm glad FIRST is realizing the impact FIRST has had on alumni and vice versa.

[Beth Sweet]

I'm glad FIRST has come up with this. The HOT team has had an alumni association for a couple of years now and one of the big parts of their submission was how one of their alumni has gone full circle FIRST, from lego to frc to GM employee (HOT's sponsor). It's cool to know where alum's are now.

[Randy]

Hi Anne

[Barry Bonzack]

Alumni... That has been a very popular award for me lately... I just started the Harmony Alumni Association, and helped the association of my new college with information on how to adopt a highway... there is room for one more.

My question though is what hasn't FIRST sent out an E-mail blast about this to all the mentors yet? wouldn't it be wise to have the mentors let their students know about this while they still know the e-mail addresses to their seniors before they go to college? MANY students don't get online and check usfirst.org ::gasp:: or Chiefdelphi.com ::larger gasp:: on a regular basis...or even at all ::swoons::