Courtesy during awards.

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by Dancin103

THANK YOU! I could not have said it better. For our team, if our parents did not make dinner for 50+ people every night we would go hungry or hate pizza, if one of our parents did not graciously pull our trailer and haul our stuff around this country we would only show up to competitions with the basics, if we didn't have a few dedicated parents that build our practice field in full each year, our drive team would just have carpet to drive on, and if we didn't have a select few dedicated parents in our rookie year, today we would not have some of the awesome mentors that we do today (I know many of you have mentors that started as interested parents many moons ago, watched their kids graduate, and are still around today (some 17 years later)). Oh, and one more small thing, if we didn't have a few extremely dedicated parents a some 15 years ago that went to every board meeting every month and praised our team, we would either a.) be a non existent FIRST team, or b.) not have what we do today.

While these are only a few examples from my team, I know that from the stories and friendships formed with teams across the country, I know that many will agree that it is our parents and family members that are a HUGE aspect of each team.

Indeed!
Just heard that the abstract I submitted for the Championship conferences was accepted. It is on omnidirectional gear ratios.
Just kidding. It's on "RoboParents: Parental Involvement in FIRST". Nothing earth shattering to those who have been involved, but I hope to include some stats and useful resources.