2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by Alex2614

I understand that. What I'm saying is that the entire year last year they kept saying "FIRST kids aren't geeks." Stuff like that. They kept trying to change the image of who we are. In the words of Dave Lavery, "I'm a geek and I'm $@#$@#$@#$@# proud of it." THAT'S who FIRST is. Promote our image and who we are, don't change it to appeal to the rest of the world. That may not have been what their intentions were, but that's how it came across to a lot of people.

I do see your point, especially given Dr. Flowers' description of "SuperNerds" in 2010. However, I got a different reading from the promotional items. I got "FIRST kids aren't just geeks - they're also athletes, inventors, friends.

And yes, the concert was nice. However, when FIRST blatantly lied to us about why the fields were in the pits, that was pretty offensive. Bill Miller said that the fields in the pits has nothing to do with the concert at all, which was obviously a lie. FIRST was originally planning to have half of the dome empty until the concert plan came through? I'm sorry, but that's bull and everyone knows it. It's all a part of the transparency issue. The lies are where the issue is. If they are going to do something like that, at least be truthful and up front with us.

It wasn't lies, it was meant to be a surprise. Please don't complain about the party that was thrown in your honor because they didn't use your favorite color of balloons.

FIRST gave the image that the Black Eyed Peas and famous people are more important than the students and the competition. The image was that they kicked us out of the dome for the concert. Like I said, the concert was great and it was a great time, but things could have been handled differently. I know that this was not the image that FIRST was planning on giving, but that's how it came across to the teams.

With all due respect, the BEPs and other celebs were more important than us. We didn't make an hourlong ABC special, and fund it from our own bank accounts.

We had no warning or explanation for what was going to transpire at the cmp '11, then suddenly shortly before we got there, FIRST tells us that the fields are now in the pits (which, by the way, was a part of the "original plan" according to Bill Miller) and there will be a concert stage in the dome (which had nothing to do with the fields in the pits according to Bill Miller). Then having to play almost the entire cmp (with the exception of 2 matches) in the pits with seats that could not fit everybody (we had parents that could not watch matches because there were no seats) combined with other problems and discomforts and pains. All of this for a concert. FIRST had at this point yet to give a public announcement explaining why all of this was going on and to explain to teams the inside information that you have been saying. And then on top of that, we get what is obviously a lie about why we were experiencing what we were experiencing. The teams and robots were being overshadowed and kicked under the bus for the rock stars.

If FIRST had declared there was going to be a free BEP concert, they would have invited a hailstorm (no pun intended) of security troubles.