2013 Lessons Learned: The Negative

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by Oblarg

FIRST is about an engineering challenge, a program which allows high school students to gain actual engineering work experience and which inspires people to seek careers in STEM. This is why the Chairman's award, not winning the championship, is the most prestigious award in the competition.

When you lose sight of this, you lose sight of the entire purpose of FRC. If you honestly think that your success in the tournament better matching your robot ability should rank higher on FIRST's list of priorities than allowing teams you deem "unfit" the opportunity to attend and compete in championships, then you do not understand FIRST, and need to fix your attitude. Shame on you.

I suspect there are far more diplomatic ways to communicate your point in an eloquent and respectful manner.

I, for one, happen to agree with Jared. Many students and teams, mine included, take a great deal of pride and inspiration out of the product that we place on the field. Keep in mind that we are a multi-time chairman winner, so I think our kids 'get' what the program is about.

It is not inspiring when the primary driving force behind your Championship robot result is pure random chance. That's the most non-inspiring situation I can think of. It's tantamount to randomly picking a Chairman's winner. How truly inspiring would that be?

I fully support adopting a country wide district system. If your team is unable to attend two regionals, you can submit a hardship form to FIRST that, when accepted doubles your result in your first district. Points are distributed in the same manner they are in the Michigan System, and at the end of the year a certain number of robots at the top are invited to participate in the World Championship.

I would eliminate the purchase / wait option and (gasp) the auto-chairmans invites as well.

The only option I see to bringing the number of matches up to what they should be (12 or more) is to reduce the number of teams at the Championship. You could also start matches much earlier on Thursday: this is champs and your robot should be pretty close to dialed-in after your districts/regionals/bag windows etc.