FIRST announces new President

[bardd]

Does anyone know about his former involvement with FIRST?

[Kimmeh]

Originally Posted by bardd

Does anyone know about his former involvement with FIRST?

After five or so minutes of Google-fu, I didn't see any prior relation to FIRST.

Assuming my Google-fu skills didn't fail me, this actually upsets me a bit.

[LeelandS]

Originally Posted by Kimmeh

After five or so minutes of Google-fu, I didn't see any prior relation to FIRST.

Assuming my Google-fu skills didn't fail me, this actually upsets me a bit.

I don't see why that would be upsetting.

While it would be cool to say we have a FIRST president who was in our shoes all those years ago, as long as he is passionate of the goals of FIRST as anyone else, and has the skills needed to back it up (at it certainly appears that he has both of these), I look forward to seeing what he can bring to FIRST!

[Kimmeh]

Originally Posted by LeelandS

I don't see why that would be upsetting.

Frankly, I can't put this into words nearly as well as I'd like. I guess, my bigger question is has he even been to an event? How familiar is he with our culture? Does he understand why teams are more than willing to help a team completely rebuild a robot at competition or why we do the outreach that we do?

I'm interested in seeing what he can bring to the table, however. That being said, Congratulations, Dr. Bossi!

[FrankJ]

He seems well qualified. Bringing in outside vision keeps us from becoming too inbred. Something that is an issue with another national organization that I am involved with.

Now he can confirm the wisdom of choosing him by removing "acting" from Frank's title.

Any way Welcome Don!!

[Richard Wallace]

Based on the summary, Don Bossi is a tech business rock star.

Lack of previous experience in a FIRST program doesn't strike me as a negative for this role. Dean and Woodie had no experience with FIRST-like programs, either, when they started this whole thing. (Well, Dr. Flowers did, but only with MIT students. I wonder if Don Bossi was one of those students? )

And I agree that one of the best initial moves Dr. Bossi could make would be to remove the "acting" from Frank Merrick's title.

[Kims Robot]

Originally Posted by Richard Wallace

(Well, Dr. Flowers did, but only with MIT students. I wonder if Don Bossi was one of those students? )

My intel says he got his BSEE from MIT in 86, and his PhD in EE in 90, so its very possible he crossed paths with Dr. Flowers just as FIRST was being started (though not sure how much the EE/ME department interacted back then).

I'm also wondering with his MIT LL and UTRC affiliations if that gave him any exposure to FIRST before. UTC is certainly a huge supporter of FIRST and has been since the early days, and MIT LL has had some involvement & certainly several judges (though he wasn't one of them - I think he was gone to CT before the Boston regional started up) up here in the Boston Area.

[DonRotolo]

Hm. Working for a boss named Bossi.

The guy definitely has the credentials to do this, and the FIRST message isn't that hard to understand. I just hope he hangs around for several years, consistency helps us.

[Rosiebotboss]

First off, let me welcome Dr. Bossi to FIRST. (Are you reading this?)

I am looking forward to meeting you in June during the Annual Senior Mentor/Regional Director/Partner Conferences at HQ. I hope you book a couple hours of your day to spend with us at some point during the week we will be at HQ. There is no other group of people that I know of, for you to talk to, get to understand and get educated on what FIRST does for students as well as the good and not so good things teams have to deal with.

[Merle]

Don was General Manager of the JDSU plant in Bloomfield, CT when it was one of the major sponsors of Team Paragon (#571) in the early 2000's time frame. That sponsorship got me involved with my 12yr and running involvement with FIRST.

Merle
Granby GRUNTS #3146 - mentor

[bardd]

Originally Posted by Kimmeh

After five or so minutes of Google-fu, I didn't see any prior relation to FIRST.

Assuming my Google-fu skills didn't fail me, this actually upsets me a bit.

I don't know how bad it is if he didn't work with FIRST before. Bringing new presidents that weren't involved with the organization they are hired by is actually a common practice. Bringing someone "from the outside" can help bring new ideas and introduce managment techniques that FIRST didn't have and can improve the efficiency and success of the organization.

That said, while I trust FIRST's Board of Directors to make the best decision for the organization, I'm not 100% confident in the decision if he had no relations with FIRST at all.

[Alex Golec]

I hope that his prior experience in industry will help Dr. Bossi form a strong vision for FRC to continue the program growth. Team satisfaction and cost reduction seem to be two major issues that FRC is facing with the growth of other competitive robotics programs (ie, VEX).

Congratulations, Dr. Bossi! Help us grow FRC.