Thoughts on Bloomfield Girls Robotics Competition

[Ed Law]

Hi,

The Bloomfield Girls Robotics Competition is over. I want to thank all the volunteers who made this possible and to team 469, 33 and 68 for co-hosting this event. Quite a few teams created special team shirts for the girls just for this event. I wish we had thought of that. It was a lot of fun. We also had about a hundred girl scouts who came to see the FRC competition as well as FTC and FLL demonstrations. Judging from the smile on their face, I think they had a good time. I think the high school girls were great role models for these young girls.

I would like to congratulate Arti Javeri for winning the Female Mentor of the Year award and Marjie Jenkins for winning the Outstanding Volunteer award.

For the teams that attended, would you mind sharing how your team felt about this event? Did it turn out to be what you expected? I would also like to know how the girls think about it. Were they glad they attended? Would your team attend this event next year?

[Mr V]

Glad to hear it was a successful event!

[Tungrus]

Though our team did not compete in this event, we appreciate and thank the organizers and volunteers for doing this. We hope to have enough girls in our team and compete next year.

[P.J.]

I can't speak for everyone on my team, but I know that the girls I did talk to had a great time and really enjoyed this experience. From a volunteer perspective, I thought it was a really well run event and I had a great time. I also thought the venue was nice, there seemed to be plenty of seating for everyone.

We would definitely come back again next year.

[Jim Zondag]

Ed,
I want to thank you for all of your hard work in putting this event together.
I know that this was a lot of work for all of us, but you really made the difference in pulling everything together. I thought it was one of the best run Off-season FRC events I have ever attended.
Great work.
Jim

[hardcopi]

Everyone on our team loved it except for the bot... the bot is just getting too old and it's getting crotchety. Ok, well our regular driver might not have liked it so much. He doesn't like to share driving duties.

[atiaquatic]

Thank you for this wonderful event. Our girls had a blast competing. It was fun to watch how quickly they became totally engaged in the competition ahead of them. Sign the Penguins up for 2014, we cannot wait to come back. The event was well run and fun experience from what we saw..

Again thank you and your volunteers for a great experience.

[Celia]

240 loved the event. It got everyone really psyched for kickoff! Everything went smoothly, thanks to the hard work of many people We would be thrilled to compete there again.

[angelah]

We would like to thank teams 2834, 469, 33, and 68 for putting together this great experience. Also, thank you to our alliance partners 2834 and 1501.

Though our team has a female operator and often a female human player, as well as a several female leaders, this event was still valuable for us. We brought five girls with us, all the girls on our team of nineteen students. I think it bonded the girls, and it may just have shattered some assumptions on our team about girls' robot driving abilities.

I talked to girls on other drive teams who said they hadn't ever been at the field and some who had little experience in building the robot. I think it is wonderful that they may now be encouraged to try something new in the upcoming season.

On a personal level, I had the chance to drive coach, at times with my daughters driving and operating, which was wonderful. This is my oldest daughter's last season, and the only time she will ever drive the robot at a competition, and I would bet it will be one of her favorite experiences ever.

Two guys from our team and three male mentors were on hand to support the girls, and the guys were a huge help both with scouting and advice. The girls were definitely glad they attended, and our team would love to participate in many future years!

[Ed Law]

It was so much fun running this event last year we have decided to do it again. Information on the 2014 Bloomfield Girls Robotics Competition is already on the FIRST in Michigan website at http://www.firstinmichigan.us/FRC_20...offseason.html. Even though the event is 4 months away, 4 teams besides the host teams have already registered.