2014 Lessons Learned: The Negative

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Toa Circuit

This.

Other things that are negative... I'm not too keen on the PR that FIRST is pushing. FIRST drew me in because it wasn't about pop culture, political correctness, and almost everything that was pushed during the closing ceremonies. It was about promoting producerism; getting students involved in the real world. Now it's too much about inspiring. It's a bit like setting gasoline on fire. It makes a nice big pretty fire that a lot of people will notice, but you could be using that gasoline to power your car and get you somewhere. People also notice fast cars. I really don't think we need to make FIRST loud- we need to make it profound and visible. People need to be joining this organization for the right reasons- and I personally think that if your main reason for joining is because a pop star endorses it... you're doing it wrong.

FIRST is a very interesting and unique creature. It is entirely unlike any traditional after-school extracurricular (it's both year round and seasonal! It's a sport but a club! It has community service opportunities and competitions!) bears little resemblance to extra curriculars outside of the school system like 4-H or scouting (the programs share a loose set of goals, but unless combined have very different ways of gettign there) and FRC itself is a unique robotics opportunity that cannot be equated to FTC/VRC.

FIRST turned 25 this year, and like a lot of 25 year olds, it's collecting wisdom on top of smarts, it's finally starting to act like an adult (communicating and adapting to a changing landscape never seemed paramount the first 3 years I was in the program), and it's applying experiences and past mistakes to improve. However another trait it shares with most in their mid-twenties is not necessarily a lack of direction, but lack of a pinpoint endgame. It has skills, talents, and does its job very well, but where does the organization see itself in 25 years?

It's not fun to talk about, but when you think of FIRST in its next 25 years, it's hard to imagine a lot of key people around for its first 25 years will be sticking around. People get sick and/or old and then they die, and it's important that (as far as we know) the FIRST National Advisor and the Founder of FIRST are not immune to this phenomenon. No question that we as the FIRST community have a great thing going. Sure, there is always room to improve, but FIRST and FRC especially will be one of a kind for as long as it lasts. But in 25 years are we going to be telling ourselves we did a great job growing this program together, or are we going to kick stones on the road of regret because we lost focus after those who came before us left the program to us?

Dean talks a lot because he always has soemthing big to say. The last two years he has realized that FIRST has almost hit the ceiling on its niche success with its current sponsorship pool and mentorship draw. There are places in these categories where teams have room to grow, but on a greater organizational level it is time to figure out how to make this program a true mainstream success. How are we going to do this together? I honestly have no clue. I mean, even Dean barely knows how and he is far more intelligent than me. What I do know is that the old way of cozying up to x defense contractor and y branch of the army and z school of engineering is not going to do anything else but put FIRST on autopilot until it runs out of gas. I'm willing to try this new way of "convert the pop culture icon to FIRST, then water 3 times a week and watch it grow" and see where it takes us.