Community Support

[Deke]

Originally Posted by Ginger Power

More than anything, this situation has made me think extensively about FIRST's mission of changing the culture through its robotics programs, starting with one community at a time. I feel as though I now understand and support the reasoning behind this mission statement on a more personal level. Have any other teams experienced something similar to this situation? How do other communities react to FRC programs?

You're exactly right that this is the mission of FIRST, to change the culture on how Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics are viewed. This is also what the chairmans award is all about, a culture change.

You can take a look at some of the Hall of Fame teams in first to see how they approached this opportunity (I like opportunities instead of problems), or even here on CD. There are quite a few white papers on here of team's chairmans award, you can take a look at them to see how they handled it.

[mrmummert]

Our team here in Franklin, Va. 1610 has the same problem. Our Football team has won state twice. We've been winners of the Virginia regional three times.
So i guess you could say we've done better than the football team.

The football team gets a band and cheerleaders. They have their own weight training building. One year one of the local companies here donated jackets for the entire team. They also got signs at all entrances to the city noting that Franklin's team were state champs twice just to name a few things.

We've gotten a few write ups in the local paper and some recognition at school board and city council meeting...and we meet and work in a old gym that before we started using it was used for storage and isn't in the best of shape and is about a mile from the High school.....so we get nothing like Football gets.

We have a very small High school...about or just under 400 students total.
We have to compete with all the school sports when it comes to recruiting students for the team. We've had a couple students who have or are doing three other school related things at the same time they are in robotics.

There is still the mind set in our community that Sports gets you more attention and is "sexy" for lack or a better word. I sometimes tell students and some parents that in the past 60 years Franklin has produced only a couple people who went on and played pro sports and did well. I tell them that a student who does robotics and goes on to college to go into a stem field has a better chance at doing well for life than if they try sports. I'm not discouraging anyone from doing sports and hoping they do well....I just state facts. Until our community produces someone like a Bill Gates, or like Dean Kamen the mind set here isn't going to change much. But don't let things like this discourage you. Team 103 is a good example of what a small community and robotics group can do.

[protoserge]

It is really unfortunate that this is the case all over America (hopefully our non-American FIRST family can chime in as well!). There are a few exceptions, and those communities "get it".

I'll say from my experience that some school systems don't understand what FIRST is. They see it as a robotics competition where you build a robot and try to beat the other teams. The problem is that this is true and it's usually the first explanation given by participants to explain the program. This one sentence can change the outlooks of the entire program. Part of what Dean was explaining by "FIRST is not about the robot" is that we need to explain to others that FIRST is a program that builds an exceptional skill set of creative, real-world problem solving that is transforming the workforce of tomorrow (and today).

As you pointed out, there are some political reasons (SkillsUSA was a huge impediment and seen as competition for the team I mentored the past 4 years. It shouldn't have been, but it was.

One thing to remember is that FIRST is just about to come into a second generation of FIRSTers (FIRST baby pics!). The largest FIRST student population is just starting college. Change will come, but it takes time - we are talking about a culture shift by the way The FIRSTers that are entering the school systems as teachers, industry as engineers, researchers in academia, accountants, small business owners, marketing professionals, media content creators, innovators (and all the others) are just starting to make strides as they transform into industry leaders, school administrators, and highly-sought-out employees. This is one of the reasons why Dean's message this past year was that FIRST needs to do a better job of tracking its participants. You'd be amazed at how powerful one email asking for help and support can be.

On the topic of school support, your voice is important. Make it known by the community that the school needs to support its other teams. Get parents involved. Parents are extremely important and their message only reiterates what the students demand. If there is anything I regretted as a student, it was demanding excellence and more education from my education system. I felt I was being forced into a box of conformity. Don't be silent and don't be pressured into conformity. Demand change, but always be respectful and understanding of the school system's viewpoints (remember that GP and that teachers need a life outside of FIRST too).

[RoboMom]

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hreadid=131278

[ehochstein]

I happened to drive through Becker, MN yesterday and thought of this thread. It is pretty amazing how many signs I saw for the football team, every store front and business has something boasting about the football team. In fact the city sign that says the population as you drive had a bigger sign bolted right next to it boasting about the football team. i'll see if I can grab a picture on the way back.

To me, this presents a great opportunity for culture change, as a team I would go and document how the community celebrates the football team and make it a long term goal that they do the same for robotics. If you document everything along the way you will be a strong chairman's contender.