Improvements for FIRST: first a gripe, then a suggestion

[EricH]

Originally Posted by NLake

So I'm not just a nattering nabob of negativity, I'll include a suggestion: FIRST needs to do more to partner with local businesses that would be interested in supporting a robotics team, and have mentors that they can offer any team that is interested. In my case, in SF, then local businesses would include Google, Apple, and the other Silicon Valley heavy hitters; rather than leaving it up to overwhelmed instructors to find the right combination of an effective plea for aid and a sympathetic ear in the call center, FIRST could assist us by matching us with mentors in all of the pertinent fields, including the business side. Match us with people who are effective grant-writers, and then teach us (and our students) how to do it. This is a much better solution than the current one, where a masochistic attitude akin to that of Calvin's dad seems to be predominant. I can see the value of struggle, but I can also see an empirical difference between "struggle" and "repeatedly banging your head against a brick wall", which seems to be the current scenario for many teams that are still in their first few years.

I have one single counter question--I'll explain why after I ask it.

What is the name of your FIRST Senior Mentor, and do you have that person's contact information? Perhaps more importantly, do they have yours?

Why do I ask that? Because part of the Senior Mentor's job just so happens to include being that "point person" to direct corporate resources to teams, and teams to corporate resources.

Spoiler for If you can't answer the question:

You're in the San Fransisco area. Go to http://www.usfirst.org/regional-contacts and search for FRC in California-Northern--scroll to the bottom of the list, and send an email

By the way, informing the Senior Mentor about the KOP experience may also help get word up the line. (If Frank (FRC Director) or Collin (FRC Teams Advocate) haven't seen this thread already, that is...)