Preparing for the Town Hall Meeting on the New Championships Format

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by Steven Donow

The room was actually not very packed. Definitely less than half full.

Periodically more people would go in line to ask questions, but I would say each side never reached >5 people.

This had a lot to do with being scheduled during lunch of a qualifying match day. Lines were long and food was not permitted in the theater.

[grstex]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

This had a lot to do with being scheduled during lunch of a qualifying match day. Lines were long and food was not permitted in the theater.

That was going to be my followup question. thanks for the info.

[KrazyCarl92]

One point that I still don't see answered is why is this the lowest hanging fruit for making a higher impact "Championship Experience"? It takes a tremendous amount of resources to have a single FIRST Championship, and now they are trying to put on two Championships. That's going to put an incredible amount of stress on the volunteer pool for FRC, and quite frankly I anticipate it is unrealistic that these events will match the inspirational power of the single Championship.

FIRST could stand to do a much better job marketing, televising, and really bringing the Championship experience to many more people by putting together truly professional media coverage. I know they have tried to do this with Einstein the past two years, but something more like the FiM television program would be more ideal for "making it loud". That is such a high production quality program that is fun to watch AND it can captivate even non-FIRST affiliated audiences on a public broadcast. However, FIRST currently has a lower production quality, difficult to find, and low experience webcast that fails to even show a full field view of Einstein matches (there is a whole thread on this...).

I have to believe an EXTREMELY well done televised cast would require less resources, reach more people (both within FIRST and outside of FIRST), and "make it loud"er than trying to make 2 Championships happen. I admittedly don't know all of the details, but it just seems to be lower hanging fruit for a bigger FIRST impact in my opinion.

Another interesting outcome of the Town Hall is the fact that places aren't going to districts as quickly as FIRST had hoped (...shocker). This is particularly intriguing from my perspective because I look back at where Michigan was in 2009 (based on CD searches) and where New York is in 2015, and it seems to me that districts make as much or more sense in New York now as compared to Michigan when they first went to districts. There's a whole thread on this particular situation, but the resistance to change is a real barrier to FIRST's scale-able growth in the future.

[David Lame]

Originally Posted by KrazyCarl92

One point that I still don't see answered is why is this the lowest hanging fruit for making a higher impact "Championship Experience"? It takes a tremendous amount of resources to have a single FIRST Championship, and now they are trying to put on two Championships. That's going to put an incredible amount of stress on the volunteer pool for FRC, and quite frankly I anticipate it is unrealistic that these events will match the inspirational power of the single Championship.

FIRST could stand to do a much better job marketing, televising, and really bringing the Championship experience to many more people by putting together truly professional media coverage.

I wonder if the leadership understands this comment. If they do, then they will be able to fix some problems and do the best job they can to make the experience everything it can be, and patch up some relationships in the process.

My initial emotional reaction to the two season finale events was intensely negative. After reading a little bit about things, I saw that there really was a problem for a lot of teams, and having two season finales might really be all about offering an affordable experience to more people.

A couple of things have happened since then that make me think, though, that they just don't understand the problem. One was the town hall presentation. If they had understood the problem, they never would have led with what they did. It's just a non-starter. It shows that they didn't understand their audience.

A second thing was my own championship experience, from a few hundred miles away. When the system for updating the match results went down, they didn't fix it or find an alternative. A way of posting scores and linking to that on a web site is not a major technological challenge in the 21st century, but First didn't seem to think it was important enough to get it done. (As an aside, thank you again, Blue Alliance)

It seems almost as if the leadership doesn't understand what they've got. They put together a fantastic backdrop for a fantastic event. Getting everything together, the stadium, the arrangements, the exhibits, the ceremonies, the concerts, that's all fantastic. No doubt such a major undertaking took a huge amount of their time, effort, and resources.

I have to wonder if they didn't forget what was the backdrop, and what was the event. Yes, all those things are great, and offering them to more people is a worthy goal, but they're the backdrop. Without the event, they wouldn't be so spectacular. They might even seem out of place.

We shall see, I suppose. If they come to understand the problem, I'm sure they'll find a way to make it great. I look forward to helping with a great event in Detroit. For those of you who are afraid of coming to my adopted home town, your fears are misplaced. We hosted a Super Bowl just a few years ago. We can do half of a First Championship, and with 350 teams from Michigan to draw from, there will be the best volunteer staff you could possibly imagine. See you there......Well, half of you, anyway.

[BrennanB]

Originally Posted by KrazyCarl92

There's a whole thread on this particular situation, but the resistance to change is a real barrier to FIRST's scale-able growth in the future.

In most cases I would say the change to districts is not the fact that regions don't want to switch, its the fact that...

- They don't have enough volunteers
- They don't have enough venues
- They don't have enough money

These are far more likely assessments.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by BrennanB

In most cases I would say the change to districts is not the fact that regions don't want to switch, its the fact that...

- They don't have enough volunteers
- They don't have enough venues
- They don't have enough money

These are far more likely assessments.

Volunteer need scales to fill available space for the most part. What good does FTA training do someone if an FTA already covers all events in the area and/or the only events in the area are ones you attend with your team? Replace "FTA" with almost every other position. There's likely a rough gap year, but any other issues with volunteering probably center around issues outside of a talent pool.

Venues can be shaky. I know Ontario isn't home to the mega-gyms you see even in places like Indiana.

Money is an odd complaint. There are startup costs, sure (like buying your own field perimeter, I think FIRST sells the electronics to you directly??? I need to read up) but regionals aren't what one would call a low cost solution.

[Siri]

I'm not sure if anyone's posted another version, but I'm grateful that 1640 recorded the hour-long session.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FFh...ature=youtu.be

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by Siri

I'm not sure if anyone's posted another version, but I'm grateful that 1640 recorded the hour-long session.

Popcorn's in the microwave. Thanks, 1640.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Siri

I'm not sure if anyone's posted another version, but I'm grateful that 1640 recorded the hour-long session.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FFh...ature=youtu.be

Thank you, 1640.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by Siri

I'm not sure if anyone's posted another version, but I'm grateful that 1640 recorded the hour-long session.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FFh...ature=youtu.be

Thank you guys so much for recording this.

I also gotta say, the guy leading the town hall meeting, re-iterating about GP right after Shawn stopped talking, that was pretty dang rude to him.

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by dodar

I also gotta say, the guy leading the town hall meeting, re-iterating about GP right after Shawn stopped talking, that was pretty dang rude to him.

Link for the lazy: https://youtu.be/8FFhhPlrRvM?t=3179

Don't forget when the moderator was rude to Mike Corsetto, after he fairly got back in line after asking his original question: https://youtu.be/8FFhhPlrRvM?t=2892

[dodar]

Their growth expectation of FRC seems absurdly high too. They want 5-10x growth over the next 10 years. I think FRC only doubled over the previous 10. Sounds like they expect FRC to be at 20,000+ teams in 10 years. I sincerely doubt FRC gets past 12,000, if even 10,000.

[Fusion_Clint]

I feel worse after watching that, than before. FIRST leadership is obviously disconnected with the community.

FTC is growing exponentially (Why), lower the cost of FRC (the robot is the cheapest part) and you will get more teams. With the availability of more and more COTS parts, even teams without dedicated engineers can be competitive.

They want STEM leaders to be celebrated by the world, but they continue to disrespect and take for granted the STEM leaders that make their program successful.

What they should be doing is petitioning states to help create the district model nation wide, the message will be louder coming from FIRST than from "mentor X".

The body language on stage told it all, for the most part they seemed annoyed.

I was a volunteer and didn't have time to attend the town hall during the day.

[EricDrost]

Originally Posted by Hallry

Don't forget when the moderator was rude to Mike Corsetto, after he fairly got back in line after asking his original question: https://youtu.be/8FFhhPlrRvM?t=2892

"How do the two people behind you feel about you being up for round 2?"

Honestly, I would have been okay if the entire Q&A was just 30 minutes of Mike asking questions.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by EricDrost

"How do the two people behind you feel about you being up for round 2?"

Honestly, I would have been okay if the entire Q&A was just 30 minutes of Mike asking questions.

He's probably one of few people there who was articulate enough to ask questions everyone was thinking and receive occasionally dubious answers without having his calm severely damaged.

The whole exchange is simply baffling. This whole year has been baffling. There are people in FIRST who have put a lot more faith into the organization than I have and the last 5 months or so I have felt it evaporate from under me. What makes FIRST what it is? Students? Mentors? Volunteers? Staff? Those who we can reach out to? The board of directors?

I'm going to yell at the proverbial brick wall until I'm blue in the face: this is a partnership. If mentors do something that is not in the interest of students, the partnership can be damaged and disintegrate. If staff and volunteers cannot communicate information to students and mentors, that partnership can (and has in the past) turn hostile. It is paradoxical for the board to act in the best interests of FIRST over the interests of the community of FIRST, but that seems like the move they made here. If volunteers get overworked, they'll burn out. If staff get overstretched, they'll quit. If mentors feel like this program's moves do not align with what they hold to be true, they'll move on. If students don't have mentors, volunteers, or staff, what do they have left? A board that can give them a pat on the back?