ChampionSplit: A Historical Perspective

[Siri]

I as curious about the prospect of FIRST emphasizing FIRST programs over others as well. This is from the Chairman's section of the 2015 Admin Manual. I'll post it without comment:

■ Describe the impact of the FIRST program on team participants with special emphasis on the current season and the preceding
two to five years
■ Describe the impact of the FIRST program on your community with special emphasis on the current season and the preceding
two to five years
■ Describe the team’s innovative or creative method to spread the FIRST message
■ Describe examples of how your team members act as role models and inspire other FIRST team members to emulate
■ Describe the team’s initiatives to help start or form other FRC teams
■ Describe the team’s initiatives to help start or form other FIRST teams (including Jr. FLL, FLL, & FTC)
■ Describe the team’s initiatives on assisting other FIRST teams (including Jr. FLL, FLL, FTC & FRC) with progressing through the
FIRST program
■ Describe how your team works with other FIRST teams to serve as mentors to younger or less experienced FIRST teams
(includes Jr. FLL, FLL, FTC & FRC teams)

Originally Posted by JimInNJ

As far as "how to keep FRC around at these events in sufficient numbers and quality to inspire the FLL and FTC attendees", I wonder if I want my FLL and FTC attendees to be "inspired" by the attitudes shared in several of the current threads here on CD about how FRC team members can't be bothered worrying about whether FLL or FTC attendees are there at all, because it's supposed to be all about FRC. I hope I'm overreacting to a rude but very vocal minority here.

I hope and suspect that a lot of this perception is from an idea that's less "it's supposed to be all about FRC" and more "what I'm doing is FRC". It's not that people are egocentrically conflating these two ideas, it's that it's difficult to see why it matters whether the three programs are together when you only have FRC experience. It's a lack of empathy that stems from a genuine lack of understanding, not a lack of compassion.

I've helped start JFLL teams, my team runs two annual FLL events, I've been an FLL head referee, a head design judge, and more. For FTC I've judged for years and done volunteer training. I've been around both for a long time, more so probably than many/most FRC mentors. But I've never mentored them, and my time at Worlds is spent entirely as an FRC pit supervisor and field coach. I still have trouble wrapping my head around why it's so important--so apparently non-negotiably important--for FLL (and FTC?) to see FRC (and each other?). I'm willing to trust the more experienced consensus, but it takes concerted effort to remind myself that there's no negotiable alternative.

Separately, I do understand the objection and was against the 'take over the city of St Louis and keep FLL and FTC out of the dome' method used this year, though I understand it as a single-year stopgap. Then again, the dome never had much affect on me, and my team has never used a waitlist slot for Worlds.