Loss of Gracious Professionalism Among First Teams

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally posted by Meli W.
I was so surprised on how rudely I was treated by the adult sponsors and chaperone of the team, thinking how could someone in FIRST act in such a way.
...but when it came time for me to tell her who would best from what I saw, I was ignored and was told, "This isn't your team." The entire team just got worse and worse. In my past few years in FIRST, I have never seen so much yelling taking place among one team at a regional. The fact that I was cut off and told that I don't matter, hurt me more than I can really say.
Have that many FIRST teams lost focus that FIRST isn't about yelling at people trying to help them out, trying to give them another view than the narrow one they can only see? Have that many teams just become rude to those on the team that would know what is going on? people should be taught what exactly the spirit of FIRST is, not their own view they seem to think it has become.

So they're only acting graciously if they do what you say about who should be human player? Don't think so. If you had strings attached to you doing them a favor, you may want to change your expectations next time.

Our team was motivated to create the gracious professionalism poster because of a terrible, fractious, argumentative year last year. We personalized gracious professionalism for our team by coming up with the definitions in the poster. Our team captain was so thrilled - no arguments this year. Our freshman female TIG welder said, "Our whole team is changed after this Phoenix competition". She meant in a wonderful, wonderful way.

It's all a process, not a destination. ALL teams or individuals are not at the same place at any given time. It's not about "people should be taught" and they need to have your view about what gracious professionalism is. It's about modeling the behavior yourself. In your situation you have a choice about how graciously you are going to behave in a difficult situation, or after a difficult situation.