FIRST Chesapeake Districts

[Nate Laverdure]

Originally Posted by Mr V

My business card, those of the Washington FIRST Robotics staff, the building known as the Fieldhouse and all the equipment in that building disagree with the fact that WFR does not use that name any more.

Sorry, I didn't mean any disrespect

Originally Posted by Mr V

Washington FIRST Robotics is the official, legal, registered name of the non profit organization that is responsible for all 4 FIRST programs in the state of Washington and for running the PNW District of WA, OR and AK.

While we are the PNW District we are not using PNW FIRST any longer. It caused some confusion with donors and sponsors.

That's VERY interesting to me, as VirginiaFIRST seems to be following the exact same process. Two things are striking:

1. The VirginiaFIRST administration has explained that FIRST has mandated the "FIRST + <local flavor>" naming scheme for all newly-forming districts. If you "are not using PNW FIRST any longer", then maybe you guys aren't being held to this same standard? Or you decided to reject the standard? Or maybe the naming scheme isn't really mandatory in the first place?
2. It seems to me that when an organization is attempting to represent the needs of 2 or more uniquely-named places, then the organization shouldn't be named for only 1 of those places. I don't think I would be comfortable with the arrangement, if (say) I were a MD or OR team. How does your organization make sure the Oregonians and Alaskans are appropriately represented in the decision-making processes?

I recently asked the FIRST Chesapeake admin team this question:


Is it the same story for WFR? The WFR board just didn't make a determination that an overarching PNW organization was necessary?