How do I help my area move to districts?

[jajabinx124]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

Not true, District teams can still go to traditional regional and qualify. No need to go to the DCMP.

Yeah, some teams tend to do that. Teams like 27, 217, etc. usually attend a regional then attend their district events. 900 even did that this year.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

It is rare to find someone who is still in college or recently entering the workforce to be able to handle the stress and demands of any Key Volunteer position. It is actually hard to find that in someone who has been around for years.

In Ontario the large majority of key volunteers (FTA, LRI, Head Ref) are either a college students or have recently entered the workforce. These folks are some of the best volunteers I have ever encountered in all of FRC. I was just at the UMass-Dartmouth district event where I was blown away by the energy and skill displayed by the young volunteers working the event. In addition, I'm responsible for recruiting our key volunteers for VEX Worlds. 39 of our 73 key volunteers (MC/Announcers, Field Techs, Head Refs) are FRC alums in university or have recently entered the workforce. FRC alumni are a passionate and dedicated group who can most easily relate to the pressures that students go through in this program; I have a hard time seeing why anyone wouldn't want to channel the energy and talent these young people bring and use it to sustain and grow their local events.

[Zebra_Fact_Man]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Solomon,
I am trying to understand your viewpoint. Can you explain the difference you see in the two messages addressing volunteers...

Ok, lemme give it a shot.

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

GuamFIRST staffs our events with people who volunteer often and energetically.
DO volunteer often and energetically.

The first one comes off as informative, insightful, and helpful. People like help. People ask for help.
The second one comes off as authoritarian and demanding. Do this!!! People instinctively don't like being told what to do. That's why so many people are driven to start their own companies, or change jobs; because their boss is a micromanager/control-freak, and/or so they are their own boss (fun fact: the consumer is your boss).
The last few words might be the same, but it's how they start the sentence that gets you.

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

In your personal communications (including social media), maintain an awareness of how
your voice may be heard by your audience.
When not at an event, be aware that everything you do reflects
on FIRST. [u]This is especially true with social media – Tweets, posts, or blogs can easily cause
issues for volunteers. Stay positive, think about how your post will be perceived,

Again, the first one is a simple and SHORT reminder; be aware. Even in bullet-point form to keep it short! Because it's not the main point.
The second one is nestled into a paragraph, and uses the phrases "everything you do reflects on FIRST", and "Tweets, posts, or blogs can easily cause issues for volunteers". Jeez, no pressure or anything. Why would you even say that second part!?!?!

As you may have noticed from my other posts, there are MUCH worse passages that highlight the subtle differences between the two documents. You might be thinking, "That's not fair. This is so subtle." Just think how subtle the human brain works; the difference between charming and creepy can LITERALLY be a pause or two between words.

-Mother was a salesman for many decades (from cars, to kitchen remodeling, to plumbing, to radio advertising, to mortgages), so maybe I have an inherited ability to notice undertones that might #trigger! other people.

[rzoeller]

Since some people are wary of new accounts, I can confirm Pratheeksha's (pmallikarjun's) identity. Hopefully that removes any doubts you may have.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Color me blind, then. I don't see the Minnesota document accusing anyone of not being mature. They both set the expectation of maturity. The Guam one just surrounds it with many more words, and softens it by saying "often over several years" rather than "will take at least several years".

Alan, I hate to play the age card but I genuinely think it could be that. I'm bothered by the MN FIRST document. It, overall, felt off-putting. I can't point to specific lines or phrases but it gave off a vibe of being unwanted. I know folks like Bailey reacted more negatively to it than I did.

Given the target audience of this document [1] I would definitely consider revising this document based on the feedback from young volunteers/potential volunteers. While you and Al might not see anything wrong with it the sample target audience in this thread has found it mildly distasteful. If my goal is to encourage/educate young volunteers [2] I'm going to want to revise it based on this feedback.

I'm not saying you're wrong or that the language in the MNFIRST doc is bad or that the GuamFIRST doc is perfect. I'm saying that one appears to be offensive to the target audience while the other one is less offensive to that audience.




[1] I'm assuming honesty and that the target audience is alumni volunteers in MN.

[2] It should be.

[Ginger Power]

Originally Posted by pmallikarjun

I know a couple members of Bison Robotics also received a copy of the document, but I'm not sure if it was presented to them at a general meeting meant to introduce students to a specific company or if it was emailed to them for review/some other reason.

The document was emailed to me and another leader on Bison Robotics last year, I believe right around the time (possibly before) the presentation was given to GOFIRST. Feedback on the document was requested and provided, and the document was shown to members of Bison Robotics by myself.

Most of the points that the document makes are common sense. So in my presentation to Bison Robotics, I essentially ran through it and told people to use their common sense. Surprisingly, college kids do have some of that. We have had no issues volunteering in Minnesota.

[ehochstein]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

In your personal communications (including social media), maintain an awareness of how
your voice may be heard by your audience.
When not at an event, be aware that everything you do reflects
on FIRST. This is especially true with social media – Tweets, posts, or blogs can easily cause
issues for volunteers. Stay positive, think about how your post will be perceived,

Is this how we want our alum to feel? Is this appropriate? Is this FIRST?



This was posted on twitter as a response to this thread.

[Zebra_Fact_Man]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Alan, I hate to play the age card but I genuinely think it could be that.

Lol; old man, you don't understand the young peoples!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

I can't point to specific lines or phrases but it gave off a vibe of being unwanted.

Can and did. Individual passages are very noticeable.

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

I'm not saying the language in the MNFIRST doc is bad...

I am. It is a very poorly worded document. I wonder if they even ran it past a couple of college aged students to see what they thought about it. You know, like beta-testing.

[Conor Ryan]

I think what we are hearing about in these conversations is common in 'district holes' throughout the world - regions where they said there would be districts right now. The following applies to areas like Minnesota, Ohio/Western PA/WV, Texas, and Northern California and Southern California.

I think what it comes down to is the area leadership. The leadership hears frequently from HQ and other districts about the requirements to move to a region to a district, but what we don't hear about publicly are the road maps and decisive plans to get there. Yes acquiring the memorandum of understanding is a big landmark, but what about the rest of the steps. Moving a region is a massive undertaking, but there is a model to it now. Early districts lead the way and now I think there are clear operating steps to getting other locations online.

I've been to MN events, NJ districts and MI districts as well as various others throughout the US. The enthusiasm is there, I just believe that some people that sit at the district table for a region raise concerns louder than other people (squeaky wheels gets the grease).

More robots are happening. I think not everyone is asking how they can help make that possible, rather than if it is possible.

To all those voices that are asking these questions about how they can help transition their area? HOST AN OFF SEASON. Its a critical step to introducing the local flavor of events. If you build it they will come. You will gain a seat at the tables that have the authority to move a region to districts. You will better understand the situation and challenges. You will make it happen. Get in touch with AndyMark, the venue, everything around you. It will fall into place, you get to control the destiny, if you act quickly I bet you can pull an event off before schools out for the summer. What is stopping you?

In 2005, a couple of high school students joked around and said we should host an off season event at our school. Then we thought we should make it real. 12 months later the first Monty Madness appeared. After years of putting off taking the plunge to hosting an actual district event, the first official event is week 6. Looking back, it was a pivotal local event in spreading the district model, its where volunteers got trained, teams gained experienced, district meetings were had and robots happened.

Facilitate it.

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by Collin Fultz

I do think it's a little troubling that so many people's response to "This document is a little offensive to me." is "No it isn't." instead of "That was not our intent at all. How do we fix it?"

So much this.

[pmallikarjun]

Originally Posted by Zebra_Fact_Man

I wonder if they even ran it past a couple of college aged students to see what they thought about it. You know, like beta-testing.

I think the intention of speaker was initially to beta-test the document at the GOFIRST meeting. However, the speaker had presented to the group at meetings in the past and was familiar with the fact that many of the students in attendance at these meetings are not FIRST alumni. When this document was delivered, I think the attendees of the meeting were very surprised, because the content of the meeting was not what they had been told it would be. I think if GOFIRST had been asked to create a focus group for reviewing this document, rather than having it sprung upon the group at a meeting for a different purpose, the feedback from college students could have been given before the document was distributed to UMN students who had never volunteered and in some cases didn't even know what FIRST was. Since this wasn't done, students who had never volunteered before received a document that probably made them uncomfortable and therefore now are probably even more hesitant to volunteer than they were before.

As always, my comments are my own opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any of the groups I'm associated with.

[notmattlythgoe]

[Pauline Tasci]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

OK,
It is rare to find someone who is still in college or recently entering the workforce to be able to handle the stress and demands of any Key Volunteer position. It is actually hard to find that in someone who has been around for years.

This is 100% ridiculous.. Alumni in college are some of the most hardworking and understanding of the FIRST program.
"Rare " are not college students that hold roles such as:
over 6 FTA's in Michigan
over 20 Robot Inspectors in CA
over 3 regional committee members in Southern California
over 20 senior mentors being college aged
over 20 referees
More things like MC's, Game announcers, ect are also widely filled by college students. These numbers are just specific to the location I mentioned, these positions for college students are present nearly everywhere (except Minnesota). College students do well in this situation since they are the MOST passionate, understand the teams, and know the program. Alumni give back by volunteering since a lot do not have the time or resources to mentor.

I'm 2 years out of high school, I have filled nearly every key volunteer role you can imagine.
So many of my colleagues in FIRST CA that hold key roles are young college students, and that's because our state as a whole realizes that this generation is preparing to take over FIRST and we are utilizing them as volunteers that have experience inside teams.
The problem is that a lot of people play the "older age" card as a "maturity" card. The two are not mutually exclusive.

[Jon Stratis]

Would it help move the discussion onto more productive grounds if people knew this doc was killed over a year ago, and only distributed once? Seriously, everything about the doc is litterally

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Would it help move the discussion onto more productive grounds if people knew this doc was killed over a year ago, and only distributed once? Seriously, everything about the doc is litterally

Why did it get killed? I don't see any problem with it.