Districts in Texas proposal sent to FIRST

[ahartnet]

Originally Posted by Michael Blake

Well... it is a question of transparency when it comes to how it will affect my teams that I have a responsibility to look out for.

To get the info _after_ the agreement is signed is TOO LATE to have an opportunity to review and comment and maybe to organize an effort to affect what the final agreement form is.

This change over is the BIGGEST thing to happen to Texas FRC teams, ever... and IMO the affected teams should be apprised of what's proposed and should be afforded an opportunity for input.

--Michael Blake

Michael,

We (as Texas mentors) have had a chance to provide comments and input about districts for quite some time now. In May of 2015 an email was sent to all texas teams with everyone that is on the 20 person District Competition Committee and how to reach them. The committee is comprised of members from a range of types of teams. There were 5 POCs for the Alamo regional that the email literally urged you to correspond with to give your input.

IMO, like Jon said, it doesn't make sense to send out what was proposed. People will start planning towards what was proposed when FIRST could reject it out right, accept it as is, or suggest major modifications. Two of those three options could then cause plenty of people to get all up in a huff about the changes (whether it's "why wouldn't HQ accept that" or "why did HQ accept that").

Transparency is good. I think FiT sending out this email now saying that a proposal has been sent to HQ is being much more transparent than some things we've seen in the past. Even with all the UIL discussion, I didn't know there was really a chance to become UIL in the middle of the school year/build season, and threw me for a loop. This allows us to continue to make plans for regionals next year, while being prepared for possible changes, and lets us know that the "Texas districts soon" is a REAL thing this time around, as opposed to the past 2/3/4 years where I've heard "Texas districts soon".