[FIRST EMAIL] Stop Build Day Survey

[efoote868]

Originally Posted by Nate Laverdure

This post is advocating lying to students and parents.

If that's how you or anyone else interpreted my post, then I didn't form the post well enough.


We tell our robotics students that to be on the team and to go to competitions, they need to participate every weekday during build season, which is 6 weeks long.

If we told our students that to be on the team, the need to participate every day during the season (including weekends), which is 12 weeks long, there would be many students that would not join because of that time commitment.

After the stop build date, we don't require or even expect every student to participate between stop build date and competition, but those that participated through the 6 week build season are allowed to travel with the team to competitions.

There are many students that would not sign up for 12 weeks that end up participating daily through the 12 week period because they're hooked on FIRST.

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

Why does FIRST need to do this? Why can't you just do it on your team?

It's an easier sell. It's easier to get casual participation - say a shop teacher, someone required from the school for a school team to function. We need you every day for 6 weeks, then a competition, then the year is over. The stop build day makes it easier for mentors to say, "that's it, we're done."

Removing the stop build day entirely makes the time commitment bigger and a harder sell for new members, new mentors, and new teams.