What do you feel about the growth of FIRST?

[Ken Leung]

Originally posted by rees2001
I guess at this point in this thread we have to ask ourselves what does FIRST really mean to me. Then we have to question what FIRST means to our schools, our mentors, our teachers, and our communities. Finally we have to ask what does FIRST mean to our sponsors.
FIRST is going to grow, there is nothing we can do about that. At this point, it is entirely up to us to help mold it into what we want it to be. If we start now and work with the people running FIRST, we can get it there.

I will let you think about all of those before I continue my thought.

I want to focus the post a little on the growth of FIRST, such as the success and downfall of a bigger FIRST, what we can do to make FIRST bigger and healthier, and more importantly, what are some of the barrier FIRST will have to go through to expand itself in a healthy way.

There are numerous post about "what FIRST means to you". The truth of the matter is, FIRST means a lot of different things to a lot of people. Some of those meanings won't agree with each other, and they don't have to. As long as FIRST is making a positive difference to its participants, that's good enough.

You can do a simple search for these posts. You can tell how much impact FIRST made to all these people by telling how many posts there are.

[rees2001]

I understand your purpose of this thread Ken. I too just wanted to help people think about what FIRST means before we try to fix it.

Now, my thought continued…

I will start with an example of the positive growth of FIRST. Sparx. 1126, Webster, NY. Sponsored by Xerox. Mentored by X-Cats 191, also sponsored by Xerox. Here is an example of how an experienced team can help develop a new team. They have structure, they have experience, they have the meaning of FIRST. They didn’t just jump out & start a new team. They GREW a new team. I have a feeling Sparx could be fully self-suficient next year, but they don’t need to be.

How many people involved with FIRST can remember their rookie year? Not their first year on the team, but their team’s first year? How could that year have been made better? I know our rookie year couldn’t have been more fun but, (no offense Chris this was mostly my responsibility) we could have used a bit more guidance & a better idea of what we were getting ourselves into. We were founded by a former FIRSTer turned engineer. Not a group of mentors or another team.

Once our team has secured it’s future I would love to help start another team, but I can’t do it alone. I would need the help and support of my entire team or the entire Rochester community. We all need to work together to help create new teams.

[Rich Wong]

Originally posted by Ken L

So, I don't know what to think right now. I have a weird feeling that sooner or later we will reach a limit where we just can't fit more teams around here anymore, without something being done. When I say something, I mean things like: 1. Economy go back to normal, 2. some sort of laws passed to help teams out finanically, 3. more regional FIRST staffs supporting teams out there and running the new regionals.

Feel free to put your thoughts into this topic... But I do ask you to think a little bit before you post. [/b]

*After thinking for a week and just reading everyone's thoughts on this posting shows that a lot of other FIRST-o-holics understand and feels the growth pains FIRST is experiencing.

The same questions have been on the tables of many regional committee meetings and it is constantly in discussion. Every time I get together with any FIRST volunteer, all we talk about is how to make FIRST better. It is a very serious matter and most FIRST students do not see the situation (just like when your Mom and Dad are discussing family finances in front the kids). Moreover, because the “kids” are not acknowledgeable, they sometimes criticize FIRST’s good intensions. Most of FIRST is run by an army volunteers and a lot of them are business professionals whose time is valuable. FIRST could never afford the price tag of these professional salaries. In addition, these volunteers are never seen by teams because they are not at the competition but are helping with the business side of FIRST.

FIRST is going through a serious growth period. Already, I’ve hear rumors of regionals shutting down due to lack of corp sponsorship and more teams will drop out because of the high price tag of FRC or lack of interest by the schools. I have seen teams beg for funding- this is a negative situation to put students into but will occur more often in the future.
Fortunately, some of the veteran teams are generous enough to help needy teams. Even the National competition may change because of the huge growth and downed economy. The cost to send a team to the Nat Comp is huge. Most teams can’t afford it. The cost to run a Nat Comp is huge. Team that have sponsors with deep pockets this year may discover that funds are now cutted for next year.
So, expect more change and it will be painful.

FIRST Organization from a business point of view- just like any fast growing and successful small company their growth and expansion is feeling the pain of the economy depressed because of the dependency to this country’s economy and corp profits. FIRST business strategy must be revamp to meet these new challenges of event funding, team funding, and corporate interest.

The first ten years has been great, most teams from #1 thru #1000 were resourceful and were able to get the funding necessary to participate in FIRST. As increasingly new teams sign up the limited resources can’t subtend the larger quantity of teams. It is even more difficult for team is urban public schools (like NYC) to raise team funding. So teams are dropping out and some teams have to merge in order to remain in FIRST.

How does FIRST control the growth and maintain their goals and commitments to the students during this period of downed economy?
New competition maybe created like Edurobotic Competition, and Lego (FLL) Senior Competition for the High School student will help spread FIRST mission faster than FRC. The Nat may get scale down even more or split ? (East and West).
What else can students do- get after the FIRST Alumni for mentoring, volunteering, and fundraising and be more tolerable with changes that FIRST must take in the future to survive.

I too am confused and concerned.

[Koko Ed]

Originally posted by rees2001



How many people involved with FIRST can remember their rookie year? Not their first year on the team, but their team’s first year?

I wonder how many people involved with FIRST back in 1992 are still involved (I'm talking individuals, not teams) in FIRST?

[JVN]

Originally posted by Koko Ed
I wonder how many people involved with FIRST back in 1992 are still involved (I'm talking individuals, not teams) in FIRST?

I know of 2 off the top of my head...

Tim Railey - Technokats (45)
Paul Kane - Dynamos (250)

Both are HS teachers who have been involved since day one.

[Wayne C.]

You can think of the growth of FIRST like ripples in a pond. Some teams start with a bigger splash than others but all can contribute to the wave of change. Of course the bigger question is "where's the shoreline?".



WC