A ? about NASA grants

[dlavery]

Originally posted by KenWittlief
Its not easy to define what a 'rookie team' is

our HS had a team in 97-98 sponsored by Kodak
and in 99 for a couple years sponsored by Gleason Works
then we couldnt get a teacher to sign up as coach for a year so Gleason sponsored at team at a different HS that year
then we re-established the team at our HS again with Gleason as our primary sponsor.

So, which years were we a 'rookie' team? We had 3 different team numbers at our HS so far

were we rookies 3 times then, or only the 1st year with Kodak

and since Kodak had a team with a different HS before they 'moved' to our HS, does that mean we were never really a rookie team at all?

it gets all very fuzzy but not very warm.

This is the classic "grandfather's axe" problem. Grandfather has a favorite axe that he wields with great skill while cutting wood for the family. As he gets older, he passes it along to his eldest son, who then eventually passes it along to his eldest son. Over the course of time the handle of the axe is replaced two different times, the peg in the handle is replaced three times, and the head of the axe is replaced once. The grandson still regards the item as an original family heirloom, and it is still known as "grandfather's axe," even though none of the original parts are still there. At what point does it really stop being "grandfather's axe" and actually become something new?

FIRST teams are made of people - students and mentors. In my humble opinion, it doesn't make one iota of difference if the name of the sponsoring organization or the name of the school changes over time. If the people are the same, it is the same team. Teams can, and do, change sponsors and schools over time. But with each change, if the central core of team members - students and mentors - remains the same, it is still the same team. Over many years individual team members will move in and out of the team. For a team that has been around for ten years, very few - if any - of the members have been there for the entire time. But if the turn-over in team membership has been a slow, evolutionary process and not an abrupt, wholesale change, then in my mind it is still the same team.

FIRST will identify a team as a veteran or a rookie based on the input provided to them. If you tell them you are really a rookie team, they will trust you and take you at your word. They don't have the staff or the resources to police teams and do individual assessments of team status. Does this mean that teams can claim to be rookies when they really are not, and get away with it? Absolutely. Are there some incentives for them to try to do so? Yes, there are (i.e. funding resources that are available to rookies, but not veteran teams "getting through the rough times"). But FIRST is relying on the honesty, integrity, and gracious professionalism of the teams to prevent this. Will some teams abuse this trust? While it is possible, I sincerely hope not. In the end it comes down to the values and ethics utilized by the team, and how they want to behave.

As my grandmother used to say "let your conscience be your guide."

-dave