[moderated] Collaboration

[MikeDubreuil]

This is my 5th year in FIRST and I have seen a gradual decline to where competiton has become irrelevant.

Long ago, individual robots battled each other. Then allainces were formed and the spontaneos pairings of two robots were exciting and benifetted first year teams. Now, we have teams building robots together to the extent where they are trading manafactured parts. What is the future?

The FIRST purist would say- it doesn't matter. The kids are still being inspired to pursue fields of technology, the program is working.

The competitive FIRST person would say- they are scared. Imagine Joe Johnson's suggestion: a 16 team Delphi alliance. Where a single team had 6 weeks to perfect a single component, a wheel, a goal grabber, a winch. How could another team compete against them?

Just as Joel Glidden has said, this might cause mentors and engineers to stop supporting FIRST. Which would leave FIRST with a dying program. Teams would have difficulty retaining mentors. At some point teams would have to drop out because of lack of support. FIRST would be in a dire situation.

Every mentor loves how they are inspiring America's youth. But which ones see that as a bennifet of creating a robot or the main reason? I think FIRST purists are underestimating just how many people are involved for a competitive robotics program.

How far will FIRST go before they realize that this was supposed to be a competiton? The kids will still be inspired, just keep FIRST competitive.