[moderated] Corporate Sponsorship

[Team0]

Large, medium and even small corporations across the country and around the world are the lifeblood of FIRST. They continuously pump dollar after dollar into the organization, regionals, nationls, and individual teams. FIRST would never have made it out of its infant stages, let alone grown to the size and quality seen today, without these corporations. With these FACTS set aside, I have a few concerns.
Corporations that are extremely competitve with one another in the consumer market are all a part of FIRST. Every year companies that are in direct competiton with one another for customers build robots that go out and compete with their market compeitors robots. It is this basic fact that (i believe) is the root of the concerns I have.
Many large corporations have told their employees to make sure "their team" has a "competitve robot." I have heard this statement from many teams, and feel that it is a more than fair request. After all, without the corporate money, most teams could not survive. However, after attending two regioals this year, as well as countless regionals in the past and two national events, I have discovered that many corporate managers interpert this in many ways. Too many, in my opinion, take it to mean that their robot has to win-at all costs. One of the costs on most of these teams seems to be the experience of the students. After talking with some students I discovered that they actually had little to do with the design and building of their robot. From discussion with students on these teams it seemed that the role they played was one of workers on an assembly line. They would be handed parts, nuts, and bolts, and told where parts were to be placed, with little knowledge beforehand of what was happeneing.
It hs always been my belief that FIRST was here to encourage corpoations, companies, and students to work hand in hand. However, I do not feel that this is what they meant. I believe that FIRST is trying to actually INSPIRE young adults, through learning the design process, and being led through it by engineers, manufacturerers, mentors, and teachers. I believe that they are attemting to get those same mentors to teach design and engineering concepts and princples-to give those students the "upper hand" at the next level. I do not feel that teaching students to run machines, and allowing them to make only the most simple (and negligible) parts is what FIRST is about. It is about working hand in hand. It is about teaching students about real world science, mathematics, and technology. But that is not all-FIRST is about teaching mentors what kids are like all over again. It's about closing the generation gap, creating bonds, life time friends, and skills that will last everyone involved a lifetime.
SO I implore all mentors, students, managers, teachers, principles, and all other FIRST members please consider everyone on your team before building a competitive robot. FIRST is just not "worth it" if student experiences are sacraficed. It is also not "worth it" if mentor experiences are sacraficed. Find something that works-Happiness is winning without experience. Ecstacy and pride are found only in understanding and learning.