NFL Owner Buys FIRST

[Erin Rapacki]

I too have no clue what a HEMI is...

Next time an April fool's joke is played, it might help if you get all the facts straight... and make it more believable. For instance, there were many flaws with this idea of an 'NFL Owner Buying FIRST off of Dean.' FIRST is a non-profit organization founded by Dean, it's its own organization... not a company. Therefore, FIRST is not owned by anybody... it is only managed. If a organization isn't owned, how could it be bought?

But true, when I did first read the post yesterday morning... my jaw dropped and I was seriously confused.

[George1902]

Originally Posted by Erin Rapacki

Next time an April fool's joke is played, it might help if you get all the facts straight

But isn't the absurdity of the situation all part of the fun? ;-]

Originally Posted by Erin Rapacki

But true, when I did first read the post yesterday morning... my jaw dropped and I was seriously confused.

[A. Snodgrass]

*smirks* thats part of what makes April Fools Day fun. Especially considering that you can always catch somebody. *chuckles evilly*

[KyleGilbert45]

For those of you asking.. "What's a Hemi?"

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hemi2.htm

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by Erin Rapacki

For instance, there were many flaws with this idea of an 'NFL Owner Buying FIRST off of Dean.' FIRST is a non-profit organization founded by Dean, it's its own organization... not a company. Therefore, FIRST is not owned by anybody... it is only managed. If a organization isn't owned, how could it be bought?

Warning: Business student mode!

What I would assume is that the "owner of FIRST" would be whomever owns all of the physical capital. Basically, this is the building, the FIRST trademark, the employee's salaries, all of the physical aspects. So, "Buying FIRST" would entail buying all of that, at whatever price Dean felt to be accurate.

There is a difference between the owner of FIRST and the manager of FIRST, Erin is right. Dean may one day pass FIRST off to another manager, but still own the capital.

[Erin Rapacki]

Dean isn't the manager either, he's only an icon. A good way to put this... all the sponsors, mentors, & students own FIRST. We each have a share in the organization, FIRST works for us (not the other way around). Us 20,000 FIRSTaholics are the customers, provide the capital, and are the beneficiaries of the program's objectives.

Ok, I'm finished killing the mood... me goes to sleep for the first time in 3 months

[Jessica Boucher]

...not necessarily. But now I have a more informed answer instead of the business-babble I was doing earlier.

FIRST is a registered non-profit with a NTEE code of A57 that recognizes them as a "Science & Technology Museum" (Note: NTEE = National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities, a Classification System developed by The National Center for Charitable Statistics). By the way, you can visit http://www.guidestar.org and search under "robotics" to pull up their records.

MelissaData (http://www.melissadata.com/Lookups/np.asp?ein=222990908), a listing of non-profits, lists FIRST as a corporation - which makes sense, because there is an extensive board of directors....one of them being Dean. To "buy FIRST", the board would agree to place whomever bought it in one of the top seats of the Board.

It's not a publicly held company. Revenues are from registration fees, private donations, and leasing revenue from the other companies & orgs within the FIRST Place building. You could say that indirectly...yes, we are funding the organization, but by giving money to FIRST you are at the Board of Director's mercy. If you didn't like the game, you cant "talk with your feet" and ask for your registration fee back...or "sell your FIRST stock". You are right in saying that we are the customers, paying for the service that FIRST provides....if we were the beneficiary, then we wouldn't be putting money in.

But hey, this could all be babble too

[Erin Rapacki]

Well then, I stand corrected. I'm obviously not a business major

[Jessica Boucher]

Sorry, I can be a pain in the butt...alot

[MikeDubreuil]

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

You are right in saying that we are the customers, paying for the service that FIRST provides

Finally, someone has explained what I had been babbling about last year.

We are customers to FIRST. In that comes expectations. I don't want to hear another, "You should be grateful for everything FIRST does" nonsense when FIRST royally screws up.

[tkwetzel]

Off topic but, what is a hemi? Dodge recently started lots of ad's with them assuming everyone knows what they are.

The Hemi was introduced a while ago and the design patents or whatever were owned by Chrysler, so they were the only ones to have them for a while. You can see at the above How Stuff Works link that it stands for Hemishperical combustion chamber and it greatly increased engine efficiency. But since at least the 80's (maybe sooner) other companies started using hemispherical combustion chambers, just without all the big hype and advertising. They are just using it to revamp sales and attract some more customers. The Hemi is well known as Dodge's legendary engine, but most people are unaware that many engines these days have hemispherical combustion chambers.

[Adam Y.]

Man this was kind of obvious. At least the other places that had practical jokes were subtle.

[Koko Ed]

A bigger panic would have been caused if that psycho infant Daniel Snyder had bought FIRST. I would have immediately been trying to convince my team to switch over to Best Robotics.