FIRST Forums

[Andy Baker]

The FIRST Forums are just starting this week and will be continuing over the next few weeks. Many of us veteran FIRSTers have enjoyed attending these meetings with FIRST staff, not only to express our opinions to FIRST, but also to discuss ideas among each other.

Many of us attended the Eastern Michigan Forum in Troy, Michigan last night (June 2). Hut Snow and Susan Lawrence facilitated the meeting and did a good job getting through many topics. They had a few bits of information for us:

Kickoff is Jan. 8, 2005
Championships in Atlanta are April 21-22-23
4 new regionals are...

• Rochester, NY
• West Lafayette, IN
• Waterloo, Ontario
• Las Vegas, NV

It was great to have FIRST listen to us, as they always do at these forums. We discussed the positives and negatives from the last year, going over everything from volunteers to the parts in the kit.

But, the HIDDEN thing about these forums that is the most rewarding is the discussions between the team leaders, and that is why I am writing this post. During these forums, many people express their opinions strongly and sometimes healthy debates take place between teams. This is good. We need to do this. For instance, we debated the "ship at 6 weeks vs. keep the robot" argument, focusing on cost reductions incurred with keeping the robot (eliminate drayage, eliminate need for 2nd robot vs. burnout and headaches). No one "won" the argument, but new issues were brought up with regard to the recent FIRST registration fee hikes.

While we didn't solve these issues, the discussion is healthy. For those of you who are going to these forums, I encourage you to have lively debates. Keep in mind that you gotta use brevity in your presentation of opinions, but it is good that many of you speak up. Hit your points and then let others speak. Everyone in Troy last night did this very well.

Feel free to challege the issues and challenge each other to "step up" and help FIRST become better. We are all in this together, and now is the time to speak up.

Andy B.