2005 NASA Grant Recipients Released

[Joel J]

I don't think I've ever seen an actual discussion on these forums. Just individuals having a bit of ignorance, speaking well before they have even considered any pertinent information; individuals who believe they are more than ignorant and attempt to be the "bigger wo/man," then eventually crumble, yelling out facts that, for all purposes, are as it is (Dave's post, for example); individuals who believe they are more than ignorant and calmly give out information, wishing only to eliminate ignorance from the discussion, but who spontaneously erupt when their additions are seemingly ignored; and individuals who just always have something to say. In any event, all these individuals, from what I have seen, end up yelling, adding not much more than chaos into an already chaotic series of events.

"This is the last straw", "I am fed up", "I'd like to see you take this guff", etc.. Its wonderful to know that we are not all robots here. We each have feelings, they each get hurt at times, and we speak forthright to defend them. Are we still able to remember this throughout, or do we lie to ourselves?

1. NASA, at the end of the day, seems to be donating alot of money to this program. If they were to ever withdraw their support, there would be a noticeable change in the program.
   1. So NASA may think it not fair that we are putting down their system of choosing how to allocate such funds, because the fact still remains that they are donating funds they have no obligation to.
   2. The system to select recipients seems to have been made very objective, because NASA still wants to have some element of fairness in their allocation process, even though it is their money, and they can thus share it however they want.
2. Its definitely a fight for many teams to procure sufficient funds to survive a first season.
   1. So people may feel cheated at times when they see how easily other teams get their money. However, it seems to me that the "easy" is sometimes being confused with a lack of information as to how a team came about acquiring their funds.
   2. Once someone can effectively say that a team received their funding without expending much effort, one has to fall back to the very realistic statement, "life isn't fair." But that can't happen until, again, one can truly say a team receives funding without expending much effort.

In discussions, even this one, when we react in an uncharacteristic way, are we just relenting against the underlying reality of a give situation, and its deviation from what we see as ideal? Can we say that life wants to be fair? Or is it that we want to make life fair? Shall we further personify such an idea, so we can force it into compliance?

It seems to me that there are facts, the way things appear to be, the way it is desired that things be, and the way things actually are. Maybe we are confusing these? Because as I see it, and as I've said before: NASA's money; therefore, NASA's choice. There are other levels here, and other accusations that seem unmerited, in my opinion, but thats for someone else to argue about. I, for one, will just be happy that NASA sponsors as many teams as they currently do, and that they are continually helping new teams and regionals stand on their own two feet.

I was very serious when writing this post. No sarcasm, implicit ridiculing, nothing like that. If its there, then it is, but was unintentional.

[Heretic121]

I'm honestly not trying to spark anything here because i don't really have a set stand point *for myself even after reading everything* but this is where peoples "info" came from regarding the 71 "issue"
http://hammond.k12.in.us/TeamHammond/sponsors.htm
yes it was last updated in February, but that is where people were trying to make a point.

Thinking about this now, i guess i a little discouraged that 71 did get a grant, but on the other hand, they followed everything, and did a great job to receive the grant.

Congratulations to all the teams who received the grants and hope to see you all at nationals.

[Matt Leese]

I've been watching this thread fairly closely as it developed and, personally, I'm more concerned, not by the topic, but by how everyone is acting on this thread.

When I read the Chief Delphi forums, I tend to see very little malice and take very little offense from anything I read. Occasionally I see something that bothers me but my assumption is that that wasn't the intent of the original post, so I ignore it. I will posit that very few, if any, people post on here with the intention of offending anyone.

Now, offending someone can happen accidentally. It's important to recognize that it was an accident. There are really three ways to handle it when you take offense: you can ignore it (this should be your first choice), you can kindly and graciously point out that you disagree (this should be your choice if you really feel the need to respond), or you can attack someone in response (you really shouldn't ever do this).

Unfortunately, in this thread too many people choose the last choice. Usually all it takes is one person to escalate the situation and it's all down hill from there.

In this case, I was bothered enough by this thread that I choose the second choice. I was debating whether or not to post to this thread for quite awhile but finally decided that I maybe could add something to the discussion.

Of course, none of this absolves the original writer of a post from any responsibility. It's important to be careful about what you write. If something may be offensive, try and write it in a way that won't be offensive. It's not hard, it just requires thought.

So please, think before you post. I rather regularly will have a post all typed up and then realize that it really isn't adding anything to the discussion and close the window.

If you feel that this post was directed at you, it probably was. Even if you don't feel it was directed at you, you can probably learn something from it (or possibly I think too highly of myself). Am I trying to offend? No. Will I? Possibly. I hope that everyone can take this is the spirit in which it was intended; that is constructive criticism.

Matt

[n0cturnalxb]

Oh. Wow. I've been away from CD for too long..

BUT! Change of tone/message/whatever (sort of):

THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who helped make and approve the selections list for grant recipients. Thanks for taking the time and effort to do something you didn't have to do.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to NASA for providing SO MUCH funding to both FIRST and FIRST teams, for allocating this much money to support something they didn't have to support.

Me.. me.. I'm still elated and shocked and just overly happy because I'd thought it would be impossible for my team to get ANY grant, especially NASA's, seeing as we're a third year team and such. We were $4000 short and would not have been able to participate at ALL this year if we hadn't received the grant... yeah, so what, we now have to raise money for hotel costs - but I'm so, so happy because we get to participate. My friend and I were talking about joining a local team if ours couldn't compete just yesterday (we didn't know about the grant award until this morning) .. we were so worried about not being able to participate in FIRST this year.. but.. yeah.

I've been so excited that I haven't been able to concentrate all day, haha.

Anyway .. yeah. Thank you so much, NASA, for doing this ... and congrats to EVERY single team who received a grant.

[Venkatesh]

Hey! Good luck to all the teams out there that got the grants. A good infusion of cash will be a great help to teams that need it.

I was curious, who is the main NASA contact for these grants? I had a number of questions I wanted to email them about.

[Marc P.]

Originally Posted by Venkatesh

Hey! Good luck to all the teams out there that got the grants. A good infusion of cash will be a great help to teams that need it.

I was curious, who is the main NASA contact for these grants? I had a number of questions I wanted to email them about.

Read back a bit to Dave's post, which will probably answer most of your questions.

[wonsi88]

I'm Russell Wons from one of the teams that received a grant(team 93) and I think I can speak for the team when I say thanks for the luck. We appreciate it and wish you the same.