Robotics Internationally

[Kristian Calhoun]

Originally Posted by David55

Sean, Kristian, OZ 341 and all the people concerned with FIRST giving too many resources to start international teams, I just want to point out a few facts:...

As in the same case with OZ, I do not want my post to be misunderstood/misinterpreted.
I was in no way doubting that the Israeli, or any international teams for that matter, fundraise a lot of their own money to cover expenses for the season in addition to the costs of travel. And am not, in any way blaming the Israeli teams for taking resources away from FIRST that could be used to start new teams in the US. You guys are great at what you do and in spreading the message of FIRST around the globe to help promote science and technology. After all, we are all in FIRST for the same reasons, and I see nothing wrong with the prospect of having and/or creating new international teams in the future.

As for my previous post, my main concern wasn't about the resources that FIRST has available, but rather about the resources and financial aid that individual teams themselves have available to them to put towards starting teams in other countries. Many students on teams here in the US also must complete an abundance of fundraising in order to afford travel cost, and most end up paying out of their own pockets as well,as you do in Israel. So not every team has the ability to actually go out, and start and interact with the teams that they are attempting to start in the other countries(for example: such as 341 is doing with their team from Singapore).

So just to make sure we're one good terms, I just wanted to clarify that I was not concerned with FIRST giving out too many resources to international teams. You guys do a job well done and should keep up the good work. My point was that only a handful of teams with sufficient funding available to them would be able go out and fully interact and aid the teams that they start in other countries.

Thanks,
-Kristian

[Martinez]

FIRST to me is like a technical version of the Boy Scouts. It was started by one man with the vision of molding his day's youth, now spreading to almost every city in the world. I think the number one reason is a lack of Regionals Internationally. After the Canadian Regional, the number of teams practically exploded. Travel cost is a huge budget item so having a near by competition always helps. When your accross the pond, doublly so. Don't forget, there are alot of DoD dependents in Europe so its not like we are turning our back on the good old US of A!

[OZ_341]

I just wanted to make the point that this trip did not come easily to us. This is far from the case. It almost fell apart in the late Spring and moving forward was not an easy decision.
We are doing a substantial amount of risk taking. to make this happen. Like most successes that we have had over the years, we are gambling that things will be OK into the future.
We are not getting any direct corporate support and we are borrowing against our future fund raising to lower the costs for the kids. Also coaches are paying directly "out of pocket" for this trip.

So why are we taking such great risks to do this then? Because we believe in this effort and we believe in our partners in Singapore. They have been to the USA 3 times and we want to travel to their land and understand their perspectives and challenges. We want partnership to grow into friendship.

So I guess my point is that if a team wants this type of initiative to grow, they are going to have to make it happen with deep belief and pure effort. We have been scrapping and planning for over a year to get this right.