Competition Professionalism

[Alalea]

I think that a lot of FIRST is having fun. If we have to stand rigidly through the entire thing, where's the fun? Sure, there's work, but there has to be some fun in it, too!

[Akash Rastogi]

Like said above, FIRST is serious competition while having fun. That is why Woodie says that "It will be the hardest fun you will ever have."

That pretty much says it all.

[Drwurm]

All these teams have been working feverishly for 6 weeks, and this is the final culmination of all that work. Sounds like the perfect dancing situation. Even engineers at major companies celebrate together after a successful project.

Also regionals might be the only time some of us ever get to dance without being laughed at!

[galewind]

The way I see a regional competition as a celebration of all of our hard work. It's a big party with excitement, competition, cooperation, and prizes. Thousands of individuals commit an enormous amount of time and energy into getting everyone to perform the same task (in different ways), and we learn from each other and take so much from the program.

Dancing together is another way to celebrate as a group, and I think it's something that should be encouraged because it helps bring people together, and that's a large part of FIRST's mission. Hearing the word "professional" in this context makes me think of sitting in a cold business office all day behind a cubicle wall -- and I just don't feel that FIRST is about that.

[Danny McC]

And I dont see how dancing relates to them not being interested in the goals FIRST is trying to set. They may be involved in the build but when it comes to the competition they may not be involved. And sometimes the ones who dance the most also help with the robots. Example: I told my friend to be in the mascot area today for our first match where she had been dancing the whole time. And her response to me was I will be there if it doesnt interfere with my pit shift. The dancing at competitions is a way to relieve the stress from the six week build season.

[Uberbots]

What happens at the competition reflects very little of what happens inside of the robotics room. The competition is 2 days out of an entire year that you cannot see.
Your point is that having the competition as a social event is a bad thing because... dancing doesnt promote engineering or science (unless you want to get into the physics and chemical influences that cause dancing to occur, but thats beyond the scope of this thread)
The thing is though, some of the most engineering-inspired students on the team look forward to the competitions because the whole point of it is having fun. Like any competition, the point is to win, and if you lose you still had fun trying. Not every student who is at the competition can be serious- even if they want to- because there isn't enough room in the pits, or there are already too many people on the field or whatever.
think about it. if they give a SPIRIT AWARD out at the competitions, wouldn't you think the people at FIRST are promoting the idea of dancing you drop?

[henryBsick]

I think a lot of people are assuming a fair bit of information... I will try to correct and bring this up to speed.
I am a fan of cheering, a bigger fan of having a good time. Cheer your brains out, 222 '03 National Team Spirit; trust me I know what getting excited and motivated is.
Apart from that, the competition has been hindered by the dancing. You say "why not?" I say "to keep the integrity of the game play together." Time to cool down a robot between back to back matches is provided for, as are timeouts. Having a good time can go too far sometimes. Without crossing the 'office dull' line I still think dancing is far too unprofessional for the regionals. Cheer and go crazy from the stands don't bring it to the field.
As the thread has moved along, I have honed my initial statement and question. My view of the dancing that occurs has always been the stereotypical 'kid who doesn't do things' kind of view. Please don't jump on me for what I just said, I am well aware that there are kids who enjoy themselves in such a manner that have a wide range of of roles on a team. When the hard facts come down to it, there are some kids who don't have a function on a team and are just at the events to hang out. I have seen it myself, nothing will sway my opinion on this. I am not in any way giving a magnitude to it, but it exists.

[IndySam]

A regional is a celebration of the hard work and effort that has gone on during the build season and dancing is appropriate at celebrations.

[Justin Montois]

I'm trying to think of an example where "Fun" can meet professional almost seasmlessly and I have to say the best I can come up with (besides FIRST) would be Google. They are a great company and they have recently been voted the top company to work for in the country. Read these..

From the top ten reasons to work for Google

1. Lend a helping hand. With millions of visitors every month, Google has become an essential part of everyday life - like a good friend - connecting people with the information they need to live great lives.

2. Life is beautiful. Being a part of something that matters and working on products in which you can believe is remarkably fulfilling.

3. Appreciation is the best motivation, so we've created a fun and inspiring workspace you'll be glad to be a part of, including on-site doctor and dentist; massage and yoga; professional development opportunities; on-site day care; shoreline running trails; and plenty of snacks to get you through the day.

4. Work and play are not mutually exclusive. It is possible to code and pass the puck at the same time. Emphasis Mine

7. Good company everywhere you look. Googlers range from former neurosurgeons, CEOs, and U.S. puzzle champions to alligator wrestlers and former-Marines. No matter what their backgrounds Googlers make for interesting cube mates.

10. There is such a thing as a free lunch after all. In fact we have them every day: healthy, yummy, and made with love.

I think what I find inherently wrong with your post is that your term of "professional" is becoming old fashioned. Maybe dancing while playing with robots is exactly what professional should be. I love the atmosphere at the Regionals and it would be a shame if anything was to change.

It's not like kids are dancing while important speakers are talking, when it's time to be "professional" we are and when it's time to go crazy and have some fun, no one does it better then the kids in FIRST.

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by Henry_222

I think a lot of people are assuming a fair bit of information... I will try to correct and bring this up to speed.
I am a fan of cheering, a bigger fan of having a good time. Cheer your brains out, 222 '03 National Team Spirit; trust me I know what getting excited and motivated is.
Apart from that, the competition has been hindered by the dancing. You say "why not?" I say "to keep the integrity of the game play together." Time to cool down a robot between back to back matches is provided for, as are timeouts. Having a good time can go too far sometimes. Without crossing the 'office dull' line I still think dancing is far too unprofessional for the regionals. Cheer and go crazy from the stands don't bring it to the field.
As the thread has moved along, I have honed my initial statement and question. My view of the dancing that occurs has always been the stereotypical 'kid who doesn't do things' kind of view. Please don't jump on me for what I just said, I am well aware that there are kids who enjoy themselves in such a manner that have a wide range of of roles on a team. When the hard facts come down to it, there are some kids who don't have a function on a team and are just at the events to hang out. I have seen it myself, nothing will sway my opinion on this. I am not in any way giving a magnitude to it, but it exists.

You said yourself that you would trade 5 inspired students for 100 uninspired ones right? I would submit that many more student are inspired by the energy and excitement at a competition (the dancing is definitely part of the overall atmosphere), than are turned off by it (poll results seem to agree with me).

Despite you saying nothing will sway your opinion I will trek on anyway. I am very curious as to what the role of a PR member of a team is at a competition? How about a finance team member? Animation? I know a few members of my team (different members than the last post) that I'm sure you definitely would have pegged as "just socializing" if you saw them at our regional last year. You wanna know why? Because they were. These were members of our PR team that spent a weekend handing out buttons and "hanging out".

While these girls had worked on our t-shirts and buttons for the competition they hadn't been at our build site for more than about 4 hours in the whole six weeks. So these girls just came along for the ride and are the uninspired socializers you talked about right? Wrong. Two of the three are on the team again, and this year they're more involved. They still haven't touched the robot, but they showed up at our initial brainstorm/strategy meets, made our PR a bigger deal than last year and had a lot more respect for the robot and the guys and girls working on it than they did the year before. So did we inspire them to become engineers? Nope, but I'm fairly certain we accomplished one of the major goals of FIRST.

If you truly want to change the culture towards one that respects science and engineering (Dean has mentioned this in multiple speeches), then you need to inspire both groups of people, those that will be scientists and engineers and those that won't.

[dlavery]

As a member of the federal government, I work with some of the most staid, uptight, rigid, button-down bureaucrats around. I asked a few of them, as government professionals, if they thought this type of celebration was counterproductive to attracting the "right kind" of corporate support. Their response?

"Any organization that would be offended by the celebration that occurs at a FIRST competition is an organization that you would never want as a sponsor anyway."

That works for me. Party on.

-dave



.

[CarterM]

At the Wisconsin Regional last year, some of our sponsors were dancing......not the kids...........

[Qbranch]

Are you trying to say american businesses are austere, cold, and devoid of life?

If they want lively, creative engineers... they should look no further than a group of roboticists who can be dancing at one moment then fixing a robot or writing software the very next.

-q

[Koko Ed]

I am the most rhythemless black man on the face of the planet and I loathe dancing. I think there is a public ordinance in the New York State legislature banning me from doing it in public to keep other from suffering from the smae disease. That being said the dancing and fun part of FIRST is what makes FIRST the amazing display that it is.
Our team had each and every member write an essay about what FIRST is to each of us. If I may I would like to borrow a couple of excerpts from it. FIRST what I think a competition is:

It was like a big party wrapped around a remarkable sporting event that was like nothing ever seen before with its distinctive strategies and alliance structures with an Oscar ceremony latched onto the back end for good measure.

Nothing sells FIRST better than a FIRST competition. And it's not just the robots or the togetherness of the teams or even the competition itself. Alot of it is the atmosphere that flows freely in the arena and infects everyone in the arena in their own special way.
FIRST is different things to different people. It used to bug when when every kid wasn't going to grow up to be a Kim O'Toole or an Adrienne Emerson or a John V. Nuen. I figured we failed somehow and they just were wasting their time on the team. but now I realize that they were getting something out of it. Whether that be seeking to teach others about the virtues of science and technology or just having a good time they didn't walk away uninspired. Everyone's heart just beat a little different and they take from the competition something different.
Both the students and the mentors. Or as I stated at the end of my essay:

What I truly believe make FIRST so unique and so fabulous is that it give students the opportunity to try on the clothes of responsibility and expectation. To look into the possible future that perhaps awaits them while at the same time giving the adult mentors a chance to recapture the excitement youthful discovery and sense of exuberant joy that permeates throughout the lives of the young that help fuel the drive that led them to where they are this day to help the next generation reach their potential.

[catsylve]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Nothing sells FIRST better than a FIRST competition. And it's not just the robots or the togetherness of the teams or even the competition itself. Alot of it is the atmosphere that flows freely in the arena and infects everyone in the arena in their own special way.
FIRST is different things to different people. It used to bug when when every kid wasn't going to grow up to be a Kim O'Toole or an Adrienne Emerson or a John V. Nuen. I figured we failed somehow and they just were wasting their time on the team. but now I realize that they were getting something out of it. Whether that be seeking to teach others about the virtues of science and technology or just having a good time they didn't walk away uninspired. Everyone's heart just beat a little different and they take from the competition something different.
Both the students and the mentors. Or as I stated at the end of my essay:

What I truly believe make FIRST so unique and so fabulous is that it give students the opportunity to try on the clothes of responsibility and expectation. To look into the possible future that perhaps awaits them while at the same time giving the adult mentors a chance to recapture the excitement youthful discovery and sense of exuberant joy that permeates throughout the lives of the young that help fuel the drive that led them to where they are this day to help the next generation reach their potential.

Very well stated.

I would like to add that we are talking about some young people here who are not comfortable in the typical athletic event setting, but want to have many of the same experiences. I have had a number of students tell me that being on a FIRST team is literally the first team they have ever been on.

The regionals that I have seen are allowing these kids to celebrate in an appropriate way. I personally experience a great deal of satisfaction when I see a young person who has been afraid to show that type of emotion in public suddenly racing across the field with joy or relaxing and dancing.

This is a part of the way in which lives are changed by FIRST and I think sponsors know this.