Video Required for Chairmans

[ebarker]

My 2 cents on why the video....

Generally speaking, engineer types are very poor communicators. If you can't communicate, you can't make the business case for you project, you can't get funding, you can't sell the product, etc.

The inability to communicate effectively is but one of the reasons techie types have an 'image' problem, which not coincidentially FIRST is trying to solve.

The inability to communicate impacts team recruitment, team growth, and team sustainability. It impacts team funding, and slows our task of cultural and education change.

Applying for the awards, like the Chairman's, Woodie Flowers, and others, and the NASA grants, are exercises in communications.

Every year Dave will remark about how people cannot communicate and can't read the instructions for the NASA grants. Consequently they lose a bunch of money.

Teams potentially miss growth and sustainability opportunities because they cannot communicate the excitement, the importance, and the opportunities that participation in FIRST brings.

As I stated before, you don't need a video camera. It has been suggested by pros that beginning filmmakers start by using a pc and a series of static photos and voice over work to do their pieces. There is a lot of thought an creativity that can go into that.

I think the target audience should be primarly non-FIRST'ers. It is the type of thing you might show as a PSA, or during a presentation to a community group. Anyone that might be involved in starting or sustaining a team. The goal certainly should not be teams simply communicating to each other because that is of very limited value, relative to showing it to an outside audience.

Very simply, I think FIRST is nudging folks toward learning how to communicate, because when a team learns how to do that, a whole world of possibilities opens its doors.

lights, camera, <clap>, action