Gracious Professionalism

[midway78224]

last year at the lone star regional our team was having trouble with the drivetrain and one of the teams 647 cyberwovles saw that and like three of there mentors came and rebuilt or entire drivetrain and even builted chain tension right before the finals and we thank them very much cuz we got to the championship we never had to worry bout it again.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by midway78224

last year at the lone star regional our team was having trouble with the drivetrain and one of the teams 647 cyberwovles saw that and like three of there mentors came and rebuilt or entire drivetrain and even builted chain tension right before the finals and we thank them very much cuz we got to the championship we never had to worry bout it again.

The Cyberwolves, FRC 647, are an excellent example of mentors and students working together, finding ways to build Gracious Professionalism within their team as well as role modeling it to others. If you have not told them already, they would probably love to hear about the Championship.

[Lady Lightning]

LET'S HAVE SOME MORE REPLIES!!

[Nin_estarSaerah]

Last year we were surprised to win the Peachtree regional, and be able to go to Atlanta for the Championships. However, we did not have the money to get hotel rooms, or get a bus. Another team, En Tech 281, who was unable to go to Atlanta gave us the money they had saved for their hotel room, and our "rival" school let us ride with them on their bus. They didn't ask for any payment of gas, and over those four days, we became pretty good friends. back at school, the other students were appalled. the "enemy" gave us a ride, and then we hung out with them?

I'm having a hard time explaining GP to our freshmen and rookies, and I'm finding that our "old" members often forget is as well. I'm wondering how most teams use GP? Is it just something you do for the judges, only something you do at competition, or is it in the shop, and our lives in general?

[AdamC]

During Nationals last year, our team was plagued by faulty gearboxes that kept popping their drive chains every time they shifted. Despite heroic efforts by our pit crew, we couldn't find the problem. Thank goodness we were next door to M.O.E! Despite being in competition against us, they spared to expense to help us fix our issue. After a temporary fix involving threaded rod and lots of patience, our transmissions lasted through the off-season until finally giving their last earlier this year.
I reiterated this story to a friend who played football a while ago. He couldn't understand why a team would actually give some of their resources and members to another team. I told him that it was all in the spirit of GP, and that's what made FIRST so spectacular.

[aapl.jlo]

Wow that goes deep. I would think that it's the type of team that would help other teams if they ever asked for it, even if they were 'rivals'; which the biggest thing is that we're pretty much one big team, going in the same direction--the future.

[The_Laughing_ManMII]

asking a rival team within your city to have a practice match to see what to expect during the competiton, and not using the results to cheat and see what thier weaknesses are and exploiting them

[Mr. Pockets]

I'm surprised that no one used this example: at the 2008 summer Olympics in China it was time for the Women's Freestyle event (sorry can't think of which one off the top of my head). One of the contender's suit had ripped which would have made her unable to compete. Dara Tores, one of the athletes competing, went over to the judges and asked if they could wait until the swimmer could change her suit before starting the race. I guess GP isn't exclusive to FIRST.

As for a definition of GP: GP is wanting everyone to do great, with you doing the best.

Sorry about bringing back a long-ago thread, but it still seemed like a relevant topic and I didn't really want to make a new thread for it.

[Zipding]

This year at the Waterloo Regional, my team won the Gracious Professional Award for helping many other teams with supplies and even one of our team leaders helped one team with their programming. The judges liked that and had us win the award. Another thing that we did was for one team, when we didn't find the piece that he needed, he said he didn't need to bother us, we still looked for that piece. We were very graciously professional at that regional

[ZInventor]

At champs this year, we had just about every major component of our bot fail:

Before our first match, we had to replace all of the bumper mounts, as they had gotten severe damage during the PDX regional.

after that match, we had to replace our "Bottom rollers" (paint rollers that drive the ball lift)

we then noticed that every match, the bot was getting a bit slower, and found out that we had roasted our drive motors.
they had to be replaced.

before our second to last match, we had our front roller (ball collector) break completely, and it had to be replaced. problem: the spares were a few thousand miles away, in Portland!

in all of the pit times when we were replacing parts, or fixing parts, we had teams coming by to help us out!

I'm sorry i can't name all of you, but without you, we would have been out of the competition.

Our team learned a lot this year, and i hope that next year, we're the ones helping out.

-Z

[Chris is me]

GP is something that is always present in FIRST, from the whole concept of alliances to picking to having pits and sharing with teams, but a few examples stick out in my head.

In 10,000 Lakes, our intake roller bent a good 3 inches up, so it would spin wildly off center. If we kept it on it could end up cracking our whole chassis basically or leading to other equally catastrophic failures on the robot, but we didn't have the 25 inch shaft needed to replace it, since standard sizes end at 24 inches. Our options would be to make ball collection significantly harder by removing it, or use it, wait for it to fail, and become a glorified kitbot. I don't think anyone outside of the pit crew knew how totally sunk we were.

Some kind folk from Team 93 went and machined a new roller and shaft for us. It ended up weighing a few ounces more, but it was not a problem at all, and they helped us even when they had a match with us. They still ended up winning thanks to a stupid mistake on my part, though.

The best part? I have three more examples of that. In FVC, our team took a completely failed robot and built them a squarebot in 15 minutes, which was a lot of fun. The next year, that team helped my new FTC team rebuild a modified squarebot to go on to beat them, and win the entire event. After that, in Atlanta the FTC team next to me rebuilt my manipulator with me, and I ended up winning a match with that! (Even though the drivetrain failed, repeatedly and catastrophically, every match)

The thing is, when I tell this to non-FIRST people they're shocked that it would happen. When I tell it to FIRST people, it's not "expected" but it's the kind of thing that happens everywhere. And honestly, it's pretty amazing to be part of an organization where helping your opponent potentially beat you in the name of fair, fun, friendly competition is not only applauded, but the norm.

[Andrew Schreiber]

This year at the Traverse City event Big Mo (314) was struggling with their control system, they had programmed in C++ and were having major issues. Jim Zondag volunteered to help them and proceeded to rewrite most of their code in Labview. From that point on they actually had control of their robot.

Thanks Jim, Im sure there were about a dozen teams in Michigan this year who had their year made better by you.


[Rant]
After giving an example of what GP is I would like to point out a few things that it is not. GP is not a way of criticizing others, it is not a way of stifling criticism, it is not to be applied to others. Too many times I see people say, "it is not GP that team xyz won 2 regionals." Or they say that to question the GDC is not GP. These are wrong, plain out wrong. Each person will have their own definition of Gracious Professionalism, it is like a swiss army knife, you use it in every situation but each person has their own idea of what is on it.
[/Rant]

[OZ_341]

This year at the 2009 San Diego Regional a rookie Brazilian team 3032 had no robot as a result of a shipping mix up. Several teams (341, 1538, 1266, 812, 968.... and many others) got together to build them a robot at the competition on practice day.
On that Thursday, these kids were not divided by teams, there were no matches, there were no judges. All you could see was a bunch of caring individuals that came together to help someone in need. When the robot finally was turned on and it worked, the joy that erupted was something I won't soon forget. It was a beautiful sight to see these kids celebrating something so important. Something they all had worked on together.

For the better part of the qualifiers the Brazillians were in 8th place with their new robot and eventually ended up in 18th. But more importantly they had the opportunity to learn within just several hours everything that is great about FIRST. The caring, the joy, and the ties that bind us together all converged that night in San Diego.

[cpeister]

This year at the GTR, a team came to the regional with only 3 students. An amazing feat in itself. Unfortunately, one team member went home sick, leaving them with only 2 team members. We stepped in and sent 2 members of our pit crew (myelf included) to be with their team for the rest of the weekend. Although we never went up against our own team, we were willing to do so.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

[Rant]
After giving an example of what GP is I would like to point out a few things that it is not. GP is not a way of criticizing others, it is not a way of stifling criticism, it is not to be applied to others. Too many times I see people say, "it is not GP that team xyz won 2 regionals." Or they say that to question the GDC is not GP. These are wrong, plain out wrong. Each person will have their own definition of Gracious Professionalism, it is like a swiss army knife, you use it in every situation but each person has their own idea of what is on it.
[/Rant]

That's quite funny, as I'm almost positive I've spotlighted you for a post vaguely similar to this one.

Found it!

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

I would have to say that GP is a measurement that can only apply to yourself. To apply it to another is unfair to that person/group.