Anybody heard from FIRST?

[archiver]

Posted by Matt Leese at 05/29/2001 10:34 PM EST


College Student on team #73, Tigerbolt, from Edison Technical HS and Alstom & Fiber Technologies & RIT.


In Reply to: Kind-of interesting.......
Posted by Jessica Boucher on 05/29/2001 5:17 PM EST:



This is not nearly the first time I've run into the over 21 rule with FIRST. Officially to be at kickoff you had to be 21. Yes, this was a severe problem for my team given that we really didn't have anyone very committed to the team that was over 21 at the time of kickoff. I'm under the impression that we almost didn't receive our kit of parts because of that. I also got yelled at for trying to pickup arm bands at NJ and not being an "adult." This is the third time so I guess I'm sort of fed up. Basically, I don't see the point of this rule. Dean has been PUSHING for more college teams. FIRST already does not make it easy for there to be college teams merely from how the competition is set up, when it takes place, etc. But now, FIRST is actively working against college teams by making it harder for them to be run. No one else had a problem with people under the age of 21 running the team. Not RIT, not the high school, not the sponsor. The sponsor had a lot more riding on this than FIRST did; after all they donated tens of thousands of dollars. There is no logical reason for these arbitrary rules. They do nothing to help FIRST and only to hurt it. And now I can't even go to the team forum to complain about it! I really would like a good explanation from FIRST about this as I can't think of a good one.

Matt