The Death of FIRST

[patrickrd]

FIRST can do a lot to play with your brain, especially when you have started a team. Everything can go completely right one week, and then everything wrong the next. It can give you so much energy one day, and drain all energy from you the next. Having loads a continuous stream of homework and exams on the side certainly do not make it easier.

I started a team with the intention of starting a team. My intention was never to lead the team, but rather to start a team and bring it to the point where it could strongly remain without my presence. Somehow, I have ended up being considered the main figure or leader of the team. This is not necessarily a position I want, but is a position I can not simply back out of. I would like to back out of it, and have been making continuous progression towards that goal. After all, I will be graduating in two and a half years, and if I do coop I won't be here for part of next season. By teaching what you know to others, and letting them head sectors of the team, you ensure that your team will live on when it is your time to leave. My goal is to make a team structure organized in a way such that the team will live on regardless of who comes and goes. No one person should be in charge of *everything*. Rather, specific individuals should be in charge of sectors of the team.

You may have left your team, but your team did not die. You were an important part of it while you were part of it, but for certain reasons you can no longer be part of it. The important thing to realize is that the team lives on. It doesn't matter who is on the team now. These people will eventually leave to. The important thing is that every year new students are exposed to FIRST due in part to your dedication to starting the team.

Like your team, and like my team, and like most all the other teams out there, FIRST will live on. FIRST will go through times when important people leave and major changes are made. However, FIRST is well organized. All people who work for FIRST are involved to further the purpose of FIRST. Having people come and go is not necessarily a bad thing. It brings fresh new ideas to FIRST. This applies to teams as well. Teams go through hard times. FIRST goes through hard times. I think this past year has been an incredibly hard time for FIRST. They've lost two great people, they were ridiculed for the 2001 game, and they've had a hard time dealing with the situation of nationals. However, FIRST is as alive as ever. They have an unprecedented situation now where they have more teams and demand than they can presently support! FIRST is growing, not dying. It is also changing.

FIRST is not what it used to be. People are leaving, some teams do collapse, and for certain individuals it can seem like FIRST is dying as well. However, it is important to look at the whole picture. Many many new teams are forming, new regionals are forming, and new minds are joining FIRST. These additions often outweigh what is lost. It is sad that not every team can stick around and that the same great people can not remain with FIRST, but these ends bring new beginnings. This is the way the world works and the way progress is made.

Patrick