Kickoff Feedback

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by Gnishi2011

I agree, I thought the Couch chat was unnecessary, as it had been preceeded by an hour and a half of speeches. Some of our new members were starting to get restless.

I do have a question though. For Dean and Woodie's speeches, they also seem to slightly condemn other parts of society. This year it was sports, last year it was bankers. And I felt that both speeches were longer than they had to be.

And the Obama cut-off was hilarious.

They have always condemned the negative aspects of sports competition and "financial engineering". Dean has made comments about it for the last 3-4 years about how moving money around to try to make more of it doesn't help society in the slightest. Likewise, he's always pointed out all the issues with sports and how they are presented (just like reality TV). Anything for a the almighty viewer rating and dollar. Guns in the locker room, pretending to bribe officials on the field with cash, carrying a sharpie and pretending to autograph something after a touchdown..... showboating and NO gracious professionalism.

[Salbert]

I got sick of the politicians speaking. Not to be callous, but I don't really care about New Hampshire's women's ice hockey team...

The only time I wanna see a governor talk is if they plan on doing what Michigan did with FRC.

[Kate00]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

They have always condemned the negative aspects of sports competition and "financial engineering". Dean has made comments about it for the last 3-4 years about how moving money around to try to make more of it doesn't help society in the slightest. Likewise, he's always pointed out all the issues with sports and how they are presented (just like reality TV). Anything for a the almighty viewer rating and dollar. Guns in the locker room, pretending to bribe officials on the field with cash, carrying a sharpie and pretending to autograph something after a touchdown..... showboating and NO gracious professionalism.

IMHO, FIRST/Dean should be trying to elevate society by elevating themselves, not by bringing other aspects down. Professional sports are a positive force in society - they encourage children to get active. Things such as robotics encourage kids to exercise their minds, sports encourage them to exercise their bodies. Both are extremely important. We have a dearth of both healthy minds and healthy bodies in our society right now, and I shudder to think of kids in FIRST refusing to play sports/get active because of these comments Dean makes, because all they want to do is build robots. Balance is key in all aspects of life, not just designing a robot.

[Kims Robot]

Being my first time in NH all the fanfare was pretty new to me.

Honestly, I liked the couch chat, I do agree that it could have been done a bit earlier (maybe replace one or two of the speeches), and/or could have been a little bit shorter... but I was really impressed that they got a professional reporter to help out, and it was a really good intro for the new team members. Every year when I hear people complain about how boring the kickoff is, I want them to realize this is the first kickoff for a lot of members on our team, as well as all the new rookie teams. And while Dean and Woodie may seem long-winded at times, their points are always very valid, and they want to make sure that we don't get sucked in by what we initially emulated, that we continually hold ourselves to high standards.

The only thing that caught me a little off guard was when John Abele introduced the Chairmans team video... You would hope the Chairman of FIRST would know the team that won the Chairmans Award if Chairmans is really that important...

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by Kate Mosley

IMHO, FIRST/Dean should be trying to elevate society by elevating themselves, not by bringing other aspects down. Professional sports are a positive force in society - they encourage children to get active. Things such as robotics encourages kids to exercise their minds, sports encourage them to exercise their bodies. Both are extremely important. We have a dearth of both healthy minds and healthy bodies in our society right now, and I shudder to think of kids in FIRST refusing to play sports/get active because of these comments Dean makes, because all they want to do is build robots. Balance is key in all aspects of life, not just designing a robot.

I completely agree. As a big sports fan, I was really rubbed the wrong way by Dean's speech. If I was a rookie and this kickoff was the first experience I had with FIRST, I'm sure I would have a very different view of FIRST than after having 4 years of it before hearing his speech. It came across as "sports only teach you how to dribble a basketball but FIRST teaches you not only engineering but teamwork, time management, communication...". Unless my experiences in team sports is different, sports do teach some of the similar lessons such as teamwork, the value of hard work, deadlines, etc, while providing excersize (which is another problem in this culture). I think it is a shame that Dean failed to recognize these benifits to sports.

In response to Tom Line, are you aware that off those examples of showboating and 'bad things' resulted in fines or even suspensions? It seems that the leagues are like FIRST in trying to act more gracious and professional.

[JaneYoung]

I agree that the final destination is the game reveal at the FRC Kick-Off, but yesterday's Kick-Off was a very special journey to that destination. (I was reminded of just that by a couple of rookies on a 2nd year team.) We can all complain about the length of it but, in reality, how often do we get to spend time listening to these role models for FIRST, speak at a FIRST event? Usually, I get to hear some of them 2 times a year: at Kick-Off and at the Championship event. As for the couch chat, I thought that was excellent, just excellent. It provided insight and inspiration and will be something that many of us can return to for additional insight. As far as the time element - it is a little difficult and perhaps, trying, to sit for that long but in the bigger picture, does it matter? If all you want is the game reveal, you'll get it soon enough.

Regarding what Dean Kamen had to say - perhaps now is a good time to go back and reflect on what he was encouraged not to say - now that we know the game and are learning the rules.

I watched the movie, Coach Carter, last night. It is about a basketball coach who locked the team out of the gym and cancelled all games until they got their GPA up, meeting the requirements of the contract that each of them signed. Yesterday's sad news regarding FRC 3125's accident made it a difficult night for me, emotionally. I was also thinking about the speeches and their wisdom and insight and wanted to watch a movie that would help and encourage me. In the movie, a student was struggling and Coach Carter kept asking him what his deepest fear was. Toward the end of the movie, this was the quote that best defined his fear:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone, and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." - Miriam Williamson

We can be filled with shoulds, can'ts, why didn't theys, and we can find all kinds of support to back us up in our criticism. We can also find positive and productive ways to make suggestions, if they merit our time and effort.

Good luck in the 2010 FRC season.
Jane

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Salbert

The only time I wanna see a governor talk is if they plan on doing what Michigan did with FRC.

What did Michigan's governor do for FRC except pledge $2M funding for all teams, which was cut to $150K for some rookie teams, and then cut again to zero?