The Growing Gap in FIRST & on CD, and Our Responsibility to Fix It

[Fe_Will]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

I think you'll find that many of the mentors who post here have expressed concerns over the way FIRST is growing. Instead of looking to sustainability, they are looking toward growth.

I can't remember who said it, but they said something like "I'd take 1 good, sustainable new team over 100 new ones any day".

Growth for the sake of growth is not progress. It is quantity at the expense of quality. FIRST's #1 goal should be working with new teams to reduce the incredible infant-mortality rate we're seeing among new teams. That doesn't mean handing them money, either, as is so often the "fix" in this day and age.

To me, it means putting certain very strict guidelines in place for starting new teams - guidelines that reinforce and confirm that the team has what it takes - especially in the mentor department - to get it off the ground.

I think it all goes back to what Dean has been saying, "We get what we celebrate." As long as one of the main rubrics for Chairman's is how many FRC, FTC & FLL programs a team starts this trend will continue. Sometimes I wonder how much mentoring really went into a team started this way and how much of it was, "Hey, here's this thing called FRC and its really cool and here's some money, have fun and we'll see you at the regional." I know that the majority of teams only know why a CA team won by the introduction at the awards ceremony. How can we expect to have teams not go out in droves and start teams without the proper guidance and support when all they hear is starting teams = Chairman's?

I was excited when the kickoff speeches were finally geared towards sustainability. I was less than impressed that the tone didn't seem to make it past Saturday afternoon.

Some thought provoking questions:

1. Do you know the name and contact information for your regional director?
2. Do you know the name and contact information for any team within a hour of your location?
3. Can you point out the adult leader for each team at your local regional?
4. Do you know at least two people on your local regional planning committee that aren't your regional director?

I don't think that FIRST is going to get better with a top down solution alone, it is going to take a grass roots effort to strengthen teams. That starts by teams getting off their "islands", self imposed or otherwise.