A Request for transparency from FIRST

[kevinhorn]

Obviously it was not helpful to flash the five year plan in front of us and then snatch it away. The lack of respect in that act was unfortunate but understandable. Bill and Kate seem to be under some other pressures and we can only guess what they may be. I believe that it would be fair to say that they believe in the goals of FIRST and want all teams to have a good experience.

So more important than what didn't work last year or what hardware is planned is:
What a more transparent FIRST would act like.
Below are some very raw ideas of what I would see from a more transparent FIRST. These ideas could be polished but I would really like others to fill in areas that I missed.

KOP

Alpha test with select teams in the fall. Revise and release for wide beta test in late spring. Release of new or changed core items by Sept 30th. This allows for all teams to have the opportunity to learn the base technology prior to applying it in competition. This also gives a more accurate picture of the engineering process. Engineering is iterative, no one gets every detail right on the first try. Let teams see what worked and what FIRST plans on improving by posting the results of the alpha tests.

Help teams to budget by giving estimate of product life and projected phase out dates on core items.


Rules

Try to give intent behind rules. The rules ask us to follow intent but often do not let us know what the true intent is.
eg. What is the intent of bumper plywood not touching? Unfair advantage? Safety? Why is a 45 deg bevel OK? I can only guess, and without intent language other peoples explanations are just guesses and are not helpful.

Let teams know if a rule is going to be retained for multiple seasons.

Allow all teams access to the Inspection manual. This is one of the best resources for teams to gauge how well their robot meets the rules. It was really unfortunate that the Inspectors manual was not released for all teams to use this year.

Administration

Let us know that FIRST understands how difficult it is to keep a team running.
EXAMPLE: Get rid of requirements like needing four pair of safety glasses to register. I bring plenty of spares and they are with my team where they should be not in my co-coaches registration bag. As a coach I have a spread sheet of who must have what, where and when, this spread sheet goes from one week before the regional to closing ceremonies on Saturday night. Between coordinating carpools, chaperones, packing lists, shipping paperwork, inspection changes, upgrade strategy, and minute by minute crisis management I could use less "have to's".

FEEDBACK

One of the biggest issues that I see is that there is no method of providing feedback to FIRST so they know what didn't work for us. Thus they can't change it so that it will work next year.
EXAMPLE: The BOM template.
The template was non functional in the condition that it was posted. Even after "fixing" the formatting I was really unclear what the purpose was. This is not a rules question. But having a way to work with FIRST to improve the product would benifit us all.
We need to know that our input has been considered in order to stay invested.
Many professional orginizations have a method of proposals for changes to codes and standards. These proposals require the submitter to give rational for the change and the submitter is provided a response.

I look forward to hearing what transparency would look like to you.