A Request for transparency from FIRST

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by kevinhorn

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.

FRC used to conduct facilitated "Team Forum" meeting in different geographic areas asking for feedback on questions selected by FRC. I organized one for Maryland. It was a lot of work, but provided feedback that was sent to HQ. There may have been things tweaked because of the Team Forums, but I was never able to really figure that out. Local areas may still conduct their own.

For a couple of years I attended the "Regional Directors" meetings at HQ. During those meeting there was an opportunity to submit concerns to be addressed. One year there was an action plan distributed the last day addressing the concerns submitted. The Regional Directors still serve as the POC for the different regions. I believe they will be meeting in early June. An email to your RD with concrete concerns/suggestions might be one avenue to give feedback.

FRC has a survey this year. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ghlight=survey and it looks like FRC is interested in gathering feedback on certain areas of the FRC team experience. I wish some of these questions were worded differently and had a different menu of options and wish there were more opportunities to address open-ended concerns. I have no idea what the feedback loop is.

And as mentioned, Bill's Blog offers a way to comment. But I have no idea what the feedback loop is here either.