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

[Doug G]

I'm so glad to hear feedback and serious criticism from alumni, like Jay. This being the 20th year of FIRST, the seeds have been planted and are really taking some deep roots in many of you. Personally, this is our team's 11th year and I had the most alumni participating than ever, not just last year's graduates, but even those going back to 9 years. They are now engineers, starting their own families and are thinking about how to give back. They were in New Hampshire, with their own team, and with us. This is really important!! Recruiting new blood is one way to change our culture, but as FIRST students grow up, they will expect that the school their kid will go to should have a robotics team. If it doesn't they will know what it takes to get one started. This way of starting teams has much more power than forcing some new teacher (or unwilling parent) to take it on.

From a different perspective, many of the schools in the country, do not have a robotics team. Many have commented, that this is OK, quality over quantity. Hogwash!! Every school should have a robotics team (hopefully FIRST or Vex). Afterall we expect schools to have sports and music programs - the same should be expected for competitive STEM outlets. If this doesn't happen - then I really worry about how our country will survive in the global economy.

Why enlist the political folks? Because this mission, needs a kickstart! Will some teams not survive - unfortunately in this economy, yes. They probably should have started with VEX or FTC - much easier programs to sustain. But I don't think that should deter those efforts. I think the push for FTC is more than ever this year (even though I don't like it). Maybe you could just say it's the 20th anniversary, but I bet it makes for much more sustainable program for many school based teams that can't do FRC.

I hope in the next 20 years, at least half of the schools in the country offer a competitive STEM opportunity for students. I hope they include the ideals of FIRST. I see FRC being a bit elitist, like division 1 sports teams. FTC/VEX being like division 2 sports teams.

Please don't give in to the notion of slowing down growth. Be critical, sure. But take the next step as well.... Be a guest speaker to a team and talk about the ideals you worry are going to get missed. Go to regional planning meetings. Make the next 20 years great.