pic: Districts in Minnesota Flyer

[Road Rash]

Originally Posted by DareDad

I go to MNFIRST.org and I see a button to donate, but I don't see any "free money for teams" verbiage.

Perhaps he's referencing the grant money available from FIRST or somewhere else.

[Doug Frisk]

Originally Posted by Road Rash

Perhaps he's referencing the grant money available from FIRST or somewhere else.

My point being that it's not a Minnesota thing. Minnesota has had phenomenal growth the past few years, greater than the rest of the US, but it's not because the state is throwing money at creating teams.

As I said upthread, the growth is organic, not because one major entity is pushing a grow at any cost strategy.

[Aren Siekmeier]

Originally Posted by DareDad

My point being that it's not a Minnesota thing. Minnesota has had phenomenal growth the past few years, greater than the rest of the US, but it's not because the state is throwing money at creating teams.

As I said upthread, the growth is organic, not because one major entity is pushing a grow at any cost strategy.

Not the state. The Fortune 500 companies and other generous corporate sponsors in the Twin Cities and throughout the state. This is nothing but commendable on the sponsors' parts, and has also been a major focus of the RPC since the beginning (connecting these sponsors and their grant money with new teams). We've seen enormous benefits and phenomenal growth. But many teams have lacked the mentor support and mature infrastructure to do well. It's not a novel idea that growing very very quickly will have unintended side effects and shortcomings.

[Road Rash]

Originally Posted by DareDad

My point being that it's not a Minnesota thing. Minnesota has had phenomenal growth the past few years, greater than the rest of the US, but it's not because the state is throwing money at creating teams.

As I said upthread, the growth is organic, not because one major entity is pushing a grow at any cost strategy.

I see your point. It would be interesting to know why growth has exploded in MN if it weren't from some cash infusion.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Erik,
I have to disagree. The level of rookie team robots and their ability to pass inspection is higher in Minnesota then in almost any other region that I attend. Australia is also doing what Minnesota does, and has many training exercises for rookie and veteran teams alike. Australia has similar issues that Minnesota has but on a much larger scale. If you want to look at small teams consider an Australian outback team from a town of 150 people, that has a K-12 school with 18 students.
Minnesota is not the only region that lacks engineering support. Wave is very lucky that they have good engineering support but take a look at other teams in your state. They make some pretty great robots too. Compared to your team, they have a fraction of the engineers.
It is not possible to measure inspiration. We may never know if our students succeed because we may not hear from them. But I know in my heart that we are inspiring small, struggling teams as well as large teams. My inspiration in Duluth this year came from a small team from Grand Marais. Those students faced some serious issues when they opened the bag. We worked with them and made suggestions and everyone of their team jumped in and took care of the robot. They did a spectacular job and had a functioning robot that anyone would have liked to ally with.
If we know this program is having that kind of an effect on students, how can growth be bad? Why would anyone stand in the way of giving a rural team the opportunity to join something that big city teams have been enjoying? How can we deny FRC, FTC or FLL to a student simply because they live in a small town, or have to travel 140 km through the outback to school or have no engineering support? This is my 21st season and I have seen the effect on students for a long time. I have met students who experienced their first stay in a hotel or their first travel away from their hometown going to a FIRST event. I have met students who were given the choice of joining a team or going to jail. I have seen students who never considered anything but work after high school (if they graduated at all), go on to full ride scholarship at a good university. They are the lucky ones, I can't deny that chance to anyone.

[Shrub]

Hello all,

I am currently in the process of translating this flyer in Spanish (and also adding more background information on the regional system for parents), and was wondering if anyone would be interested in perhaps translating it into another language.

[gblake]

Two points

1) if people are going to copy this, let's improve the sentence at the bottom of the flyer. "Transition" is a (3-syllable) noun, not a verb. In English, you don't change nouns into gerunds by appending "ing"; instead nouns simply stay nouns. I suggest picking a nice simple verb like "switch", "change", or "move" to use in the sentence at the bottom of the flyer.

2) If this flyer is intended to sell folks, who don't understand the bigger picture, on the what's-in-it-for-me aspects of competing within a District, it's fine. If the flyer is supposed to deliver a complete and accurate picture of all the changes involved in a switch from Regionals to a District, it is obviously, hopelessly one-sided and incomplete - incomplete to the point of being misleading.

I suggest that anyone thinking of reusing the flyer should think twice before laying a foundation that only emphasizes assumed benefits, and leaves out the costs of paying the pipers.

Blake
PS: I didn't do a grammar check on the entire flyer, but if the flyer is going to be reused, someone well-qualified should do one. If users can't find a well-qualified editor (then they aren't looking very hard), they can ask me to take the time for a thorough grammar review.

[Shrub]

Originally Posted by gblake

snipsnip

Hi,
Jess and I are both communication majors. We are also having many people peer-review the flyers (in both languages), and will be taking your considerations into account.

The Spanish flyer is specifically going to parents and family members that have students in FIRST, as it is hard to explain the district model without explaining the regional model - both will be covered in the flyer. This flyer was given out to teams and is supposed to be "...intended to sell folks, who don't understand the bigger picture, on the what's-in-it-for-me aspects of competing within a District" as you said.

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Shrub

The Spanish flyer is specifically going to parents and family members that have students in FIRST, as it is hard to explain the district model without explaining the regional model - both will be covered in the flyer. This flyer was given out to teams and is supposed to be "...intended to sell folks, who don't understand the bigger picture, on the what's-in-it-for-me aspects of competing within a District" as you said.

I'm not sure If I was too subtle in my other post, so I'll be more clear.

In this context, "selling" people is not the same as educating them, and in my opinion it is a terrible, unprofessional thing to attempt.

One-sided "selling" creates a mess, not a Distrct. Do you want to create a mess?

Blake

[Shrub]

Originally Posted by gblake

snip

Hey again,
Thank you for your viewpoint - I do agree that some of the drawbacks to the transition model should be covered, as well as emphasizing the need for a nonprofit base and volunteer base to create a district system. I will take this into account when translating and explaining this flyer.
Thank you.

[Nate Laverdure]

Originally Posted by gblake

I suggest picking a nice simple verb like "switch", "change", or "move" to use in the sentence at the bottom of the flyer.

Contact your regional planning committee and ask how you can get involved in transcendentalizing to the district system.

Contact your regional planning committee and ask how you can get involved in metamorphosing to the district system.

Contact your regional planning committee and ask how you can get involved in transmogrifying to the district system.

Contact your regional planning committee and ask how you can get involved in permuting to the district system.

[Carolyn_Grace]

Originally Posted by gblake

Two points

1) if people are going to copy this, let's improve the sentence at the bottom of the flyer. "Transition" is a (3-syllable) noun, not a verb.

It's both a noun and a verb. https://www.google.com/#safe=strict&...ion+definition

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace

It's both a noun and a verb. https://www.google.com/#safe=strict&...ion+definition

Yeah, it's a verb in the same way "ain't" is an example of good grammar.

"Transit" plus "ion" creates the noun "Transition".

That North American slang has recently grown to include "transitioning" doesn't mean that we all should follow rules in our STEM fields, but discard them in our speech and writing.

Regardless, using something with fewer syllables will probably make the sentence more effective (just ask Mr Trump . He is wise in that way).

Blake

[Carolyn_Grace]

Originally Posted by gblake

Yeah, it's a verb in the same way "ain't" is an example of good grammar.

"Transit" plus "ion" crates the noun "Transition".

That North American slang has recently grown to include "transitioning" doesn't mean that we all should follow rules in our STEM fields, but discard them in our speech and writing.

I think our backgrounds are affecting our opinions here. As an English major and high school English teacher, I think that using the word "transitioning" is perfectly fine. Language is fluid and over time some words become more appropriate to use, like "transitioning" (IMO). I don't see it as slang but as the adaptation of language to fit modern communication. At one point, until Shakespeare invented it, the word "dislocate" wasn't proper English either. Now it's accepted as a medical term. But, I see your point and leave it up to those using the flyer to proceed as they believe best.

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace

I think our backgrounds are affecting our opinions here. As an English major and high school English teacher, I think that using the word "transitioning" is perfectly fine. Language is fluid and over time some words become more appropriate to use, like "transitioning" (IMO). I don't see it as slang but as the adaptation of language to fit modern communication. At one point, until Shakespeare invented it, the word "dislocate" wasn't proper English either. Now it's accepted as a medical term. But, I see your point and leave it up to those using the flyer to proceed as they believe best.

As a fellow lover of the English language, I am familiar with your point, and understand that languages are fluid. I also encourage individual English users to not be too much of a lemming.

Blake