pic: Districts in Minnesota Flyer

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by jessss

This flyer was not meant to sell people it was meant to educate teams.

Then I believe it does a very poor job. To me, education implies acquisition of knowledge, not indoctrination with propaganda. This flyer, which presents everything as benefits and fails to mention either costs or roadblocks, qualifies as propaganda. It is a great piece of salesmanship, but it is not what I would call educational.

I can accept that you think you are informing teams. However, from the point of view of the organizers, and as seen by someone who knows how the sausage is made, you are selling people on the idea of Districts in a way that misrepresents the situation and makes it sound like a simple choice is all that is necessary in order to proceed with the change.

Originally Posted by jessss

We were trying to educate teams about what districts would do for teams.

If that's the goal, then the flyer should start by saying "How do districts benefit teams?" instead of "What are districts?" It is not "A simple district system guide". It completely glosses over what I consider the biggest fact of implementing districts: a greatly increased number of competition events. It ignores the need for a larger base of volunteers. It barely mentions the idea of qualifying for the District Championship, and completely misses one of the best benefits that I can think of: the criteria make it likely that a consistently good team will qualify to attend the World Championship, even if it is consistently outmatched by a few outstandingly good teams.

[Knufire]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

It completely glosses over what I consider the biggest fact of implementing districts: a greatly increased number of competition events. It ignores the need for a larger base of volunteers. It barely mentions the idea of qualifying for the District Championship, and completely misses one of the best benefits that I can think of: the criteria make it likely that a consistently good team will qualify to attend the World Championship, even if it is consistently outmatched by a few outstandingly good teams.

All of which I personally explained to each of the 120 teams I talked to as I handed them the flyer. You can only fit so much information on one page. The main intent of this flyer was not to be the sole piece of information given to the teams, but a supplement to the discussion. Posting them around the regional is what we did with the extras after I spoke with every team I could find. Do you want a general transcript of what I told each team as well?

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Knufire

All of which I personally explained to each of the 120 teams I talked to as I handed them the flyer. You can only fit so much information on one page. The main intent of this flyer was not to be the sole piece of information given to the teams, but a supplement to the discussion. Posting them around the regional is what we did with the extras after I spoke with every team I could find. Do you want a general transcript of what I told each team as well?

Let's get real.

Why didn't you reverse what you did?

The stuff you told teams could have been put onto the flyers that were handed out, and were posted; and the info on the flyer could have been what you told them.

I think that Alan and I made valid points.

Blake

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by gblake

Let's get real.

Why didn't you reverse what you did?

The stuff you told teams could have been put onto the flyers that were handed out, and were posted; and the info on the flyer could have been what you told them.

I think that Alan and I made valid points.

Blake

Because then people would be arguing about him doing it that way.

[gblake]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

Because then people would be arguing about him doing it that way.

I wouldn't; and I doubt Alan would.

[Knufire]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

This flyer, which presents everything as benefits and fails to mention either costs or roadblocks, qualifies as propaganda.

What costs or roadblocks do the average team, who is not involved in their local FIRST community outside attending their regional event(s), face when an area transitions to districts?

I can name a few...

• Potential volunteering requirements
• Increased travel costs for rural teams who won't feasibly have an event within driving distance
• Less "flashy" venue options
• Lack of out-of-state teams

...and I agree these could have been better addressed in the flyer. However, since they were already printed, I resorted to communicating this information verbally.

Originally Posted by gblake

Let's get real.

Why didn't you reverse what you did?

The stuff you told teams could have been put onto the flyers that were handed out, and were posted; and the info on the flyer could have been what you told them.

I think that Alan and I made valid points.

Blake

I'm not going to argue that the flyer doesn't have a positive bias. However, the accusation that we were spreading "propaganda" or attempting to hide information is insulting.

Frankly, most teams don't really care for things like the required number of events or which organization is taking financial risk for events. For teams that only attend one event and struggle to field functional robots, I believe their primary concern is how much they're benefiting their students for the amount of resources (time, money, materials) they're putting in, so that's what the flyer focuses on. Even to these teams, I did mention the increased number of events in an attempt to plant some thoughts of volunteering in them. I also made sure to express several times that everything I was saying was of my own opinion and experiences.

To more established teams, I did speak at length about some of the behind the scene changes that they might not have been aware about, such as the need for a 501c3, and the big shift of responsibility from HQ to the local organization. Frankly, the flyer was not meant for these teams; most of them already knew about the district system.

Also, several people reviewed this flyer prior to print, including a member of GOFIRST and a member of the RPC. If any of them saw this as propaganda, I'm sure they would have mentioned it.