What is GP to YOU?

[EricH]

Before I begin, I will note that this question has been asked and answered in the past, though not quite in this form. Some of the spotlights show this.

What is GP?

The simple definition, of course, is to expand that acronym into the full phrase, Gracious Professionalism. But the real definition may be far deeper.

In the multiple years that I have been a member of these forums, I have seen just about anything someone doesn't like called "un-GP". This could be anything from building a practice robot to various (legal) game strategies to having "mentor-built" robots. In almost every case, the person making that particular claim is promptly told that he/she is wrong in making the claim. Why is that person wrong, either in the claim's content or in the fact that it's made at all? Also, why is the callout of somebody being GP rarely heard?

Before I post my thoughts, I would like to hear some of yours. Here are some guidelines to help you form your thoughts:

1) What is Gracious Professionalism to you personally?
1a) Conversely, what is "un-GP" to you personally?
2) Keep it clean--no accusations (specific or general), please. Situational examples, particularly hypothetical ones, are encouraged, however.
3) For purposes of this thread, I want personal opinions, not necessarily team opinions. In other words, I'd really like it if entire teams aren't judged by someone's post in this thread, as happens on occasion when the accusations start flying.


Why am I posting this thread?
--I think that the meaning of Gracious Professionalism may have been lost in translation between generations of FIRSTers. Or it's been changed subtly over the years so that the old-timers don't recognize it.
--It's quite possible that rookies haven't learned about it fully yet. This is a good opportunity to teach them--they're done building, but not yet in the heat of competition.
--Ditto for some of the veterans--it's a good refresher, even if you learned the concept thoroughly and live it.
--It's a mental exercise. Can't have a bunch of engineering-type minds idling for two weeks now, can we?

Again, I'll post my thoughts later; they're still mildly scrambled right now. Written things make so much more sense when you're awake enough to tidy them up to be legible.