This Is Appalling Behavior At A FIRST Event

[JaneYoung]

I was checking in on one of the threads here in CD that I've been following and I came across Cat's post in the thread. This is a link to her post in the thread and I'm including the text here in this one.

This is scary, horrifying, and beyond the scope of rude. Those who behaved in this manner should be ashamed. This is an opportunity for team leaders to take note and take the time to talk to teams that travel to events about respect, patience, and kindness.

I am horrified. Sorry to bring this to light before asking your permission, Cat. It's too important to take a chance in having you say, no.

Cat's post:

I went through the entrance a number of times and would like to give a slightly different perspective to everyone on the situation. Because I have to operate from a wheelchair or scooter, I am frequently blocked by people on foot and forced to sit and wait for someone in the crowd to stop and let me through. I spend a lot of time sitting and listening to how the crowd behaves.

While I agree with the OP that the behavior in the situation was not appropriate, please think a little about what the volunteers at the door have to go through. Taken over a period of time, the volunteers at the door were subjected to a great deal of hostility from the people trying to come in. If you observed the number of people at the door, you would see that the number of volunteers there doubled and then tripled as time went on, simply to try to handle the massive number of people trying to get through the door with sunglasses or nothing.

It appears to me that the volunteer coordinators actually did try to do something that would benefit everyone by increasing the staff and decreasing the overly heavy load on the volunteers present. It may not have been punitive enough for some, but isn't this supposed to be about teaching people?

Large masses of people moving through an area take on a sort of mentality of their own and believe me this can be INCREDIBLY intimidating. I know what great people participate in FIRST, but they all forget their manners sometimes. During championship, I had people in the crowd race in front of my wheelchair, jump OVER my chair and jump in front of me to get into the elevator because they were faster, forcing me to wait for the next one.

Many of the teams would come up at full speed while yelling "ROBOT" and never even pause to let me or anyone else try to move out of the way. I was hit by robots 3 times. When I attempted to walk the small distances that I can with my cane instead, it was kicked out from underneath me twice. No apologies.

In short, I don't think that everyone is taking into account the stress on all of the people involved. Take a step back from the arguing, look at the other person's perspective and realize what they are going through. It was not easy for any of the parties involved because they each have to look at it a different way from a different type of stress. Solutions are generally best reached with patience from all parties, regardless of how difficult it may be.

Please notice how gracious this 2012 WFFA is being and learn from it. I would love to spend a day with each one of the individuals that decided to jump the chair, cut in front of the chair, hit the chair with the robot, kick the cane, and block the path. I would NOT be gracious.

Jane