Letter From Dean to Michigan

[maltz1881]

Dean has sent all the Michigan Teams the following letter:

It is with great excitement that we recently announced the launch of a new pilot district event model for the FIRST Robotics Competition(FRC) in Michigan.

Over the years FIRST has aggressively taken steps to invent new programs and reinvent existing programs to find new ways to take our message to ever more participants. The FIRST Lego League(FLL) successfully reached out to younger participants and demonstrated great scalability. Very recently, FIRST Tech Challenge(FTC) filled the gap between FLL and FRC and is now excited to introduce a new, more capable platform this year. Junior FIRST Lego League(JFLL) recently created a new step before FLL.

The district event pilot in Michigan is an important opportunity to help reinvent FRC, our flagship program. It holds the promise of making FRC more accessible, thereby moving us closer to the day when every high school student has an opportunity to participate. Team members should be able to play more and play closer to home, all at a lower cost.

We need your help to fulfill this opportunity. Under the able leadership of Francois Castaing, Michigan's volunteer leadership has worked with FIRST Programs Staff to formulate an excellent model. However, all pilot programs require some de-bugging ! Please work with us all to make this an outstanding launch season and thereby open up new opportunities for FRC growth.

Thanks,

Dean

[thehurd03]

idk it doesn't seam very legit, with the random second paragraph thrown in there

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by thehurd03

idk it doesn't seam very legit, with the random second paragraph thrown in there

Does it matter, the idea is what is important.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by thehurd03

idk it doesn't seam very legit, with the random second paragraph thrown in there

It's legit. Promise.

-Libby Kamen

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Libby K

It's legit. Promise.

-Libby Kamen

Thank you, Libby.

Jane

[Cory]

Originally Posted by maltz1881

It holds the promise of making FRC more accessible, thereby moving us closer to the day when every high school student has an opportunity to participate. Team members should be able to play more and play closer to home, all at a lower cost.

I hope FIRST's goal is not a FRC team in every school in the country. The way they have worded this, it could mean a team at every school, or a team within daily driving distance of every high school student.

I can't really find a way to say this nicely. That would truly suck. FRC would have lost everything that makes it special.

What will the costs be to the current teams to make this "goal" a reality? The economy can barely support the FRC teams we have. Many teams do not have engineers or other technical mentors. I don't think it matters how cheap we can make the events.

No matter how cheap they are, the above will still be a problem. There's so much more you need to be able to run a successful FIRST team than the money for an entry fee alone. FIRST could give every school in the country money to pay the entry fee, plus $500 to make their robot, and 90% of the teams would be completely unsustainable, even if they somehow managed to actually build a robot.

It seems clear as day to me that FRC is a terrible model for this kind of expansion, whereas things like FTC and VEX are perfect for it. Maybe I don't "get it". I don't get why we want a FRC team in every school. I don't get why we want to take something special and make it common and ordinary. I don't get why we want to have more more more (with more teams dropping out every year, consequently), instead of having more quality amongst the teams we've already got.

-$0.02

[JaneYoung]

I think this pilot program could be developed to work in more ways than planned in Michigan. Michigan has many teams and this is their approach to keeping the competitions available to all the teams in that area. (And it sounds like a whole lot of fun to me.) But, as I said in another post, I can see this working in areas that are having difficulty developing teams, helping them with easier access, etc. Large areas like Texas, for example. Other countries, like New Zealand, who are on the other side of the world from where much of the competition venues are located. This pilot concept could potentially help the states/countries that want to provide multiple competitions while still growing their program, stabilizing it.

The program has to be robust, as do the competitions, as do the teams. This could be one way to support that and help it develop. I see all sorts of possibilities.

[dbs12693x]

I see a bit of promise in the new structuring. I think that there's definately reason to test the idea.

However, if our goal is to be able to sustain a FIRST Robotics Competition which reaches and inspires more students...then just restructuring the competitions will not do. Having competitions be close to home will definately help...some amount. Teams won't magically rise and flourish just because it's easier for them to do so, though. There are a few reasons why teams might not be able to start-up. One of the problems is the revenue source--the funding--and not just the costs. The costs will always be high, but the funding might not be.

What about the perspective of new teams?

Say a school doesn't have a team. To get one, it will have to 1) have someone learn about FIRST, and 2) get start-up funding, 3)interested students, and 4) mentors. To flourish and continue, it will need more funding and students, mainly. So how will this restructuring help? It'll make step 2) easier to achieve, and that's about it, and maybe more people will hear about FIRST if it's spread-out, but not necessarily. So, it may help to reorg, but that won't solve a whole lot of problems. Who knows if a state-championship will compare in size and hype with a GLR? Will they get the news coverage of those more extablished regionals? I guess they'll be in the news, since they'll be "new."

In any case, I think that scholorships are the way to go...though not having to pay FedEx to ship the thing is also an attractive "plus." Scholorships are versatile and can help get teams through no limit of tough situations, wether or not staying at a hotel or travelling far is one of them. There's no way we can REALLY help the lower-key teams succeed unless we get government, big corporations, etc., more involved. Sure, NASA helps out rookie teams, but that only lasts for a year, and big companies support successful teams, but there lies the problem: the successful teams don't have to try as hard to get sponsorship, because of their success records, while newer ones might not get any at all. There is the beauty of gov't. help.

Anyway, more government support means more speaches on FIRST--that, in turn, means that there will be more coverage and wide-spread recognition of the competition, and maybe even legislation aimed at helping FIRST teams; I can imagine FRC stimulus checks already (which, on a side note, would really help out the economy by making more teams which buy materials and so forth... )

On a side note, one thing I'll miss will be the I feel that big competitions, such as GLR, St. Louis, and even IRI, are what get FIRST into the news. People are excited, cheering, and generally having an amazing time. I know, for one, when I advertize FIRST, that the liveliness of the competition is something I don't forget to mention. I also know, though this doesn't apply to Michigan for me, that going out to new states and different competitions is one of the highlights of FRC, and it's a luxury that I really enjoy (though, as Alex Golec does mention, is not the main goal of FIRST).

Anyway, it's worth a shot. Who knows; maybe we will get more teams, and it'll make up for all the down-sides? In any case, this pilot will have to go on for at least two or three years for us to fully appreciate the long-term effects of such structuring, and, well, I don't know how much fun that will be. This restructuring is an alright idea in principle, and is, I think, an inevitable one, but getting increased government involvement should be a priority before restructuring the FIRST Robotics Competition in its entirety.

-Daniel Smolkin

[Zflash]

[quote=Cory;760891]I hope FIRST's goal is not a FRC team in every school in the country. The way they have worded this, it could mean a team at every school, or a team within daily driving distance of every high school student.QUOTE]

The Michigan Pilot Q&A on the FIRST website states they hope to have %50 involvemnet in MI High Schools eventually. I am sure they mean the more attainable goal like your second suggestion.

[Rich Kressly]

whoopsie....read post wrong

[Brdn666]

It also allows teams to play more. It is horrible if you spend $20,000 on a robot and then you only get to play 20 matches.