A Request for transparency from FIRST

[DonRotolo]

Several mentors collaborated on this letter, which was sent to FIRST by mail on 23 September.

23 September 2009

Mr. Steve R. Chism,
Vice President, Programs
FIRST
200 Bedford St
Manchester, NH 03101


Dear Mr. Chism,

We are writing to you today as a group of concerned mentors. As professionals and businesspeople, we are used to and have come to expect that any professional organization with which we are associated will generally have a future vision, a structured long-range plan that helps guide their associates towards a common goal.

The idea of a “five year plan” is not new, and nearly any organization of merit has one or something similar. However, we do not find this to be true or apparent with FIRST. Without a clearly communicated general plan for the future some of us have wasted efforts towards goals which – not long after being implemented – were nullified by some action by FIRST. Here are three recent examples:

o Switch from FVC to FTC. Several teams/schools invested in VEX kits, the switch damaged credibility with those whom we are trying to impact as per our homework assignment.
o Switch in FRC controller. The financial implications would have improved had planning been forecast to teams in advance
o District model implementation plans

We’re not complaining about these actions but about the lack of transparency in their planning phases. While it is reasonable to be without a “fully fleshed out” plan yet – particularly for the District model – surely some of the basics are known, and uncertain or speculative points can be identified as such. We certainly all know that plans can change and we can work with that.

Should FIRST desire, we happily and enthusiastically volunteer to assist with any part of the planning efforts of FIRST, both short term and long term. We're here to support you. The organization will get a lot further if we all work towards a known goal than if we pull in different directions.

We, therefore, respectfully request that FIRST publish a publicly available future plan, laying out for the volunteers and supporters FIRST’s vision of the future. Not wanting to restrict or limit your response, we leave it up to you to determine – hopefully in collaboration with skilled and sincere volunteers – what kind of document might fulfill this need.

Respectfully submitted,


Andy Baker, Team 45, 13 years
Arefin Bari, Teams 1345, 108, 9 years
John Boucher, Team 237, 6 years
Wayne Cokeley, Team 25, 12 years
Arthur Dutra, Team 228, 6 years
Kim O’Toole Eckhardt, Team 1511, 14 years
Patrick Fairbank, Team 1503, 9 years
Ryan Foley, Team 1995, 9 years
Chris Fultz, Team 234, 9 years
Collin Fultz, Teams 234, 1747, 8 years
Adam Heard, Team 973, 6 years
Dana P. Henry, Team 839, 8 years
Travis Hoffman, Team 48, 10 years
Kevin Kolodziej, Team 1675, 12 years
Mark Kramarczyk, Teams 1189, 3096, 4 years
Rich Kressly, Team 1712, 9 years
Billfred Leverette, Teams 2815, 1398, 1618, 6 years
Shawn T. Lim, Team 1310, 11 years
Cory McBride, Team 254, 9 years
Mark McLeod, team 358, 8 years
Jon Mittelman, Team 236, 9 years
Justin Montois, Team 340, 5 years
Meredith Novak, Team 16, 8 years
Bharat Nain, Team 25, 7 years
Raul Olivera, Team 111, 14 years
Ken Patton, Team 65, 13 years
Ricky Quinones, Team 269, 8 years
Bryan T. Ragaini, Team 228, 11 years
Donald Rotolo, Team 1676, 5 years
Ed Sparks, Team 34, 14 years
Beth Sweet, Formerly Teams 67, 1504, 7 years
Gary Voshol, Formerly Teams 1188, 1025, 9 years
Richard Wallace, Team 931, 8 years
Steve Warren, Team 188, 7 years
Jane Young, Team 418, 7 years

cc: Paul R. Gudonis, President
Bill Miller, Director FRC
Ken Johnson, Director FTC
Anna Maenhout, Director FLL & JFLL