MAR

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by EricH

Don, just a little hint.
(snip)

I don't have any involvement in MAR, but it seems to me like Akash had concerns, posted a question, and got a very helpful concise answer from the people at MAR. A great example of what CD is incredibly useful for.

Eric, since you are not even close to the target group, does it make much sense that you would have been hit with MAR informational minutes or information? Perhaps another rookie team could comment on how that has actually happened, and it would be much more useful to the MAR planning committee. Finally starting with "X, just a little hint." sounds pretty condescending to me. Even if someone was giving me the best advice in the world, if it was delivered like that I'm not sure I would listen.

Still waiting for a District/Qualifier to come to a region near me...

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Ian Curtis

Eric, since you are not even close to the target group, does it make much sense that you would have been hit with MAR informational minutes or information? Perhaps another rookie team could comment on how that has actually happened, and it would be much more useful to the MAR planning committee. Finally starting with "X, just a little hint." sounds pretty condescending to me. Even if someone was giving me the best advice in the world, if it was delivered like that I'm not sure I would listen.

Ian, I gave an example. No, I'm not in the area. I never asked to be involved; if I had wanted to be, I wouldn't have had much of an idea how to get involved. But let's say that CA (or some other area I'm in) starts a district system up. Let's say that I'm in the target area, with a team (a bit of a stretch). Now, if it's something I need/want to know about, like planning meetings, and I don't know about it for whatever reason, I'm not going to be too thrilled months later when I look and all I know about is one meeting--and I find out that there were a bunch of others, and didn't know the contact info or anything for involvement. That not-thrilled-ness is going to be directed towards wherever the communication break happened--or where I see the break happening, which may not be the same place.

That was my point. I've been following this thread today, and it just seems like the folks that are active in MAR are assuming that their information on how to be involved with planning and meetings and all that made it to everybody. This information is incorrect, or was...but operating under the assumption that everyone who wants to be involved has information on how to get involved is not ideal.

Flyers at events, assuming both that they have the information needed to get involved and that they are distributed appropriately, do have a tendency to end up in piles of paperwork or in the trash or buried in someone's bag. Email, though better, can still break down, as shown here. Hey, maybe a post on CD about "Hey, we're forming X group, here's how to get involved" would work--but I didn't exactly see that info in a post. Definitely a good effort, now that I hear what they did. Team communication breakdowns are not the fault of the organization. Just maybe a general announcement via some non-email communication might have been a really good idea.

Ian, I'll be editing that part about "hint" out of my original post. I apologize if anyone took that the wrong way. I just tend to get rather irritated about communication breakdowns--the more critical the communicated information, the more irritated I get.

[KathieK]

Since I anticipate the Connecticut teams asking me, can someone please clarify which teams can attend MAR events? Some of my teams have been going to NJ and PA Regionals for a long time... And no, I haven't been in the communications loop for this.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by EricH

Flyers at events, assuming both that they have the information needed to get involved and that they are distributed appropriately, do have a tendency to end up in piles of paperwork or in the trash or buried in someone's bag. Email, though better, can still break down, as shown here. Hey, maybe a post on CD about "Hey, we're forming X group, here's how to get involved" would work--but I didn't exactly see that info in a post.

No offense Eric, but emails to official team contacts and flyers passed out at events are far more likely to reach people than CD posts. There are a huge number of teams that have no presence on CD.

If lead mentors don't pass on information received, that's not the fault of the sender. I know how that works. I relied for years on people reprinting email blasts here on CD, because our mentor didn't read his emails (from anyone) on a regular basis.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by EricH

Ian, I'll be editing that part about "hint" out of my original post. I apologize if anyone took that the wrong way. I just tend to get rather irritated about communication breakdowns--the more critical the communicated information, the more irritated I get.

Eric- I can appreciate what you are trying to accomplish. I agree communication is absolutely critical in almost every aspect of life. It too, irritates me, as it often leads to messy situations that can be avoided.

That being said, I don't have much knowledge of MAR. What I do know is from being in touch with my old teammates on MORT and seeing the few posts about it here on CD. I can understand how some people in the MAR region may be irritated if information was not communicated to them (if indeed, it was not brought to their attention). With all that said, I am not 'in the loop' so to speak. I don't know what was done by the MAR committee to reach out to teams, and I'm not going to speculate as to what did, or didn't occur. To me, just as bad as non-communication is over-communication. I personally don't see much constructive discussion in offering somewhat arbitrary examples of miscommunication.

I think Akash did the right thing and brought up the question to a body of people that could help (albeit he may have been able to say it a littttttle bit nicer ). He got an answer from a fellow FIRSTer, and now assumingly, he will have the communication channel he desired. Let's just leave it at that, especially if we have no direct view into what is happening in MAR. Otherwise, it's just extra discussion to cloud the clear messages people are looking for.

-Brando

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by EricH

No, I'm not in the area. I never asked to be involved; if I had wanted to be, I wouldn't have had much of an idea how to get involved.

I'm sure you'd quickly realize that contacting the Regional Director would be a great place to start.

If you wouldn't have come up with that on your own, and if you weren't part of a team in the area, and if you didn't go to any competitions where the information was available, then I don't know what to tell you.

That was my point. I've been following this thread today, and it just seems like the folks that are active in MAR are assuming that their information on how to be involved with planning and meetings and all that made it to everybody. This information is incorrect, or was...but operating under the assumption that everyone who wants to be involved has information on how to get involved is not ideal.

The information might not have "made it to" everybody, but it was certainly "made available to" every team in the area. That some team contacts failed to pass it on to anyone is unfortunate. It is also unfortunate that the MAR board has no control over such things.

Flyers at events, assuming both that they have the information needed to get involved and that they are distributed appropriately, do have a tendency to end up in piles of paperwork or in the trash or buried in someone's bag. Email, though better, can still break down, as shown here. Hey, maybe a post on CD about "Hey, we're forming X group, here's how to get involved" would work--but I didn't exactly see that info in a post. Definitely a good effort, now that I hear what they did. Team communication breakdowns are not the fault of the organization. Just maybe a general announcement via some non-email communication might have been a really good idea.

I'm not sure what you're suggesting should have been done. Don't flyers count as "non-email communication"?


I'm also more than a little confused about Akash's position. The team went defunct? If that's the case, I don't really see how anyone could expect its former members to be specifically targeted with useful information. I'd say that disbanding a team and not going to any events fits the description of "intentionally" avoiding MAR.