Hey there!
We will answer the rest of the questions from this post on the show - but this one warrants a long response that may be too long for me to state tomorrow so I’ll answer this one early as an exception. Hopefully, you’ll excuse my long response.
At its core, FIRST is a program designed to inspire students to become STEM champions and confident individuals. Taking it a step deeper, FIRST provides an avenue for historically underrepresented, undermentored, and underresourced students to flourish - if given the correct tools to do so. As with many systems in our world, if there are not intentional steps taken to ensure everyone is given a fair shot - the gap of success between those who have resources and those who are less equipped will continue to grow.
As for myself, I was in the FIRST program as a student for only one year, with a team that met in the basement of a high school, lacked school support, and held minimal funds. As a student, one of the best memories I have is being selected by the first-seeded alliance in 2015 when we were ranked 60/63. We went on to win the Minnesota 10000 Lakes Regional and qualified for the World Championship. That moment of being selected is what solidified the trajectory of my life. The sense of belonging I felt through FIRST propelled the last decade of my life. I am confident in my skills, my leadership, and my ability to accomplish whatever I put my mind to. Last year my high school team made it onto Einstein for the first time with an Everybot intake.
The feeling that I felt at that event changed my life, and we hope that Everybot does the same for those who have yet to find their sense of belonging. The competitive aspect is a significant part of our ethos. Every student deserves that moment of being selected to be on an alliance, or whatever moment they deem to be their version of success. Success ranges from winning a single match to making it onto Einsten, and it’s different for everyone. All of us who work on the Everybot can tell you that exact moment that FIRST changed our lives, and our passion is evident through the amount of care and consideration we put into Everybot. Every student in the program deserves that moment, and the more resources that are put out, the more likely they are to have that moment.
With that being said, yes, we are concerned about making mistakes. We acknowledge we are just humans, and many of us are splitting our time between work, school, 118, and Everybot in those 10 days. We have long conversations and debates annually about robot strategy, how to make mechanisms more simple, and what the correct path is. Everybot requires both big-picture and granular thinking, simultaneously. We hope that with the combined efforts of students, mentors, and invited friends/alumni - we can avoid over-promising. Every year we release an “Everybot Will” list and are especially intentional with not overpromising. Occasionally we’re confident we can provide more than what we list on the “Everybot Will” list, but just in case we can’t figure out the geometry or strategy for how we want to, we will leave it off.
We are lucky to have certain individuals that are irreplaceable assets in the process, each fulfilling specific roles that are imperative to the success of Everybot. I’m confident our 118 drive coach has watched more matches than 99.9% of robotics participants and is able to produce a strategy analysis that dictates our design quickly. We have a few individuals who work with the Michigan Engineering Zone (MEZ) who have probably assembled more chassis and troubleshooted more code than anyone in FIRST. They work directly with teams who build Everybots, and have the experience to know what options are best for our resources.
The best way to make a useful resource for any group of people (not necessarily FIRST specific) is to directly ask those who you are trying to aid. This sounds obvious but many people forget this when doing outreach.
We have mentors from all areas of FIRST with various backgrounds who can reality-check the group when we suggest solutions that are out of scope, or may require too many resources. 118 heavily prioritizes prototyping, and we prototype for both 118 and Everybot at the same time, with students producing impressive prototypes rapidly. There are several stops in our process for us to catch things going in a direction we don’t deem to be world-class.
The scale at which Everybot is now embraced by the community is unprecedented. We feel an intense sense of responsibility to give everything we have to make FIRST a more equitable experience for all. FIRST is more than just a high school extracurricular, we are essentially relaying the message to thousands of students that, despite their circumstances, they can play with the best. Circumstances outside of their control should not be an aspect of how much they get out of this program.
How do we manage the stress? Similar to how a lot of NASA employees do; by remembering that we are helping a mission that is larger than us. A blend of responsibility, humility, passion, and yummy food supplied by 118 parents and our booster club.
With all of that being said, we are overjoyed at FIRST’s effort to make KitBot happen. This stuff matters. This is what the program is about.
Hopefully, that answer gave you some insight into the inner workings of the Everybot team. See y’all on the show tomorrow!
to start a sibling team 1119. When I was on the team we used to have new students help to assemble a kitbot. This was a great way to teach us how to use a drill, cut/strip a wire, drill a hole ect… sure it took me 25 tries to get the wago into the 
but the more I did it the better and more confident I got. Eventually us 1st years got it all built and took turns driving it around, having the time of our lives driving OUR little robot.