Written by Frank Merrick, Director FIRST Robotics Competition
FIRST Robotics Competition has recently taken more steps forward in our work prioritizing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and I wanted to make you aware of them.
Reasonable Accommodations
For years, FIRST has supported making reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. Within the rules of the game, we had specific contexts in which the accommodations would be granted. Our intent, though, was to make reasonable accommodations generally at events, not just in certain contexts. So, we recently added a statement in Section 8 of the Game Manual and on our Event Experience webpage supporting this. If you or anyone else at an event needs accommodations, please speak with a volunteer!
Chairmanās Award
The current name of the top award in FIRST Robotics Competition, the Chairmanās Award, is binary. Working closely with our Chief Judge Advisors and the Hall of Fame teams over the summer and with the approval of the Board of Directors, we have developed a new name for this top award, the FIRST Impact Award. We will start to use this name in the 2023 season. This change will be made to the award webpages over the summer, and we will work with our IT team to update the portals as well. Teams who have previously won the Chairmanās Award will still see "Chairmanās Awardā associated with their team. In 2023, the name of the award will be changed and will be used for teams who win the award in 2023 and the future.
Please note that this is a name change only. All other aspects of the award, including its centrality to FIRST Robotics Competition, will remain the same.
A big thanks to the Hall of Fame teams and Chief Judge Advisors for helping us work through this change!
Event Music Playlist
FIRST Robotics Competition has an official music playlist along with a ādo not playā list for events that is reviewed and updated every season. This past year, we reviewed the playlist with a stronger focus on inclusion. As a result, some songs have been moved from the playlist to the do not play list, including āCotton Eyed Joeā and āJump On It.ā
You can review our lists and see our music strategy on the FIRST Music DJs page. If you see songs on the playlist you think should not be there, please send an email to frcteamadvocate@firstinpires.org and it will be reviewed.
Not Done Yet
Our work in ED&I is an ongoing effort. The steps above are just that ā steps in the right direction, not a conclusion to this work. We will continue our focus on this area and keep you informed of new developments.
EDIT: to be more specific, I assume thereās some issues related to the politics of Asia and not giving clear bias toward one particular political party. Iām not up on politics much though.
Iād have to assume the overlap of the venn diagram of āexports popular musicā and āhas political opponentsā is a bit larger than just āKoreaā. On the other handā¦ that list is pretty darn long already.
Iām doubting its politics, theyre probably protecting the poor AV crew from retaliation from some karen who thinks only AMERICAN music should be played.
I am very happy about the name change of the Chairmanās Award to the Impact Award. Itās more inclusive and better reflects and describes what the award is celebrating. For years teams have struggled to explain the Chairmanās Award to newcomers or from outside the program; having a much more descriptive name will definitely help.
I think it could also because they canāt properly vet the lyrics of a language they donāt speak - but they picked a bad time to just say ābanned for being foreignā on the listā¦
I wonder if this ācommitment to ED&Iā will mean they also remove some of the songs from the DNP list that may have been judged unfairly. I have not checked the 2022 list in its entirety (Iāve gotta work sometimes), but it was pretty glaring to me in prior years that music from non-white artists (or genres traditionally popularized by BIPOC artists) seemed to be judged more harshly for ācontentā.
I hope that it was part of their review - not just adding more to the DNP, but reviewing what was already there to make sure it was appropriate. IMO, it would be super beneficial if they re-evaluated the entire list based on this new lens; though I get there are PLENTY of other things on peopleās plates during this time of the year.
Please donāt get me wrong - I am really glad FIRST is taking a look at the things that are ātraditionā that actually exclude people. Good on HQ for a step in the right direction! (Selfishly, I am very happy that we donāt have to deal with the annoying dance songs. Keep that up!! )
