I'm really confused why FIRST does it this way and it's bugging me!

If this competition is meant to get students involved in technology and science then the students should come first right??? Why is it then, that at the competitions, on the website and everywhere else that when a team name is shown or spoken that the SPONSORS are the first ones mentioned???
I believe the High School and/or College name should be first in all cases. Even in the cases where your school gives you little to no support, financially or otherwise, I still think the SCHOOL and more importantly, the STUDENTS should come first!

Is thiss a FIRST dictated isssue to put the sponsors first or is it how you submit your information to FIRST???

What’s everyone’s thoughts on this???
Please clear up my confusion!

Well, I would say that without a sponsor there is no team. It’s not much of an investment for a business if there isn’t much given in ways of advertisement. Sure it’s a great cause to reach out to young engineers, but there are lots of great causes. I think that the name advertisement is perhaps a helpful little reason for businesses to sponsor teams.

~That guy

To say without a sponsor there is no team is crazy, im sure many teams (including mine) can tell you about our teams without sponsors. Its quite a stupid statement. We should just list our parents names, cause thats where the money comes from.

also not every team is just from one school. My team has kids from like 9 different high schools so the only thing that is common about us is our sponser. Plus, like it was said before, without a sponser, there is no team

Part of the overall plan of FIRST is to get support from business and industry for the FIRST competition as well as individual teams.

It is important to recognize corp sponsorship, and it is appropriate to put the sponsor first in the team name.

Think what FIRST is about and the driving philosphy that has allowed growth at a super rate.

Support on the corp level is very important. If this bugs you then you have to little to worry about.

Our team ( and most teams) are very proud of their sponsors and would not be able to effect the change in education we have seen as a result of FIRST and Corp involvement.

Please understand… FIRST is about changing a thinking pattern of young adults, educators and communities in a way that will give rewards for a lifetime.

There IS a method to this madness. Do you get it?

Also, what about those teams without a school at all?
Team 927 is entirely composed of homeschooled students.

Also, it’s not like the sponsors are giving you like $20 and saying, here go make something and put my name on it. In many cases they are giving $1,000+ or even $10,000+. Plus if your little advertisements on your shirts, robot, websites, or anything help them make money and they know it’s from you, they would be more willing to help sponsor you with even more money so you could do more. This is just as it would be in the real world. If a product is made the company has there name on it, not the inventor usually. Meanwhile, both get the credit.

the students and the school (if there is one) deserve credit and TONS of it…but so do the sponsers…i mean, these people give up almost ALL of their free time to help the students…i can’t speak for everyone but i know most of them do this for the love of it, they love to help the students and educate…and without their help FIRST probably wouldn’t have a competition to put on…with that said, the students need credit too, without the students the sponsers wouldn’t have people to teach, and FIRST STILL wouldn’t be here…so it is a type of circle relationship…

Simply put, the students and schools get their benefit from the education and experience itself.

The sponsors do it not only to give this education (giving back to the community), but also for the recognition.

Yes, not all are doing cost/benefit analysis on it all, but they get little direct benefit. (sure, some dy one of these high school students “might” end up working there…but then that’s no guarentee either huh…)

Give the sponsors a break…students get the knowledge. Schools get the same…and get to offer the experience…and don’t you think the schools and students don’t get exposure in their own town??? (if they don’t, it’s their own fault!)

*Originally posted by Elgin Clock *
**If this competition is meant to get students involved in technology and science then the students should come first right??? Why is it then, that at the competitions, on the website and everywhere else that when a team name is shown or spoken that the SPONSORS are the first ones mentioned???
I believe the High School and/or College name should be first in all cases. Even in the cases where your school gives you little to no support, financially or otherwise, I still think the SCHOOL and more importantly, the STUDENTS should come first!

Is thiss a FIRST dictated isssue to put the sponsors first or is it how you submit your information to FIRST???

What’s everyone’s thoughts on this???
Please clear up my confusion! **

it would be a lot easier if they did list the school first, but i do realize that sponsors are really important. even if your school district gives you $40,000 like 311 from east islip.

I know that people think the schools are really important, but forgetting the sponsors is leaving out a key part of the process. The whole goal of FIRST is to encourage students to go out and make a difference in the world through science and engineering. Without company support, this can’t happen. I think this program is just as much a celebration of companies that are gracious enough to reach out and work with students as it is the students themselves. So I think that we should all give a big thank-you to the sponsors helping us out, and remember all of the effort that they put forth for us.

I just want to start by clarifying my original statement which alot of you have misunderstood. I never said that sponsors are not important. I never said that the sponsors should not get any recognition either. I just feel since the students are the ones who have the most to do with building the robot(in a perfect world) that the HIGH SCOOL should come before the sponsors in every published and spoken arena.

When someone asks what team your from; how many of you say “Well we’re from Sponsor X, Sponsor Y, Sponsor Z, and X School.”? Not many I assume!

Usually when I am asked which team I am from I say the team’s name, the school, where I am from, and then if someone asks, the sponsors. It’s not that I don’t believe the sponsors are important, it’s just that in my mind I believe it is a higher priority to mention the school and team name and students who have worked hard to get to the events.

Again I am not saying that sponsors are not important, we even have a thank you list for our sponsors on the back of our shirts, but the students and adult mentors are the one’s who are most responsible for your team being at the event and I think they should get the most recognition!!

ALL HAIL TO THE STUDENTS AND MENTORS!!

Thank you sponsors for helping us to get how far we’ve come !!

Whether we want to admit it or not, corporate “back slapping” has a certain amount to do with the decision of companies to sponsor FIRST teams. I suspect that the FIRST people feel that that listing the sponsoring companies before the schools will help, at least to a small degree, to keep the sponsors on board.

Something that seemed a little telling was that in Dean Kamen’s appearance on a morning TV show a couple months ago, he used the term “company” repeatedly where we would use “team.” While he explained fairly well what FIRST is about, he did not really explain that we are teams which are, in most cases, a partnership between one or more schools and one or more businesses. All Dean talked about was “companies.”