NMIR might work for an adult who is dialed into process & procedure, it’s… a lot… to expect from someone just entering the program. Not that it is difficult to fill out, but fundamentally its difficult to know that it exists in the first place.
This is getting pretty off-topic but I think FIRST HQ doesn’t get as many NMIR’s as they probably should because they don’t publicize them well at the events. Sure they’ve started talking about them in the blog posts, but your average event attendee (incl. many students, spectators, volunteers, mentors etc.) doesn’t read those religiously and therefore isn’t aware that it’s available. I understand that it’s hard for FIRST to publicize an incident report form at the event, because that’s essentially saying “we expect people are going to have problems at this event significant enough to be reported, so here’s the form to fill out when that happens”. And clearly that’s not a very inviting message to be broadcasting to event attendees.
This is why I think FIRST should replace the NMIR with a “HQ Feedback Form” and “RPC Feedback Form”. This does a few things:
- Since it’s now “feedback” instead of an “incident report”, FIRST can publicize it more widely at events
- They can get positive and negative feedback, which is good for promotional stuff
- Less serious/more local problems can be directed to the RPC instead of to HQ
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I was in grade 10 at the time, I didn’t know what a NMIR was, nor did my mentors. My team had a (filtered word redacted), sexist, racist culture back then that has thankfully changed now. It was not something that people felt comfortable making a “big deal about” at the time.
I’d be willing to bet most mentors are still unaware of the NMIR.
Oh boy, I’ve spent a lot of time volunteering. I’m an LRI. I was talking about my experiences as a participant. As a volunteer I’ve definitely experienced disrespectful behavior but it’s never been targeted toward my race, gender identity, sexual identity, etc. I know the same can’t be said for some of my fellow LRIs.
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I can assure folks. This was not an isolated occurrence and that in spite of any complaints that would be filed the expected outcome is approximately nothing.
I was involved in the discussions with hq after a volunteer said a 16 yr old girl looked like a [pejorative term for female] because of what she was wearing… in full view of this girl’s mother. Complaints were filed, discussions with hq were had. And this volunteer is still the lead teacher for another school.
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I feel like this is deserving of it’s own thread.
Feeling safe at competitions is a privilege that many do not have. NMIR’s are a great initiative, but many people are scared and hesitant to report minor issues, even if they make them feel unsafe.
FRC attracts lots of great people. But we like to gloss over a lot of the cultural issues in the basement. Everyone deserves to feel safe. If I had a dollar for every time one of my friends has had someone creeping on them at competition or on social media afterwards, I’d be able to buy ice cream for all of them.
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Yee.
Important topic but deserves a different thread.
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Feeling safe at competitions is 100% a privilege.
I think you need to read what you wrote again. The rest of your post was on point, but this sentence doesn’t say what you want it to.
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@moderators Can we split this conversation into it’s own thread? I believe it starts at post 351
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I’ve split out a bunch of posts that specifically deal with the NMIR process from the Black Lives Matter thread into this one. If I missed any, feel free to flag and we’ll get them moved over.
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You’re not incorrect in that substantial change needs to happen to afford others the same opportunities that you’ve been afforded. That said, the culture as is is not nearly perfect. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the times I’ve seen people be dismissive or rude to girls, minorities, and other severely underrepresented demographics because of that at competition. I ran out of fingers in my first year as a mentor, which disappoints me immensely, considering one of the first I had to deal with was one of my own students.
I wish I could say that a NMIR actually solved issues generally, but there’s already documented proof that HQ gives people the run-around on them even when the individual is identified. Just because you don’t see discrimination, harassment, and behaviors that systematically keep people out of a program doesn’t mean they’re not there, it means you’ve been numbed to the privilege some of us very definitely have.
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you are going to need to provide more than this one instance of “proof” about HQ giving folks the run around. The only issue I saw out of the mess that was the email chain was the document did not make it to HQ. Would you like to point me to some other issue?
Does anyone know when the NMIR first became available? I’m not sure when I first learned about it, but I know no one on my team knew about it back in 2011 when we could have used it the most.
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13 is still a very small sample size, but it’s larger than 1 at least! From the CHS Mentors facebook group, shared with permission:
It’d be interesting to survey a larger and more diverse group of FRC lead mentors on this.
please don’t quote only a portion of my question. It is misleading. I asked about “HQ run around.” Your screen shot of 13 responses from a facebook group that contains 420 members is interesting but in no way illuminates my question. and not to get picky here but, i’m a part of that facebook group, who’s permission did you get? i’m a tad confused.
Even experienced ones–from personal experience in the last two years.
I’ll admit to having one or two physical copies “on me” at events, just in case things get really out of hand.
Renaming it to “feedback” might be useful… But I think the better way might be for HQ to send ALL of the Lead Mentors and Alternates both the MIR and NMIR, and a short version of the process (if there’s an issue, go to link and submit. Or print it out and mail or hand to Regional Director and/or HQ. OR go to Pit Admin, get copy, Regional Director, who hands to HQ with a written response if it’s been taken care of locally).
Actually, the most important part of the process is the one that doesn’t really happen: HQ/Region followup with the reporting party–or possibly even with the reported party. Let’s say that for the sake of argument, I’m volunteering at an event and I say something extremely inappropriate to someone. They’re offended–as they have a right to be–and file an NMIR about the incident. I don’t know if I’d hear anything (though it might depend if the VC/RD or my lead were informed of the NMIR)–I can’t say I know anybody who’s had an NMIR against them and has been willing to tell me. Given the general thoughts I’ve heard from CD, I’m 90% sure that the offended party wouldn’t hear either!
On those grounds, the current process appears to be: aggrieved party files NMIR, HQ reads it and takes generic background action to theoretically prevent the situation but practically have no effect. IMO, the bare minimum response should be “We have received the NMIR, we are looking into the event” followed by “We have investigated your NMIR, and we are taking X action”. Now, that doesn’t mean that X action is actually a serious one… but if a team files a SECOND NMIR for the same person for a similar action then that should set off all kinds of alarm bells!
@Jon_Stratis I’m not sure. I can think of a couple of seasons that would have trigger factors that would cause such a form to be developed (2012 and 2014, for 2013 and 2015) but I’m not sure why HQ wouldn’t have it available before then. I know I wasn’t aware of its existence when I was a student.
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AS someone who had a NMIR filed against them, this is not my experience. The event manager and Regional Directer talked to me about it before they moved it up to HQ. I never heard anything after that.
A student on my team was the subject of an NMIR this year, but I have not heard or seen anything since the incident. I’m willing to chalk it up to the chaos after week two. However, I believe I have filed two reports myself in years past, and never received anything back in either incident there, either.
NMIRs are, unfortunately, widely underused for their purpose.
If an event warranting an NMIR occurs between only two individuals with no other bystanders/witnesses, it is extremely difficult for the victim to file an NMIR out of fear of retaliation. There is nobody else who would know about the event, so as soon as the aggressor hears they have had an NMIR filed against them, it’s trivial to figure out who filed it. It is not often that these acts are enough to enact a permanent blanket ban from FIRST on the aggressor (not that these necessarily always work anyway), so there is a strong chance of the two attending the same event eventually.
Alternatively, if a group of people perpetrate the act (say … booing a team after the team has been eliminated and is walking off the field … ), it’s very difficult to file an NMIR for that.
I am glad the NMIR exists, but I hope to see improvements to it. How to improve it - I don’t know. I wish I did. But I think we still have a way to go.
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About what I was thinking might happen at the outside unless it was serious.
I may have had one against me but I don’t know if it was filed in the first place. Never heard anything from RDs or HQ. 
Can’t change anything if I don’t know something’s wrong.
I think the first process improvement is to not have the NMIRs go into a seeming black hole. The hard part is keeping the Need to Know people in the know and figuring out who they are!
After filling out an NMIR and sending multiple emails to HQ to complain about a variety of conditions including some by some high up people, I had a two hour phone call with the head of YPP. First off, YPP is the wrong department to deal with a complaint from someone who is not a youth participant in the program, is over 18, and complaining about an incident not involving students.
Anyways, though, about 6 months later that person no longer was employed by FIRST.
Coincidence?
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…100% yes. They don’t care what we think