You know, this kind of situation crops up more than I’d like to admit. “Hey, I want exactly what you have, and I want it now, give it to me!”–regardless of difficulty. It could come from anywhere. And there isn’t really a good response that will be accepted by the party making the demand. The best response may be “I’m using that space now, I’ll be done in X time and will make sure you have it then.”
OTOH… Forcing your way into someone else’s space that they’re using and causing potential injury… I’m hoping someone did the professional thing and filled out a Non-Medical Incident Report form. That’s what it’s there for.
Gracious Professionalism…
Gracious: Having grace. People who are gracious may generally described as, accommodating, friendly, willing to work with others, among other desirable traits.
Professional: Does their work well, doesn’t mess around.
Both parts are needed.
Just to pick on an example… FRC field staff. There’s a team that is late/has difficulty with the field. Gracious means that the match will play with the team, regardless of how long that takes. Event runs late… Professional means that the gate closed at the time, we’re rolling, sorry but you weren’t going soon enough. See also: annoyed team. Gracious Professionalism would generally dictate that a balance is found (say, we’ll try for 5 minutes if you’re there, and then we’re going to have to run this match and have somebody work with you afterwards).
I volunteered at some of the practice fields in Houston and we tried to do our best at making sure the floor space was adequate for all of the robots trying work out some bugs. I did not see the instance you were discussing we didn’t have the best system, but it was more or less an orderly line and we discussed what needs the team had for practicing and we would try to place them in an area of the field that suited their needs. We typically let teams practice for 15 min and if there was another team that requested that area we would ask them to leave the practice area. That being said I don’t know if you discussed this with the volunteers in the area, but I feel they could have assisted with the situation.
As far as the gracious professionalism goes. I love the fact that FIRST is built on the idea of gracious professionalism, it is one of the things that keeps me coming back. It is the only competitive environment that I have ever been a part of where the overall mindset is to try to lift the overall play of everyone rather than just looking out for yourself.
But… I totally disagree with anyone telling someone else they are not being a gracious professional. They may not be acting gracious or professional, but as soon as you point that out neither are you. It is like bragging about being humble. It is just not right.
That is basically the point I am looking at.
If you are asking for something and someone refuses, doesn’t mean they are being ungracious. You may think what you are asking is a great distribution of resources, but then it is from a viewpoint of yours… but you are the one that wants something.
Refusal of an idea doesn’t equate being ungracious, but pulling the ‘you are not being a gracious professional’ jumps a request to an accusation and in turn creates an ungracious professionalism on your part.
We must strive to limit pulling of the GP card or it loses both its effect and meaning.
At competitions we generally pay attention to the PA calls from Pit Admin and rush to help wherever we can. Dean Kamen himself came and thanked our pit crew for being so helpful.
But once, a team asked if we had a particular part. We said, well, the only one we have is on our robot. They acted like they were expecting us to unbolt it and give it to them, and were actually disappointed when it became clear we weren’t going to. :eek:
I am 100% over hearing this told to (or in some cases yelled/blustered at) students by adults who are making an extreme fuss over some small part of their behavior. Actually, I’m just generally done with people using GP as an arbitrary measuring stick to be applied to othsr people, often without any sense of irony relative to their own behavior.
Given the current usage of the term, I think he’s got a point. Some of the below may be paraphrased… legal but edgy strategy “That’s not Graciously Professional!” random discussion on something the slightest bit controversial “You’re not being a Gracious Professional!” team doesn’t help another team due to needing X themselves “You’re not Gracious Professional!” volunteer doesn’t act outside his capacity at something he’s not certified to do, and attempts to redirect to the proper source “You need to be a Gracious Professional!” (and no, I’m not joking)
I think it may be time for Woodie to focus a couple more discussions on the concept…
When GP has gone from “sportsmanship, but better” to “Hammer of the GP gods”, it’s high time for a reminder, and maybe a little reinvention.
Just as a reminder to those reading this thread, several of the examples are relative to common space or shared resources. I bring this up as some teams will hog the shared resource until others are extremely frustrated. Nothing g was stolen as it was not the teams resource, but one provided for teams to share. Sharing is tough. 1st person believes it is in their right to use, second team may also believe in getting their “fair share”.
OP may be very justified with it as written. OPs team may have been hogging the space, and on their 4th “we need just one more try”.
When a resource becomes more scarce “lack of meeting space, prime seating, practice field”, it is very easy for both parties to stop being Gracious.
We were on Carver. Practice fields were very crowded. Our experience with the volunteers was positive. They work with a limited resource, and tried to get teams what they needed. I can’t say it was perfect. Maybe other teams had other experiences. I can say thank you to the volunteers. Without you it would have been a complete mad house.
Gracious Professionalism is an ethos. If you try to use it as a verb, you missed the point. :]
Gracious Professionalism, like most Woodie Flowers ideas, is a great tool for FIRST when it isn’t being recklessly abused by the perpetually out of touch.
Use the idea of Gracious Professionalism as a standard you hold yourself and the for members of your team and FIRST family to. Have conversations to help point out any interactions that displayed positive use of gp and recognize ones that lacked it.
Disregard the wanton abuse of it as a pathetic trump card used by pathetic little people that seek to use it to manipulate or abuse you.
I wouldn’t characterize people pulling it as a trump card as pathetic little people. Just someone that may be stressed, in a hurry, or feeling they are justified to having something but that idea isn’t shared.
I am sure many people have pulled the card and regretted it. I am sure other use it wantonly because they have a misunderstanding of when it should be applied or are expressing their frustration over a situation. And I am sure there are some that just use it as a sword to embarrass others to get their way.
It is only the last one that may fit the above description, but I still wouldn’t characterize them as pathetic little people. I would just call that a poor team culture setting example. Sort of like Mentors that often or even deliberately disregard the safety glasses standard in the pits.
Like many things in this world, GP is a good idea with bad implementation (on behalf of the people recklessly abusing it to get their way). My condolences to OP and the others in this thread with not-so-great stories to tell.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard the words “well, you’re not a Gracious Professional, then!” or any derivative of that phrase before, much less heard it applied in such a malicious and self-serving way. I’ve seen things labeled as “not Gracious Professionalism” (graciously professional?) and I myself have observed things at FRC events that I’d describe as “not Gracious Professionalism,” but I haven’t seen that label used as an insult, especially not in that manner. Of course, I’m not you. Some specifics would shed light on the situation so we can have a less one-sided perspective on the issue.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve witnessed students, mentors, and whole teams doing some pretty asinine things, but I’ve never heard of something this brazen. When it comes down to it, some people just suck, and sometimes those people concentrate in groups and sometimes that group is, unfortunately, an FRC team. All the rest of us can do is try not to be one of those people.
We had a pit admin tell us we were “the most un-gp team” after respectfully questioning their practice of having 2 opening ceremonies and 2 closing ceremonies and kicking everyone out of the pit for both.
We were told it was not GP to stay in the pits because their sponsors are paying for the event and we need to listen to them.
We were than told that the teams 40 minutes a day are not as important as their sponsors and that we should be thankful that they even run the event for us. The event we paid $5000 to attend.
That same person than told us we won chairman’s because he took us off the “most non gp list.”
The idea of Gracious Professionalism is awesome but the term has been completely blown out of hand. I will admit I’m happy that we got off the “most un gp list” though. It was a really rough place to be.
FIRST maintains a culture where concerns about safety, comfort, and fairness can be raised and addressed. If anyone states that they feel threatened or uncomfortable because of verbal abuse, inappropriate contact, or other negative behaviors that are not in the spirit or event rules of FIRST, we ask that you complete a Non-Medical Incident Report to formally document the event.
This form may be used to report witnessed violations of any rules in this section, such as the rules against seat saving or throwing objects from seating areas. The fastest and easiest way to resolve such issues is often to have a friendly conversation with the individual or individuals engaging in the behavior. It’s very possible they are not aware of the rule being violated. However, if you are not comfortable doing so, or have attempted that approach and it has not worked, please report it on the Non-Medical Incident Report form.
FIRST takes all disclosures and indications of risk seriously, and will work to resolve the issue quickly, while honoring every individual’s right to privacy.
Since you had issues with Pit Administration and therefore probably wouldn’t want to file a report through them, you can download and fill out the form here.
Also, as you can observe on this page, E35 allows up to 5 people in the pit to work on the robot during ceremonies, provided they show respect for the activities, especially by not violating E34 and E36-38. This is a rule that multiple parts of the country seem to have a unique and persistent level of difficulty in following, so I do implore you or anyone else with this problem to contact FRC Team Support so the issue can be documented and investigated.
FIRST has decided to make it very difficult to find these rules and expectations, along with other separate and similar procedures, unless you intentionally seek them out and know the key phrases you are looking for. I implore you to generate your own bookmarks for reference instead of relying on the ability to find what you want through the website.
You know, competitions are a stressful time. You’ve put 6 weeks of your life into a robot, and have this one chance for it to be successful. You woke up earlier than normal that morning, and got back to the hotel very late the previous night. If you’re a mentor/chaperone/parent, you’re stressed by the logistics of travelling with 30 underage students. You’re worried about giving them a good experience.
All of that leads people to be less than their best. Any key volunteer can tell you stories of being bullied by teams, yelled at, or cussed out. In the heat of the moment, when you’re watching your hopes for the season fade, you generally aren’t worried about being “gracious professionals” - you’re looking for a way to fix it. Sometimes that comes out as “energetic disagreement” with the red about a call, or the FTA about the field, or the inspector about a rule interpretation. And it can come out in your interactions with other teams.
We all strive to be better, to live up to the ideal Woody has put in front of us. But please remmeber that calling someone out for not being a gracious professional doesn’t help solve a situation. Sometimes you just have to let the person bent, help them find a solution, and move on. We like to talk about how helping other teams is GP, or giving them parts is GP, or mentoring teams is GP. But recognizing the effects of a stressful situation and looking past someone else’s bad behavior is perhaps more GP than all the rest.
