Team Leadership

Today I read this article that I found on mlive.com from the Grand Rapids Press.

Apparently the FIRST team at Grandville High School (RoboDawgs, Team #288) in Grandville Michigan is having an issue with leadership of their team. The article makes the claim that certain people feel the need to have Team 288 directed by administrators, their team boosters and corporate sponsors. Apparently a group of people feel that because the RoboDawgs didn't have a winning season, they need to change their leadership...

This is interesting to me since my team (904) worked closely all of this season with the Grandville team. The RoboDawgs are such a great group of people and the parents, mentors and students were all incredibly helpful to our team. They worked great together and I was very thankful that they allowed us to work with them and test our machine at their facility.

It is simply astounding to me to think that someone wants to change their leadership simply based on their performance this year. That is NOT what FIRST is about. It's NOT about winning and it’s NOT even about building robots... It is about giving students the opportunity to solve unique and interesting problems in a short amount of time while keeping within a limited budget. These are experiences that professional engineers face every day.

The companies that sponsor FIRST teams do NOT do it because they want "air time" with their logo in people's faces while their robot is winning. They do it because they value our young people, and hope that given the right circumstances, they'll go to college to study engineering, science and technology and be able to return to the community to help these companies grow.

The article also claims that Grandville's Robotics Team Booster Organization was formed to help the team through tough times. Running a FIRST robotics team is a lot like running a business. There is ALWAYS money problems and lack of adults that provide the guidance every team needs. I find it appalling that the RoboDawgs are chasing away a good group of caring adults that have provided leadership to their team for several years. I sincerely hope they can work through their differences and return as a whole cohesive team for 2009.