I’d like to add my input to this thread. For anyone who doesn’t know me, I was a student on 5225A for Starstruck and In the Zone, 472A/B prior to that, and will be competing as part of a new VEX U team next season.
I’m generally of the view that participation in VEX is about a lot more than just the outcome at competition; as a participant, the goal should be to learn as much as you can, have fun, and make a good robot that performs well irrespective of competition outcome.
However, that does not mean that any inconsistency or unfairness present in the competition is necessarily acceptable, much less justifiable. The RECF’s mission, according to their website, “is to increase student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students in hands-on, affordable, and sustainable robotics engineering programs.” It becomes more difficult to attract the students and mentors alike to these programs, and even to justify our own continued participation, every time one of these threads takes off on the forum, so I’d think it would be within the RECF’s interest (and mandate) to find a solution.
My suggestions to the RECF are as follows:
- Be willing to talk to students directly. Many teams, including my own and apparently 448X, are not associated with a school, and so it makes no sense to involve school authorities under any normal circumstance. Besides, if you really do want to teach students “soft skills” as well as technical skills through this program, you should be willing to engage in a civil, professional conversation with them.
- Make a process for dealing with situations like this (and make that process public). A major issue across all threads like this is that the RECF appears to play it by ear every time. On top of ensuring consistency and transparency, it would save everyone time, including referees, team members, and RECF staff, if there was a written procedure for handling complaints against teams, appeals from teams, reported issues with events, etc.
- Involve the community. Student participants are your largest stakeholders, and right now the vast majority feel that they do not have a voice, and rightfully so. I’m not asking you to make major decisions by referendum on the VEX Forum; I’m asking you to legitimately accept input from competitors, mentors, EPs, and others on all aspects of the competition structure in a more public, transparent and ongoing way (which the forum can provide).
If you don’t make an effort to improve, you’ll see more frustrated teams retire, either moving to other leagues (read: FIRST) or leaving robotics entirely (which is directly against the mission of the RECF and this entire community).
I’ve been part of this community for nearly 5 years now, I’ve seen it from the perspectives of a rookie on a somewhat dysfunctional school team, a member of a very serious and competitive team, and now as a student-mentor of that team and a future VEX U team captain. I have faith that the problems pointed out in these threads can and will be solved, otherwise I wouldn’t be willingly continuing to participate. However, it won’t happen automatically, and it’s up to the RECF leadership, with or without pressure from the forum or other sources, to make it happen.