Importance of the Rookie Chairman's

[Barry Bonzack]

I would like to start this thread stating why it is important for every rookie team to submit a Chairman's Award application. Even though it is not possible for a rookie team to actually win the Chairman's Award, there are still many reason to encourage rookie teams to submit this essay anyway. Sure it helps the judges pick the Rookie All-Star award which grants a seed into the Championship Event, but there are many reasons to submit an essay other than award possibilities.

The Chairman's Award is a way to keep a history of the team up to the very beginning. This will be useful to one's team even after the freshman on it have all graduated. Be sure to document all the team does to make the community aware of its new existence, and all of the partnerships the team has formed. How many Vet teams here on their Chairman's Award team are having trouble researching their team's history all the way back to their rookie year? Even if a team doesn't submit an essay, or doesn't submit one in future years, be sure to have some way to record the history for future years some how. One day the team will be able to look back and realize just how far they have come from their first year. I am able to look back and see how far my team has come even from 1604's first day.

The Chairman's Award puts the focus on the true meaning of FIRST. FIRST is not about the robotics competition, but how the team communicates their efforts with their community, shows gracious professionalism, and how the team recruits students into science and engineering. Many times it is hard for first year students to understand how this is not battling robots, and how its not about the robot at all. The Chairman's Award is the real competition of FIRST, the robotic competitions are just a nice entertaining sideshow while the judging process is going on. ;)

If others have anything they would like to add, please join me in encouraging other rookie teams to submit a Chairman's application.

[tiffany34990]

Every team makes a difference in the world of FIRST and outside of the FIRST community. It is nice to see how teams are born and what they do. As rookies they will complish so much. The Chairman's award celebrates the efforts of not just veteran teams but the rookie teams too. It's a good thing to do as a rookie team because you strive to earn this award. So if you start now well I'm sure later on you'll be champions not only making a difference around you in your community but well be a well respected team in the FIRST community. There are soo many good stories that come around because of teams striving for this great award. And yes it's not just about winning it but making a difference around you. When you do something great, it just feels good.

I wish all the rookies team good luck this season and do go out and be apart of the very awarding battle of the Chairman's award.

[briholton]

I would like to start this thread stating why it is important for every rookie team to submit a Chairman's Award application. Even though it is not possible for a rookie team to actually win the Chairman's Award, ....

We won the Chairman's Award in 1993 when we were a rookie team. Oh yeah, FIRST was only two years old itself..... :D

[richardp]

While rookie teams may not have an in-depht history like the vet teams. They still have some history in that some of them had to go through a lot to even get a team. It also helps them to just keep sight of the fact FIRST is about more than just a robot or just a robot competion.

[dhitchco]

Barry,

we're a rookie team and will be submitting the Chairman's Award via the www.firstawards.com web site as part of our competing in the Rookie All-Star award process.

EVERY team should be doing the work on Chairman's Award very EARLY in the 6-week build period. A bit too late to discuss this now.

You wrote:
The Chairman's Award is a way to keep a history of the team up to the very beginning

It's really more than that:
-- Any good corporation will not embark (spend money) on a new business or product without first coming up with the MISSION and VISION statements. The CA award does that for FRC so that all team members are "on board".
-- By documenting your "game plan" in the CA application, you also solidify your design and build plan for the robot. Will you be a defensive partner in the alliance? Will you be an offensive autonomous ruler?
-- By filling-out the CA questions and sharing them with your teammates, teachers, and even the sponsors in your community, you become a much more complete, tightly-integrated team.

Good luck everyone in submitting CA by this FRIDAY (2/18) at midnight

[RoboMom]

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I have been holding off posting here until I got all my facts straight.

I contacted Wendy Trommer at FIRST to verify my information.
1. Rookie teams do not participate in the interview process at regionals.
2. From Wendy:
" It is clearly stated in the Team Manual in the Awards section, that rookie teams are ineligible for the Chairman's Award, which is about sustained excellence. Rookie teams may use firstawards.org to create a submission (a are required to if they are a NASA grant team), however it will not be reviewed by FIRST judges on line. If a rookie team would like to print out a copy of their submission to give to the Judges in the Pit as part of the Pit interview process, it will be used in consideration of the Rookie All-Star award. However, it is not a required piece for this award."

This means it will be very important for all rookie teams to be prepared with copies of their Chairmans entries and/or other handouts about their team in the pits when the roving judges visit.