Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

After numerous years of participating in FIRST, you tend to find the things about the program that mean the most to you. These things are different for everyone, based on their interests, goals and the way their mentors guide them.

For me, after ten years in the program, the part of FIRST I am the most passionate about is the Chairman’s Award.

But this year it seems that there are more and more stories of teams being disappointed in the feedback they receive about their Chairman’s Award submissions. These issues are vast, and seem to not be regional-specific. These issues are frustrating and do not have clear solutions. I’m not generating this thread to talk about the specific issues or even possible solutions. If someone else would like to create a different thread for that reason, that’s fine by me.

The purposes of this thread:

• To generate discussion about WHY the Chairman’s Award is important to FIRST.
• To share reasons, beyond winning a blue banner, to create a Chairman’s Award.
• To give teams hope and regenerate their belief that the Chairman’s Award *is* important.
• To recognize the Spirit of FIRST.
• To share stories of teams who won the Chairman's Award, and why other teams agree they deserve that recognition.
• To share stories of teams who did not win the Chairman's Award but have a great attitude about why they submitted and what they got out of it.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

I guess I'll focus on your second to last point, about teams who have won the chairmans award. The last three winners of the chairmans award up here in New Hampshire have been 166 the chop shop, my own team 1058 the PVC pirates, and team 131 CHAOS. I obviously know what my team has done, but even looking at the other two, its obvious why they won the award. Team 166 goes into their community, they hold offseason events, and they are one of the most well sustained teams in our area. My own team does a lot of work doing outreach events to spread the word of FIRST. Team 131 has been around for 20 years, and has always been a major part of their Manchester community. The good thing about this? These three teams are within 30 minutes of each other in southern New Hampshire. This proves to me that there are plenty of deserving teams out there in the world. These teams are looked up to by the rest of FIRST, because they are doing what Dean Kamen has been asking to do the whole time, which is creating self sustaining teams and to spread the word about science and technology. I also know many teams in my area who have not won a chairmans award, although they are well deserving. In my opinion, not winning one drives these teams to do more to do what FIRST is asking. So in summation, the award is the goal, and teams will do anything for that recognition, which is forcing more and more teams to be active members of the community. Hope this was the type of answer you were looking for!

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Carolyn,
When teams ask me this type of question I respond that a team working for Chairman's is using the experience to direct the team. I know that teams that are actively working towards the goal of Chairman's Award, are promoting First, gracious professionalism, community service, inspiration for their students and those they meet and mentor. They are shining lights in their communities, their students are working to achieve high goals in life and they are constantly thinking of new ways to improve our quality of life in whatever country they are located. It is hard to recognize that so many teams are doing so much to achieve their goals while only one team can actually win the award. On the other hand, it is hard for me to attend an event to find that only about 10 teams (or many times less) are actually making a submission. It is the same with the Woodie Flowers Award. There are so many mentors that are deserving of this honor and so few teams actually take the time to write the essay. Now granted, many teams are very small and struggling to keep their program alive. They are using all available resources to inspire their students, build a robot and attend just one event. With all that they simply do not have the time to make a submission. To me those teams are an inspiration and we should help them in whatever way we can. My wife and I are often asked to give advice to teams making a submission. Everyone of those teams are deserving of the award because they are making a maximum effort to follow everything a Chairman's candidate team should.
Now for a little confession. WildStang actually had a meeting many years ago and everyone expressed the same idea. Why should we try if we can't achieve it? It was at that time that the team made a concrete decision to change the way we worked as a team. We let the award description drive our team decisions and it made a difference in the things we put a priority on. The team became a TEAM and we worked hard at getting better in all we did. We found that there were real needs for volunteers in our communities and there were real needs to help others at events. Even still, our decisions are driven by what we know are First Ideals. That doesn't mean we are good at it, but we do try. Many of our mentors and teachers have been around for more than ten years because we do believe we are making a difference. We have students that go on to other teams as mentors or even come back to WildStang.
So is it important to try? Without a doubt. Does it become frustrating to not win? Most certainly. Should you stop trying? Never!

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Great answers so far!

Let me clarify something: the title of this thread is not one that is in *my* mind, but one that I've heard voiced from students and mentors over the past ten years.

It's a generic question that I think most Chairman's Award winning teams have asked themselves in the past.

To me, the question of, "Why even bother?" generates an abundance of answers beyond the desire to win.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Carolyn:
I have often thought this would be a great topic for Champs. You should present this. :)
I did a talk on this same topic for Rookies at a local kick-off years ago.

Just a few practical benefits that we have found:

1- Focuses the team on the messages of FIRST
2- It forces the team to reflect on and evaluate their past, present, and future activities
3- It gives the team a document that they can share with potential sponsors and supporters.
4- It creates a team history and is an informal way to track the development of your team.
5- It creates an excuse to educate your entire team about team's mission

Just a few of the many benefits I can think of on the spot.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

This is the third year my team is submitting a chairman's essay, Although we did not won, this award has changed my team and the community where we live.
Our major sponser (the only one who give money) is our municipality, they put X amonut of money on our FRC team and get not only FRC but also FLL+Jr.FLL teams in all the schools in our city(the team members are mentoring those teams).
I like this award because ןt always gives the feeling that we did something and we are different people.
So we didn't win this award, so what? we losed something? definitely NO, we need to try harder; to add more activities, to improve our activities.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Chairman's Award is hugely important to FIRST. Even though it doesn't recognize every team that deserves the award, it cultivates so many skills. (And, even if you have a great robot, you may not win the regional.) The essay builds writing skills. The actual presentation itself hones your communication skills. The years of outreach enhance your community awareness. Through your outreach, you show your region that science and technology are important.
Chairman's gives us something to work for over the off-season that makes a difference. Just reading some of the submissions shows the huge impact this award makes. Although Chairmans can be given to only one team per regional, it inspires us to reach our potential in FIRST and in the future.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

While I understand your purpose, Carolyn, I hope you don't mind me playing the Devil's Advocate here a little bit, because I think that it might spur a little bit more of discussion. Please don't think that I am attempting to significantly degrade the Chairman's Award, its prestige, or its importance within the greater FIRST community - rather, I'm attempting to play the Devil's Advocate - based on things I've seen and heard from quite a few students and alumni - to spur civil discussion :D

Opinion: Why the Chairman's Award is Kinda Sorta Irrelevant

"The Chairman’s Award honors the Team that best embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST and is a model for other Teams to emulate." Let's assume that the "goals and purpose of FIRST" are to change the culture of the world through those all-important "Inspiration" and "Recognition" of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

What is inspiration? How can you define it? How can it be quantified? That is, after all, for the judges to decide. This, in and of itself, seems to be a slightly flawed system - after all, what inspires a thoroughly matured adult judge is most likely NOT the same as what will inspire a five- or six- or seven- or eight-year-old child, or even a teenager. If a team chooses to place emphasis on inspiring youth, then is it not entirely possible that a program that delights this target group falls flat with adult judges? Even if some of the people affected by this team's work submit letters of support - the decision ultimately lies in the interpretation of this team's program and the intent and purpose of the letter of support; it all goes back to the judges.

Certainly, at times it's obvious what team is deserving of winning the Chairman's Award and entering the FIRST Hall of Fame. In 2012, I don't know that very many people would have argued that Team 1114 was not the clear favorite to be the newest Hall of Fame inductee. And that's because it is truly an inspirational team - a team that is generally very professional in its conduct, extremely competitive on the field, and broad in its impact outside of the game.

Recognition for this sort of work and effort is extremely important. With that said, it's not hard to imagine (and I have certainly seen evidence of this) students - and even mentors - on a team become so jaded or disillusioned with the idea of the Chairman's Award that their efforts in creating their presentation or writing an essay or making a video become single-minded in scope. The Chairman's Award is no longer about the criteria, but about the Blue Banner and the automatic bid for Championship, the Michigan State Championship, or the Mid-Atlantic Region Championship. It becomes about checking boxes off of a list - causing teams to want to do the things they believe (or even worse - know) will win them the award and discouraging them from taking risks, from starting groundbreaking programs with grand dreams and hopes - the sort of programs that can make a flying leap towards FIRST's "goals and purpose" rather than another generic baby step.

Is that wrong? I tend to think so. Certainly teams that are making breakthroughs, the teams that are blazing trails are the teams that tend to win the Chairman's Award at the international level and be immortalized into FIRST's Hall of Fame. But getting these kinds of teams TO the Championship in the first place can be difficult when perennial Chairman's Award Winners become complacent with their "Winning Formula." Once that paradigm becomes established, how long will it take for the new guard to be ushered in? Would it ever?

The worst thing about this is that teams who repeatedly face this sort of competition may become jaded with the award and not only stop presenting but also allow their outreach to wither and die. In that sense, the Chairman's Award is self-defeating. And that's bad news for FIRST and its goals.

Perhaps it calls for a different mechanism by which the award is given - require all teams to submit a proposal alongside a robot at competitions? Perhaps only allow teams to conduct an interview if selected initially by judges AT the competition? Make the Chairman's Award selection process more accessible and available to the opinions of more than simply the judges? Make the process for winning the Chairman's Award at regional or district events more similar to the Engineering Inspiration Award?

There is likely no single best solution, but the system as it currently stands removes the emphasis on the outreach itself and places the emphasis on "the most prestigious award" given out to teams by FIRST. That prestige inherently brings with it a sort of desire and lust for success that doesn't belong in the culture that teams truly deserving of the Chairman's Award are attempting to build.

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I apologize for the length, but this is something I have seriously considered on multiple occasions. I am someone very passionate about what the Chairman's Award stands for (or, at least, attempts to stand for), but I can see compelling arguments of this nature. As it is, as a presenter for 2337 for the team's first ever DCA presentation (and win!) as well as its second ever DCA presentation (and loss), I was always very proud of what my team did that seemed - in my estimation - be be unique, fresh, and exciting. I think that FIRST is right to place such importance on this outreach, but I have at times wondered if the award really is all that important, of even important at all.

In an ideal world, there would be no need to recognize teams for doing such work - the inspiration would be reward in and of itself. And for many teams, this is the case. So it truly begs the question of whether or not the award truly IS important? For the teams that truly deserve to win, is the recognition all that important in the first place?

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

So far, all alumni (100%) of Team 1912 have attended tertiary education. 77% have majored in STEM fields. The objective stats are similar for many other teams, raising graduation percentages and inspiring students to pursue engineering careers.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Disclaimer: I'm keeping my Devil's Advocate hat on here

So, since the objective stats are similar for many other teams, how is it relevant? Furthermore, that's one way to quantify inspiration, but perhaps the judges don't think that's viable. Then what?

*Removes Hat*

Alumni are super important. I'd be lying if I told you we didn't include alumni numbers in our presentations while I was working on them. That said, if many teams' numbers are similar, doesn't that then just become another "checkbox" metric?

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

From the Chairman's submission of 3337 (Panthrobotics, in Baton Rouge LA):
FIRST teams are inspiring students everywhere to continue STEM education and seek STEM careers. This isn't a checkbox as much as a testament to each team's impact.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Jared, you WOULD. :rolleyes:
This definitely was NOT the intent of this thread, but as it's been brought up, and I do enjoy open-discussions, I'll indulge your Devil's Advocate with taking time to respond to your long post.

When you write a paper for school, especially in college, your grade is dependent on your professor or TA's interpretation. No matter how much time you put into it, how many hours you labor over your presentation and essay, the end result is judged by someone else. You may receive a rubric, but usually rubrics are not fully clear on how exactly these assignments will be judged. It's up to you to put together the best work that you can, and hopefully it will be judged fairly.

When you have a job, your work ethic is judged by your boss, and sometimes your bosses boss. In the "real world" there are certain times a year that employees go through review processes. These review processes are often (perhaps even *usually*) not fair. The decision ultimately lies in the interpretation of what is best for the company; it all goes back to your bosses.

There ARE set criteria for the award. There ARE specific questions laid out in the Administration Manual. There ARE feedback forms, with certain questions that are deliberated over heavily by judges. Certainly, there is a human aspect involved, but there is human aspect in every way that any business is managed. This is simply Real Life. (#RealTalk)

I can not name one single team who won the Chairman's Award by going through a list and figuratively checking boxes off a list that they think will help them "win" the award. Perhaps other people *think* that they know teams like this, but my experience in talking to Chairman's Award winning teams leads me to to believe that each team deserved to win that honor.

That doesn't mean that other teams do not deserve to win, but there can only be one winner. Which draws me back to the INTENT of this thread:
WHY submit, if not to win?

When a team becomes jaded or disillusioned because they have not been publicly recognized by winning an award, then perhaps they need to reassess their priorities in the purpose of creating their submission. Once again, bringing it back to the original question: WHY submit, if not to win?


New teams win the Chairman's Award every year. Certainly some teams win multiple times at the Regional/District level, but there are still teams winning this award who have never won it before.

I have met a few teams who have become complacent with their "winning formula," and what tends to happen is at some point these teams do not win. (I specifically refrain from using the term "lose" because I strongly believe that no one ever loses when they create a Chairman's Award submission. ...once again, leading me back to my MAIN POINT of this thread: Why submit a Chairman's Award if I know that I won't win?


Actually, I could point out a couple teams who have won the Chairman's Award in years past, but became complacent in their winning and let their outreach slow down, and then they did not win the award, letting in a new team. In that sense, the Chairman's Award is the opposite of self-defeating: if a team can not keep up the outreach and attitude, then the title passes on to a new team. And that's a great thing.

This goes back to my very specific point in my very first post of this thread: this thread is NOT meant to be a way to point out the issues with the Chairman's Award or how it is judged. It is NOT meant to be a way to figure out different solutions. It was meant to be a thread to discuss what *is* good about the Chairman's Award and how teams can keep a good attitude about it, because the Spirit of the Award goes far beyond simply winning a blue banner.

I love discussion about this kind of thing.
But I think there are two separate issues here:

1. How the award criteria is laid out, judged and awarded. There are great things about this, but there are also great flaws in the system.

2. The attitude that students, mentors and teams have regarding the Chairman's Award.

Jared, your post seems to reflect more on the first, putting "blame" on FIRST. My initial post was intended to reflect on the second: helping teams understand the value of the award beyond winning something. I think both are valuable things to discuss, but I also think that when you twist them together, it gets very complicated and people choose sides, which honestly does not help either issue.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

This is probably one of the main reasons my team doesn't even make any attempt at a Chairman's award. We do however try to win as many other awards as possible each year, especially awards about robot design, because we put the majority of our team's focus on a team building a robot to compete in an event - and even that has mixed results.

So I think the main underlying reason is because we as a team have determined how we participate in the FIRST program, and we chose to participate by building students, a robot, and enjoying the experience of the sport.

I have on many occasions brought up the need to try a Chairmans award, but just thinking of how little we do is in NO WAY any matchup to any other team. So really the time and energy is better served elsewhere.

Even more important, what is the real interest in winning it? YES it is the greatest honor FIRST can give a team, YES it will give us some nice swag for the trophy case, YES it will give us national recognition and we will no longer be that team between 173 and 175, YES we will be forever mentioned in a list of the most amazing teams in history of FIRST... but for a team like us, all of the students and mentors just aren't as interested in doing all of the work. We would have to shut down the entire robot part of our team to have enough resources, time and people-power to compete with the likes of teams who have won at the regional level forever.

It's too much of a hurdle and that is ok. Mentors and students of our team understand the importance of the Chairman's Award, and know what it means for the winners. Trust me, we do want to see our team's number in the hall of fame and be remembered. But we can't do it - many teams can't do it - and that's alright.

I don't want every team to submit a Chairman's award because they feel like they have to. Having this secondary project is great for a program like FLL, but for FRC it has a lot more meaning when its something your entire team must strive for. You can't just walk into a Chairman's presentation and list off a couple good deeds - which is what the Chairman's award would turn into if everyone had to. By making it an award that some teams don't bother with, you heighten its importance because it really is a bigger challenge that you think - and thats a good thing too.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

This may be controversial, but if you are doing something just so you can win chairmans, you are doing it for the wrong reason.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Thanks for using our essay in the discussion. . .and I agree with your statement. In some ways, Chairmans is a checklist. After all, we use the post-review to hone our skills. But in the same way, building a robot that can compete follows the same fashion. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation play a role in why we outreach or why we build. But as my friend from Combustion can attest, winning a blue banner does not suddenly make a team feel as if it has "arrived". They continue to outreach and to grow. I enjoy the idea of making community awareness competitive. It changes students inwardly by providing external motivation and even when we experience loss (with a four year Combustion streak, we are getting used to it ;-) ) it motivates us to do more, reach further, and become better than we were. By the time you've reached the level of a 1114, you suddenly realize that the team has become so much more than the banners received. While the Banners initiate the outreach, eventually, the outreach becomes the Banner.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

"Creating a Chairman's submission" isn't about trying to win an award. It's about purposeful documentation of your program that will help you maintain proper focus on the ideals that drive the program and will help you plan for growth, provide PR materials to communicate the program to the community, and so much more.

If you just focus on it that way, maybe a few years down the road you win that blue banner ... or maybe you don't.

Without this type of focus, how are we supposed to change the culture for the better?

(I'll get off the soapbox now, just search for my name and the word "chairman's" here and I promise you'll find wayyyyy too much to read on the topic :) )

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Really great way of putting it

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Rich this is perfect. My team has submitted for the Chairman's Award each year, precisely because it is one of the chief ways we have to stop and take a look at what we have done, what we are doing and what we want to do in the future. It forms the basis for our goal setting for the next year.

Sure it can be frustrating not to win. If you see winning only as getting that blue banner it can be downright devastating. (My signature is what I tell the kids about this.) Some years, like this one, when you get feedback that basically says "You did a great job but we thought this one other team was just a little bit better" I even have to remind myself to put things in perspective, But the process of putting together a Chairman's Award submission has a lot of value to the team, even beyond the goal setting and the documentation. It can attract a different kind of kid to robotics.

And remember, the stuff you do in outreach is not just something to impress the judges or even just something you do in order to be good members of your community. Those things can have a huge impact on your team. We now regularly get new kids each year that are a part of our FLL program, which is helping our team to grow and improve. Whenever we do a demo or some sort of outreach we get at least a few people who are interested in joining the team or parents who want their kids to join. Some of the those people have gone on to become valuable team members.

And if you have kids who want to win and don't see any value in submitting, have them watch Chariots of Fire. There is a scene in which Harold Abrams says "If I can't win I won't run." and his girlfriend response "If you don't run, you can't win.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

YES!

The Chariman's Award should not be a goal, it is a recognition.

I don't mentor because I want to win the Woodie Flowers award, I mentor because I absolutely love teaching, answering questions, and inspiring others.
(Well also I'm just hooked on FIRST. I swear, I can quit whenever I want!)

Do good things, and the awards will follow.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

I don't think you're going to be treading the water with this statement. I don't see any other way of describing the approach other than wrong. Chairman's is a recognition that your team is a true embodiment of what a FIRST team should be like. Doing things for the award is not an embodiment of what a FIRST team is about.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

If there were to be a requirement associated with the CA, instead of submitting one, teams should be required to read the submissions of the other teams that were recognized. Maybe there should be a digest or precis of each event's submissions for this purpose so that the self-assessment aspect of them is demonstrated to the rest of the teams. Either or both procedural changes would help raise awareness of the importance of the CA. After all, attending teams see the results of the other teams' designs and construction in the robots already. They should get the chance to appreciate all the other efforts in which CA winners have engaged.

We have an Engineering Inspiration award. Teams should come to understand that the CA is another name for the culture-change inspiration award.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

One of the best ways to do this? Talk to them! Seriously! Go to the team's pit - if they don't have a multitude of binders, handouts, and other materials to show you, any EI or CA team will certainly have passionate members who can share their efforts with you.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

And the way to motivate your team members to do this is ? ? ? ? ?

The education process in primary schools is to require the study of language and arithmetic. If we expected 7-year olds to appreciate the value of being able to converse and compute on their own, the illiteracy and innumeracy of the population would be far greater than it is now. It isn't that there is a lack of available sources. It is more a "lead a horse to water" problem for the defeatist or indifferent attitude. How can we cure the feeling that if I'm not already good at it, further effort is not going to help?

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Amen Rich!

I remember trying to answer the "Why even bother...." question during my team's rookie year when we couldn't even win the award. Even after that, there were conversations asking the same thing but we always produced one. These submissions provide the team with an annual opportunity to take a look at what it as done and share it as a story with the FIRST community. It has always given us an opportunity to look at what we do and compare it to the mission and values of FIRST. This has really helped us to grow as a team and has allowed us to develop our own way to participate.

So I guess my answer to "Why even bother..." is that it will allow your team to create framework for how it will measure its own success in the FIRST community. Keep the inspiration going, have fun doing it, and you're on the right track even if you don't win the award.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

I think it comes from having a team culture of always trying to do better and be inspired by those who are further along the path to greatness. As an example, this year my team did not win the Entrepreneurship Award we were hoping for, but the students who worked on the award were eager to go down to the pits and talk to the students on the team that did. FIRST is special because everyone is in it together and I've never come across an award-winning team that wasn't open and excited to share.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

This is a great thread, and something I have thought about for years, ever since we started submitting for Chairman's in 2007. I don't think we'll ever win the award. We are a small team, and just not capable of the kind of level of outreach that I think Chairman's demands. But I'll tell you this - when we started this process back in 2007, we did very little outreach. Now, we do robot demos regularly at schools, museums, corporations and community events. We mentor FRC and FLL teams. We volunteer at FLL events and last year sponsored our own FLL event, which we plan to do again this year. We just learned that we are getting a grant to start new FLL and JrFLL teams in our area next year as well. We volunteered with our sponsor Comcast to help rehabilitate homes in need of cleanup and repair, and are planning more such community projects. We have stronger relationships with our sponsors, doing demos at their offices and inviting their representatives to attend competitions (which they do). We attend off-season competitions, which we didn't do before 2007, and operate year-round instead of just from January to March.

Did we do any of this to WIN the Chairman's Award? No. We did it to make our team a stronger, better team, one that does more than just build a robot together. Has it made us a stronger, better team? Clearly.

Will we ever win the Chairman's Award? I don't know, and I don't care. What we will do is continue to work together and grow as a team, giving our students a variety of experiences they wouldn't have had otherwise. That's what I care about. If in the process we happen to win the Chairman's Award, or any of the other awards that I think just submitting for Chairman's puts you on the radar for (like EI, which we won in 2010), then great. That's just icing on the cake.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

I haven’t posted in a long time, but this is a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot this year. Mostly because we, as in 148, decided (for various reasons) that we were going to submit a Chairman’s Award this year for the first time in 3 years, and actually put effort into the submission for the first time in 8 or 9 years. One of the main reasons for this is because the team can feel the change we are making in the community and we thought “Why aren’t we submitting? We really are changing culture here.” We found that the hardest part was putting that feeling into words on paper, or pictures in a video, or getting those feelings across in a presentation. Now I’m certain that these struggles are not unique to us, just ones that we haven’t had before since we haven’t really been putting effort into a submission. But these struggles are what really made the experience worthwhile to us.
All of a sudden we started to put together quantitative data of things we felt like were important aspects of the team. As soon as we started listing these facts and statistics a lot of us had a bit of an epiphany. We knew we were doing things to inspire students, and create excitement in a small town about something other then football, but we really didn’t realize how big the impact was. For us submitting, and pretty much knowing we weren’t going to win, was OK because it made our team bond stronger and made us all proud to be Wranglers even more then we were before.
Selfishly my favorite part of our Chairman’s effort this year was, to help us decide who should present at competition we made each student on the team present their favorite team memory or just say what the team meant to them. I was crying most of meeting, because hearing those stories reminded me of why I’m here, and why I believe in this program so much.
So that is my limited experience with why I think Chairman’s submissions are a great part of the program. Even if we have no chance of winning ever, I now know how valuable the experience can be.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

If anyone in the entire world has answers to these questions. PLEASE TELL ME! As a math teacher who constantly faces these challenges every single day, I completely understand where this is coming from.

My response is that sometimes it's up to the mentor to provide that motivation. Teaching someone how to wire a PD is not any different to me as teaching someone to keep going even when the going gets tough or it seems all hope is lost. That's part of what we're doing. Tell them it's going to be hard. Be there sitting next to them while they work on the essay or executive summary or presentation. Talk through problems with them. Show them winning Chairman's Essays (then they don't have to physically move because that's hard for teenagers sometimes). Show them videos. Simbotics's video from last year constantly inspires me and my team.

/Awkward segue to the real question/ Our team submitted Chairman's Award for the first time this year. It was so hard. But so was the first time we built a robot 2 years ago!!! If it was easy, every single team in the whole world would submit it. But it's not and the lesson of never giving up is extremely powerful. Sure, the first time you submit it might not be the best but a team's first robot also is often not the best robot they produce. Learning and growing and improving, that's what FIRST is about.

To piggy back on a lot of other wonderful answers. Chairman's provided us an opportunity to really nail down the things that we are really strong with and help us focus on the things we need to work on. We just finished our 1 Regional of the year yesterday and already have 4 goals for next season lined up. Also, it helped push us to be more of a full year team. We do outreach throughout the spring and fall. We plan to do parades this summer.

Finally, Chairman's Award connected us with teams and people that we never would have connected with otherwise. FRC Team 2220 from Eagan, MN also submitted Chairman's this year and we worked closely with them throughout the process. Our team now considers them genuine friends. It also connected us with Renee Becker, the wonderful MN FIRST Senior Mentor. Through her we met tons of other teams. It's like a tree. From that Chairman's root, our connections and outreach and goals and team pride and focus have all grown.

So to answer the question "Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?", my response would be another question "Why even bother building a robot if we're not gonna win?". The answer to both? To learn and grow.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

I definitely agree with you on this!

It has long been our feeling that you don't do things to win Chairman's—you do things because they're the right thing to do. Honestly, if your team is participating in activities solely to put it in your Chairman's submission, you're probably doing it wrong. That's like not committing murder just because it's illegal and not because. You should help other teams, inspire students, and bring about positive change in your community because it's the right and good thing to do, not because you want to take home a blue banner. But maybe that's just me being a little too naively altruistic.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Well, that escalated quickly :p

Very good points

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Outreach has really become a key identity for us. It builds us as a team, with everyone able to speak enthusiastically about FIRST and the robots. After a few demos, any student can easily explain to the public how a particular robot operates. Plus, its always fun to bring the robots themselves to offseason events after competition is over.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

[My posts are usually quite short, but out of character for me, here is a rather long post]

In the past, around this point in the season, I would think “Wow, we had a great group of kids on the team this year!” Now, in my 5th year on the team, I finally figured out what our other mentors already knew: we get an amazing group of students on the team every year.

As soon as I realized this, I began looking ahead – looking forward to working with our returning students and getting to know new students. What can we do to help these students, what off-season projects can we do, maybe we can collaborate with another team on some project, maybe can we run a summer camp, how do we encourage more students, how can we better inform students at our various outreach events, how do we reach more students and introduce them to STEM. The outreach events we do have taken on a bit more meaning to me.

We have many mentors who have stayed with the team long after their own kids have graduated. (My youngest went off to college last year – and I plan on staying involved until they kick me out.) These mentors don’t stay to build robots – they stay because they are passionate about the mission of FIRST.

Our team has been applying for Chairman’s since 2008. We’ve been doing outreach events and adding a bit more every year but I didn’t think we had the resources needed to rise to the level of the teams that are RCA winners. It was quite an emotional moment this past Saturday at 10,000 Lakes when they announced us as the winner of our very first Regional Chairman’s Award!

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Some people may forget the experience that a team gets from submitting for Chairman's. FIRST is an organization that provides an education in STEM. What many forget is the marketing and business part of it. I myself look forward to the future with business at the forefront of expertise. This past weekend at Troy, two other students and I from Team 4130 presented our final Chairman's submission which included dressing formally (complete suits :yikes: ,) speaking knowledgeably of our team without the use of our judges binder or documentation, and the referral of poster boards that showcased different figures and statistics for the judges to see our team's growth and development in only one year. Working on spreading out our team, managing our team's finances (thanks to a business plan that won Entrepreneurship,) and also working on presentations such as this and for corporate businesses has been providing me with a lot of experience that is helping me to learn and prepare for the future. I've received a lot of work in time management and obviously how to form a presentation. Quite frankly, I'm proud of how our team did business wise at Troy. We're only a second year team and a team of that age winning Entrepreneurship is unheard of. That's a big reason why I think more teams should try for the award. Yes, your not going to win it in your first year of presenting (our business mentor even said if we were to win the award, it wouldn't "sit well" with every single other person that was at the competition,) but it provides your team with a greater chance to win other awards and it does take time to win Chairman's. My hope is to win the Chairman's award within the next two years before I graduate (I am a sophomore,) and Entrepreneurship was a big step forward. 4130 has started out doing a lot of work in business at a young age and we plan on developing along with other aspects of the team like mechanical and programming. This success is what illustrates to students the product of hard work and determination as well as gracious professionalism and working to create a greater future and world. That is the main reason why there is a Chairman's award, to encourage development and success of the human species.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Wow, this is getting really deep :P

Congrats on your hard work and success.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

FIRST does not provide education, STEM or otherwise. FIRST's mission is to inspire those who would not otherwise consider STEM careers by showing them what is involved with STEM activity in a realistic setting. Of course, the actual mission statement, with which everyone should have more than a passing acquaintance, is much more elegant. See it at usfirst.org The Chairman's report is a record of your team's efforts toward that goal. If you haven't been doing anything related to the FIRST mission, your report will tell you about it and point out that you may need a course correction.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Education is often a useful byproduct of the process of inspiration that FIRST provides. Saying that FIRST does not provide education is in fact inaccurate in many cases; rather, it's not the primary goal.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

That is true. It's not completely about STEM but it is a major part of the program as it is where the majority of alumni go into.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

We can quibble over the definition of "education", but the FIRST program creates an environment for it (in all its many forms).

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

go here http://www.mitfirst.org/

look at the third video - "Woodie Flowers"

watch a couple of minutes starting at 6:30, and you will get another definition of 'education'

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

It was great working with you guys too! I have to agree particularly with this last part-- I know for myself, working on my team's Chairman's submission was one of the most exhausting and rewarding experiences I've ever had on my team. Hopefully we can work together in the future!

As for objectives four and five--
Speaking from personal experience, my team has several reasons that we've kept submitting, even in spite of our rather tumultuous history with the award. On our rather large team, many people have different reasons for wanting to submit-- many of our build team members want to submit because they want our team to be competitive in everything we do, a reason that I find slightly off-putting but completely valid. Many of our members don't just want to build robots, they want to be excellent. Another section would be many of our mentors who have been with the team for so long-- they can remember the first time we submitted, in 2008, and want to "finish what we started." They can remember "losing" year after year to other incredibly inspirational programs, such at 2169 and 1816. Of course, there are also some of us that just want the validation that what we've been doing hasn't been for nothing-- students like me that have poured their hearts into our submission, outreach, and FIRST in general. For us, it's about the outreach and the experience.

For me, the entire exercise has been so intrinsically rewarding-- it helps everyone consider what exactly our priorities as a team are. It gives us, as Mr. Bydlon so accurately pointed our, a way of connecting with others in our community. If my team hadn't decided to pursue Chairman's, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet Renee Becker, Danny Blau, My Bydlon, Evan Hochenstein, and many of the students on teams 3313 Mechatronics, 2470 Blitz Team, and 3184 Blaze Robotics. As a student, my experience with the Chairman's Award has been eye-opening. In my opinion, if submitting Chairman's has given, or will give any other student a similarly marvelous experience to the one I've had, it's something worth doing. If I was waist deep in FIRST before Chairman's, I'm practically six feet under now.

To address objective one, I think that the Chairman's Award-- the submission, video, presentation, and outreach activities related are incredibly important for any FIRST team-- they're an outlet for both the people that are interested but can't get their heads around the concept of a wrench and the people that fell in love with FIRST and want to give back to their team.

Hopefully this didn't come off as too much a disjointed rant-- I tried my best to keep it pointed.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Carolyn.

Thanks for initiating this discussion! There have been some great comments here and, as expected, different perspectives.

As someone who has been involved in my team's Chairman's Award submissions from the start and someone who talks with teams every season about the Chairman's Award (Philly regional kickoff and "Chairman's Chat at the Championship"), I agree that your main question "why bother submitting if we're not gonna win?" is what many teams are saying.

Whether we admit it or not, we all make decisions based on getting something out of it. It could be recognition or fame or the satisfaction of helping others or whatever. So, your question translates to "what is our team going to get out of submitting a Chairman's Award?"

Here is my list of what a team gets out of it. It has many similarities to others who have responded:

1. A measure of how your team meets FIRST's goals of changing the culture and inspiring others,
2. A document/record of what your team has done,
3. Training for team members in non-robot build areas like marketing, public speaking, presentation skills, graphic design, video editing, documentary development, planning and organization, etc,
4. A roadmap to guide you on the journey of the development of your team,
5. Another reason to engage in and increase your team outreach,
6. Organized data about your team that will help you secure more sponsors,
7. The satisfaction of doing something larger than yourself,
8. Another way to build a true team,
9. A reason more judges will come to talk with you during competitions
10. A reason to make a cool team video

I know much discussion has focused on the judging process. I'm not too excited to talk about that side of it. I want to focus on what your team can get out of going through the submission process, which really forces your team to operate differently just to get content for the submission process.

So, is the view worth the climb? I absolutely think so. However, you need to understand your team, their focus, circumstances,and resources before you decide to submit. I think it is a missed opportunity, if you don't.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?

At a minimum it forces the team to sit down and ask

"what have we done to promote the mission and vision of FIRST ? "

"are we heading in the right direction ?, are we supporting our students right ?"

and so on. It is a way to stop and think about what we are doing as a team.

You don't pursue the Chairman's Award. You arrive at the Chairman's Award.


Over time, this self examination, reflection, and adjustments to the team efforts and work results in a culture that is very positive and gets some results.

A story - the students on our team have been running around trying to help others as best they can. They really haven't thought about awards or anything. It was just a lot of fun helping others. The team went to the Peachtree. During the closing ceremony they called out our team for the J&J GP award. We all kinda looked at each other with surprise and said "well ok, let's go on down". It really caught us off guard.

Submitting for the RCA, properly done can help focus the team on what needs to be done. It can change the culture of the team and make the team much better. Doing the right thing has rewards all by itself and the plastic trophies are ok too! Everyone should submit for the RCA.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Here is a great reason to submit for the Chairman's:

It will cause you to go down "The Road Not Taken"

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

There is actually one step that doesn't have to be done that everyone mentions. The OP's question is "Why both submitting for Chairman's"

Don't, if you don't want to.

But you should prepare a submission, as if you were going to submit.


We prepared a submission this year and missed the deadline by 30 minutes (AM/PM confusion). It didn't degrade any of our accomplishments and writing the essay helped us realize that we actually do a lot of things we didn't realize before. It sucks that we're not eligible for the award but the Chairman's award is about an award or a reason to do good things, it's a reward for teams that do those things.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Great points.

2006, my senior year in high school, was my second year in FRC. I was the president of Team 971, Spartan Robotics. We were not the team we are today, we had few mentors, little industry support and very little design experience to go around.

I decided that year that we would submit for RCA and WFFA, two awards the team had never submitted for. I told the team that we did not expect to win these awards, but we submit anyways because continuity and history is important. It would provide a benchmark for the team. "Here's what we did last year, this year we need to do more/better".

We have prepared submissions for these awards every year since. A few times they did not make the submission deadline, but the effort and preparation was there. The process of documenting our team, our history and our impact was there. We have this information readily available, at our disposal, for presentations to the school board, administrators, PTA and anyone else who asks about what we do.

The mentor we first submitted for WFFA in 2006, Michael Schuh, was recognized in 2011. We're still chasing the RCA.

As others have mentioned, the preparation of the submission and presenting to the judges is the most valuable part of the process. It forces teams to evaluate the impact they are having on their students and their community.

I like to think of the Chairman's Award as the team's "performance review": An evaluation of what the team is doing to achieve FIRST's stated goals of inspiration and culture change. The judges select one team at each regional, recognizing their outstanding efforts (like the "employee of the month"), but this in no way discredits the efforts of all the other teams who did not receive the RCA.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Listen to this guy. He sort knows what he is talking about. ;)

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

We submitted for the first time ever this year - as we recently transitioned from a build-season team to a full-year team. We weren't going to, and then I was talking to another mentor from another team and she said that we should because we'd done a LOT this year and have great plans for the future.

So we did. The kids did the essay and the executive summary, as well as the video, and the presentation. The three girls who gave the presentation learned it in 2 days (yeah, we work under pressure) and they killed it in front of the judges. I was so proud of the work that they had done - and I'm still so proud of them.

We learned a lot about ourselves as a team, with what we'd accomplished this year and what we hope to do in the future.

The kids all said that it was a great learning experience overall and they'd definitely do it again. I think Chairman's is an award that you earn over time, I know that being a first year submitting team that I didn't think that we'd win, but I was very surprised at the extremely positive feedback from the judges. It will help us work on things to make us a stronger team and we'll submit again next year, and the year after, and the year after. The kids are really developing good presentation skills with this, as well as improving their writing skills.

I agree with others that at least writing a submission for Chairman's even if you don't submit or miss the deadline is a good way to document what you've done over the last year or so and see what else you want to do moving forward.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

I did not want to answer this until I had a response that I felt was suitable for the question beyond my gut reaction of "because it is a great experience for your team!"

I wrote the 2011 submission for my team. I was inspired by what my team had done the year before with their submission and so I decided to take lead on a task that I had little to no experience on. I think it was very well said so far in the thread how being able to go through the process is extremely beneficial. The essay and presentation will put you leaps ahead in your communication and writing skills but there is something much more rewarding about submitting a Chairman's Award.

A Chairman's submission is the casting of a step. Each year your team goes out and does what your team does. Whether it is school demos, recruitment drives or something completely different. Every team has something they do and every team is unique in that way. The submission is your chance to try and sum up everything you and your team has done and what you are the most proud of. In that sense, you essentially leave your mark on the team. You are saying that up until this point, here is everything our team in proud of including the contributions of my year-my generation.

The submission becomes your baby in a way. You are so proud of what you have done and why not? Any team that has the will to go through the submission process IS a Chairman's team already. At the end of the competition, sitting in your seats will be a truly scary experience.

What happens next. Well that does not really matter. You have already accomplished what you set out to do. All your contributions are kept in your submission. A submission which will continue to live on with not only your team but with you as a person. Every year I come back to listen to our presentation and read our submission. Every year I tune in to see how my team does at the competitions because still till this day, I feel like my contributions are still there. That future generations will continue to build on what my generation left and every submission that my team will ever submit will contain a piece of me in some way shape or form. Losing does not change this.


Seeing our robot each year is exciting. Watching it compete is always a fun experience but it will never truly be the same as it did when I was still a student on the team. But every year, when the moment comes to announce the Chairman's award at any of our competitions, I feel the same tingles and butterflies in my stomach that I did in 2011. It is one of the strongest and most rewarding bonds I have been able to form with the program and with my team. I will always encourage everyone to submit for the Chairman's award and I will always applaud those who do.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

(Let me preface this by saying I am taking a study break from preparing for a test that I will hopefully do well enough on I can justify taking a ...vacation from college next weekend in St. Louis, and I begin the time on my study break at 4:31 AM local time by writing this post. This is going to be long and winding, but I hope it's worth it)

I had the pleasure of working alongside a very dedicated and capable Chairman's submission team this year on 2614. Some people mistake whatever I do to be "mentoring," after which I joke "Mentors are qualified professionals, I'm just a kid who finds not being involved with a FIRST team boring." I worked on wordsmithing with them, focusing on attracting the judges to the team, and encouraging the highlighting of unique activities the team accomplished. While the team finished with Engineering Inspiration where they submitted (being beaten by one of the most CCA worthy-but-never-noticed-by-community-at-large Team 1311) I learned as much working with them as I did as a student on my years at 422. I was never an attendee at an outreach event, but I could see the impact. I could feel it. In traditional competitions, most would see EI as second place, or a consolation prize, but it doesn't matter. When people say winning isn't everything in FIRST, they shouldn't reference what's happening on the field. Not winning the Chairman's Award isn't going to change the fact that the team is actively pursuing goals to make their state be a beacon for secondary education instead of suffering from tragically low college attendance rates.

Through a series of events, I have wound up taking a more active role on a team 6 hours away from my current residence than I thought I would have. I think the last time I had a wound that drew blood, the color was far from a shade of red, it looked green and had little particulates of aluminum in it. Team 422 seriously took me from being a worthless teenager to a slightly less worthless and far more focused individual. My time in FIRST can be marked through a series of epiphanies. My first as a freshman was "Man, this robot stuff is cool, I think I'll stick with it," so I stuck with it. Sophomore me said, "Man I wish this team could win something," so I looked into what made other teams "click" and I tried to find local support to make it happen. My junior year had me come away with "This 'team' needs to be better at this whole 'team' thing." I made a fair share of personal sacrifice (a big deal for a self-obsessed teenager) to try to focus the team towards being something bigger than 20 people who cobbled together a machine once a year. I helped the team double its revenue and submitted the first Chairman's Award and Woodie Flowers Award submissions for the first time in years, knowing full well that that was hardware we would not be taking home.

We finished second in what the greater community considers a forgettable regional and stumbled upon an Innovation in Control Award at a later event, before a strategic miscue on my part caused the team to "rank too high" to win the event, sending us out in the quarterfinals (ironically to 2614's alliance).

A week later my grandmother was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer and given months to live, so I was forced to take a big step back from the team.

Within a week, my grandmother died, I graduated from high school, and we buried her. That week, everything really hit me. She made such an enormous impact on my life. She was strong, courageous, honest, respectful, and dutiful to whatever she set her mind to. She was quick to drop everything and help others in need without question. She was a rock for me. FIRST made an impact on my life as well, one so enormous I will never be able to adequately translate it in a thousand lifetimes. FIRST was also my rock.

I realized that during my tenure on Team 422, we never reached enough people. We were a single high school robotics teams in one of the poorest sections of the most underprivileged cities in our state, and we did not do enough. We did not make enough of an impact. We did not do the hard work that needed to be done to galvanize and invigorate a community where hope can seem fleeting. We let the mediocre status quo outside of our walls continue for four years while we slowly tried to get our act together after an intra-team schism. But there are people who would drop anything in a heartbeat to help others, to become a part of something greater than themselves, like my grandmother.

This year, the outreach department on Team 422 has grown from an army of one in 2012 (me) to over a dozen students, parents, mentors, and alumni who are focused on doing something that really matters. Our kids are going to do well in school. Our kids are going to college. Honestly, our school is a commonly mocked bastion for privileged individuals that does not do enough in the community. We're not changing the culture that way.

JVN once said there is a time where you stop being a "fake mentor" and start becoming a "real" one when you're in it for the right reasons. I did what I like to call "consulting work" for 422 throughout various parts of the fall and spring of this operational year. However, one student on the outreach team, Matt Aldridge, changed that. If you have bothered to skim through one of my preachy-looking posts in the past, you would know of my high opinion of him. He was an incoming freshman on the team when I was a junior. I thought he was shy and borderline useless at first, but I have gotten to know him as a cancer survivor that does not let it define him. He is our greatest strength, and I mentor for people like him. He is the only Dean's List Finalist the team has ever had, and he is one of my role models. When I co-wrote his essay with another mentor, I closed the essay by writing that his ability to inspire everyone he met, even us crotchety mentors, really changed us. And it has. It's made me do this for the right reasons. I don't do this because I want the robot to win (though it's preferable to not winning).

The robots get scavenged for parts eventually, and their frames are busted apart and sold for scrap metal. The positive impacts we can make on people in our community are as permanent and real as the dust that brings us to this earth and returns us when we are over. But Matt gets that. Now the whole team gets it, and I get it too.

Our goals aren't just finishing the robot on time or maybe getting kinda close to winning a blue banner once every Martian year, but it's to change people. It's to see it in the eyes of kids who thought they had no future, it's in the eyes of a politician looking to build a legacy, it's in the eyes of a parent who realizes this program can send her kid to college, and it's in our hearts. When you sign on to submit a Chairman's Award, it's important to think about you in relation to the team, and vice versa.

But we come together to build a robot, an object brought to life and made greater than the sum of its parts. Our brains, our hearts, and our lungs come together to give us life that not one of them could sustain on its own. People come together to form a team that is greater than the sum of the individuals that comprise it. The team then acts like a boulder falling from the highest mountain and crashing into the deepest ravine, making a powerful, awesome impact that cannot be questioned, cannot be diminished, and cannot be defined by check-boxes on a list or trophies in a case.

When you sign up to submit for a Chairman's Award, you commit yourself to the mission that is bigger than you. The banners may you win will fade and the trophies will go ignored, but you will always remember when you sat down with your team and decided to become something greater than yourselves.

That's why you submit for Chairman's.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

I want to briefly talk about a team who finally won the Chairman's Award, but would never post on Chief Delphi talking about it. I was hoping that someone else would share their story, but since no one else has yet, I will:

Their motto: "When you lose, say nothing. When you win, say even less."

Team 2337, the EngiNERDs, is a Michigan State Championship Chairman's Award winning team. To win the Chairman's Award in Michigan at a District event is a feat. To win at the MSC is outstanding.

Think of it this way: Every single team eligible for CA at MSC already won DCA, so you are competing against 11 other accomplished teams. Only three of those 11 amazing teams get the honor of moving up to the next level. This year, 2337 was *finally* one of those teams.

That emphasis on finally is my own. For the past three years, I've seen this team as a huge contender for the award, yet they kept getting bypassed by other awesome teams.

This year, the EngiNERDs took a different path for their presentation. I hope after Worlds they show a video of it, because it's edgy, risky and all sorts of wonderful.

Instead of emphasizing the #,###,### people they impacted, 2337 emphasized the inspiration and impact they've had. Because, how can inspiration and impact be measured by stating a number?

In their video, watch carefully, you'll notice one important fact: not ONE person in the video is a member of their team. They have people from other teams, at their school and in their community talking for them. It's creative, simple and very well-produced. Seeing videos like it makes me think how much of a shame it is that CA videos aren't judged.

If you're going to Worlds, and you have a spare moment, track down 2337 in the Galileo pits. Talk to some of their students (doing that always makes me smile) and chat with their mentors, especially Clint and Brandi. Ask them about their FIRST philosophy, and listen. What they have to say is usually worth listening to.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

I second this notion. The EngiNERDs are one of my favorite FiM teams, not only because they have some pretty awesome members, mentors and alumni, but because they get it. They're certainly not a new team, but they remind me of teams that have been around for much longer.

I had the pleasure of working with them pretty closely when I was still on a team, and they really have a different outlook on FIRST (in a good way).

I definitely see them going places in FIRST, and not just because of their robot.

Also, if they have their Chairman's video playing, watch it. Like Carolyn said, it's very unique.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

My favorite moment of MSC2013 was 2337 winning their first State Chairman's Award. This isn't a knock on the others that won or submitted, but I love to see a team make it to that level for the first time.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

My first reaction to this thread was that I've always been frustrated by the fact that, unlike the Gracious Professionalism and Engineering Inspiration awards, the Chairman's Award has to be applied for, even though it is also a recognition award.

Luckily, I had a chance for my thoughts to percolate.

Just as FIRST uses robots to inspire students (and everyone involved), I realized that FIRST uses the Chairman's Award to inspire teams.

Many teams initially focus on the robot. In time, some (hopefully, most) of those will start wondering about the Chairman's Award. They look at the process, what other teams are doing, etc. And they start to expand beyond robot build season.

Maybe they actually make submissions. Most likely, they increase their efforts and continue to get more involved with their community.

At some point, I believe that the focus begins to shift away from the Chairman's Award itself, and toward the actual activities of and interactions by the team (and their impact).

If it does, then the original question becomes moot. As Simon and others mentioned, reporting on the state of the team is important. Submitting it is up to the team (awkward as it is, FIRST has yet to come up with a practical alternative to self-nomination). If the judges decide that a team is worthy of recognition, so be it.

I don't have a feel for the percentage of teams that become disillusioned enough to seriously ask the question. My guess is fairly small - since these teams would need to be expending serious effort to inspire the community, while keeping CA as a significant goal - it just doesn't make sense to me.

I will say that it's been my privilege to watch our team go through a significant part of this process over the last number of years - from a team where people were only willing to commit to build season and actual competition, to a team active year round.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

As captain and one of the members who submitted chairman's award for three years: I can see how chairman's award benefits First as well as the community.

Some of the things we wouldn't have considered doing if we weren't applying for chairman's award:
1- Making a therapy device to help a toddler sit on his own. It took only took a week to build and he was able to sit up on his own *he has muscular dystrophy* in five weeks of therapy. The original amount of therapy for this type of disability is longer than five years.
2-Pecan Festival- We go to a local agricultural festival and educate people about the local robotics teams and what First is. We also demonstrate that years game and we hand out buttons to the kids.
3-Asking legislative officials to come to robotics events. We sent out emails and snail mail asking senators and representatives to come to local events for robotics. It was arduous and we only had one official respond to an email.
4- harvest hope food drives.
5- off season robot builds, cart improvements, and sponsor out reach.
6- bringing three rivaling high schools together for the greater good.

All this and much much more in six years and we haven't won. Though it may be a requirement for us being sponsored by it's also a massive benefit and I wont forget the stress and nervous interviews for three years and finally seeing the light in some of these forum posts on how to improve ourselves.
I am graduating this year and it disheartens me to know my team will become smaller after losses, but I know the more passionate members who are staying will improve us and work like i did for three or four years to win this award.

For our community and for First we dedicate our free time and work towards a better future.

Re: Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?
 

Team 27 (RUSH), 2337(Enginerds), 503 (FrogForce), 245 (Adambots) 33 (Killer Bees) are some of the great teams, and in my view they are not great because they win CA or some other award, they are great because they do great things...inspiring their own team and others, which is not easy. The conduct workshop, promote FIRST, inspire others. It's not just about video or the essay, it is what they do. Essay and video are the medium they are informing judges and rest of the world.

MI is the tough state, we feel honored to submit our material and see if we have a chance. BTW, for any judges award, you don't compete, you just present your case and supporting materials to judges, these things are subjective. The competition is on the field where everything you do has a some points.

Yeah, we will continue to submit our essays and videos and try to do more than what we did in previous year.