Re: [FRC Blog] Chairman’s Award Submissions Definitions
 

FRC 125 has won chairmans at an event the last two years. Prior to that I was a mentor on 79, who won one in 2013. I'm also an alumni of 27. Furthermore I'm responsible for finding judges to read these essays for the northeastern district. I know both sides of this award. I know exactly how much effort it is and how much teams put into it. I also know the amount of stress it puts on judges to have to choose just one team. And I know how many hours of work those judges put in before the event reading essays.

It sucks to have the deadline this early. There are reasons for it and things you can do to mitigate it.

Gary, for your rookie teams maybe help them build a skeleton essay now. Heck they can even use it as a roadmap and plan their season and offseason activities. Could be a good exercise (especially working with experienced teams and mentors to do it)

In the past, the requirements have been to make a chairmans like submission to NASA. Remember that rookies can't submit chairmans. Has something changed?

Re: New Chairman's Deadline - Week 4
 

I think rookies can submit Chairman's, they just aren't judged for it. I seem to remember seeing a checkbox in the Chairman's submission last year that said something along the lines of "Please check this box if you are only submitting to fulfill a NASA grant requirement."

Re: New Chairman's Deadline - Week 4
 

As someone with hands in too many hats on the team, I like the change. As long as FIRST communicates the change adequately, it's a good move. I almost wish the award submission was due before kickoff; we use that as a team controlled deadline for the submission. The earlier you shift the submission period for the essay, judges get more time to look at the written submission and teams of all sizes can break up the written/video/presentation trifecta to a greater degree.

Re: New Chairman's Deadline - Week 4
 

If this happens they can have it due in July!

Re: New Chairman's Deadline - Week 4
 

I think its a good change seeing I've always disliked having the submission date so close to stop build day because it means less members from the team are available to help with the submission because they are working hard to finish the robot or in the midst of other deadlines.

Yes its less time, but there is still plenty of time between now and February 4th.

The video doesn't get submitted with the essay so you now have more time to work on it since your efforts after February 4th won't be on the written portions. You can also get to work earlier on your presentation which is arguably the most important part of a Chairmans submission.

For most teams this change means actually starting the essay before build season starts. Every year I've been on a team we've said, "We are going to have the essay written before build season starts" but the result is still the same with the efforts beginning with the build season.

Re: New Chairman's Deadline - Week 4
 

Agree. This has to be the reason for the change - giving judges more review time. Teams have been able to submit CA at multiple regionals for 2 years now, and at larger events there are 20+ submissions. I'm sure the judges' feedback justifies the deadline change.

That being said, I really wish this had been announced with the definitions update, rather than just appearing on the season calendar.

Re: New Chairman's Deadline - Week 4
 

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