Is it fair to let Chairman's Award Winners go to Nats every year?
 

Personally I think it's great that there are teams that have great outreach programs in their communitities.

But, FIRST has been around a long time. It started out as being only a few teams and the numbers are growing. It's getting harder to win Chairman's. There are teams that may have won it 10 years ago, and therefore are able to go to Nats every year.
Do they deserve to though? Because their predecessors won it for them, they get to reap the benefits...
Should there be a rule that they are allowed to attend Nats for 4 years and then they need to earn the privelege again?

Yea!
 

I think they deserve it! It was a hard-earned title, and they should reap those benefits. Yes, it's getting harder to win Chairmans, but that only means that every team is doing better things! but if the incentive is kept high, then we will still strive for it. I know that some of you will respond to that comment with "that's not the only reason why we should do good things in our community" and of course it's not. But anyways, keep the stakes high and the competition fierce and great things will come of it!

lauren

I think they most def. should Its such an amazing honor to win an award like that.

If you had asked however if I think that they should be able to win it more than 1 year.. I say mayb not... or atleast a prescribed period of time before they can win it again

Sure!
 

You know, the very last sentence they read when they're handing out the Chairman's Award is "it remains FIRST's most prestigious award".

So... Of course those teams should be going to Nationals!
:)

Of course they should be allowed to attend every year. They have won FIRST's highest award, and really have embodied the spirit of FIRST.

P.S. Even if they didnt go every year, they would still go every other year, so whats the big diff?

Its not like there isnt enough room! they opened it to all teams this year!

Of course they should!
It's FIRST highest achievement (though you wouldn't know since very few people bothered to congratulate 103 for winning the thing) and let's just say it's the award that keeps on giving. It won't kill FIRST to reserve 11 spots for these revered teams.

I like the idea of being allowed to go for 4 years (high school career)... you really shouldn't be reaping the benefits of someone else's hardwork.

If you want to go, then follow the example set by prior years to work hard and get to the nationals. Because teams change, it does not mean that for 10 years they'll be the same or just as active in the community.

yep
 

I agree with you monsieurcoffee -
I know a team that has won chairman's and I love them to death,
but the team doesn't really do all that much to try and win it again. And I'm not sure that it's fair to let them have a special privelege that they didn't earn.

i don't agree
 

I don't agree with this statement. My team had an awesome robot for once this year but we weren't able to attend because we're an even number team. Because of the war we knew some teams would be dropping out. So we waited to see if we'd be able to register, but we weren't. We even won the Engineering Inspiration Award at our regional, which is the miniature Chairman's but they wouldn't allow us to register.

The Chairman's award is FIRSTs greatest award to give, and any team that is organized and grounded enough in the ideals of FIRST to win it SHOULD attend Nationals every year.

Besides being a reward for that team's hardwork, it lets FIRST show them off for PR at Nationals ;)

Yes, previous Chairman's award winning teams display great PR for FIRST, and by letting them attend nationals every year, other teams from around the country may be able to observe them and ask them for advice.

And keep in mind, only about 1% of teams have won the Chairman's award, and that's not a large enough number to really prevent any other teams from attending nationals.

Chairman's award is coveted because it IS so difficult to win. An award looses meaning if it's easy to achieve, and yes it is getting more difficult to win every year, but it's not impossible.

Just work hard and keep your hopes up. And remember, what your doing should not be done specifically for winning Chairman's, your doing it let other people know what you're so excited about, and to possibly... change the world for the better a little.

Well, that's my $.02

ByE

erin

Okay - so do you know all of the Chairman's award winners so that you can go up and ask them questions/advice??

Also, how can a team that has won it say 8 years ago give you advice if they didn't do it. The only people who might remember what they did would be the mentors, assuming, they are still helping out the team.

The other thing is, what that team did to win the award is outdated. It takes a lot more to win that what those teams did.

I'm not campaigning against the Chairmans award, I just don't agree with the way they're deciding to use it. The cool thing with Chairman's is each and every year you have to be really creative to get something that can compete with other teams. Just imagine what the judges have to go through to pick a winner.

-Jessica

11 spots being "wasted" on the chairman's award winners leaving only say 270+ for everybody else.
I see your point.:rolleyes: