Re: Does FIRST give out too many awards? (Opinion)
 

First, I would like to thank all the people for their opinions on this topic, I can tell that it is important to all of you because your opinions are carefully presented.

I have been told this about almost every organization that I have ever been in, but its true, you get out of FIRST what you put into FIRST. FIRST can be whatever you want to make of it. Everyone one wants to be awarded for his or her efforts, and everyone deserves it. In my opinion, I consider my award what I take away from this program, the friends, the knowledge, and the experience.

I was on a team for two years, one of those was the teams rookie year. And the most surprising thing to me was what got me the most motivated to try and make a difference in FIRST. It wasn't the awards and it wasn't the recognition I get from the FIRST community, it was the feeling I got when I told my story to non-FIRST related people. They, although not familiar with the organization, were astounded. Most people wanted to learn more, or wanted to see our robot. This was amazing to me, that a group of 12 high school students, a few teachers, and a group of engineers could affect any random person in such a way.

I realize that was a little off topic, but I guess my real opinion would be that it doesn't matter to me. If your team needs to win awards so that you can gather interest and have a stronger team in the future, than I am for as many awards as possible. If your team has awards, and you don’t even remember why they are all important, than I say fewer awards. My point is, we will have disagreements, and whether 50% of the teams win awards, or only 1%, the award is important, because it recognized what you put in to the FIRST community. Every person commenting on this forum has given to the FIRST community, time, effort, resources, you name it, and it has been contributed.

Basically, awards are important, and the people who receive them deserved them, in fact, you could probably give almost any award, to almost any team, because we all deserve recognition.

~Ben Lauer

Re: Does FIRST give out too many awards? (Opinion)
 

Just a few things here -

For some people, it's easier to put time into their team if they have an attainable goal in mind. Winning an award is not a bad thing, but doing things just to win the award is. Getting a medal in recognition of the hard work and effort you've put into your team, even if it only is a participation medal, is not a bad thing. I have my medals from my four years in FIRST hanging on my wall. I love mementos like these. I didn't do sports in high school, the only other thing I could really get a 'medal' in was orchestra contest. I'm extremely proud of the medals I have; they represent everything myself and all of my other team members have done.

I say keep the medals. Keep the large number of awards. People deserve to be recognized. When a team wins its first award, it is an amazing feeling. I would think you would want more teams to feel this than less teams every season.