Submitting the Chairmans award...
 

On the format that must be entered...does it have to be in essay/paragraph form? Could we do sort of a newspaper format? An "Article" for each thing accomplished?

Re: Submitting the Chairmans award...
 

When you submit the award on Firstawards.org, you get a text box to put your answer into, and then you can upload a few pictures (I want to say 4, but I don't remember the exact number).

So if you wanted to format the wording like a newspaper article, I suppose you could. But tou won't be able to format the font/print/color/size of the text.

Re: Submitting the Chairmans award...
 

The submission format has changed been changed a few times, so keep that in mind; this may be different this year. However, If I remember, with this past years submission on www.FIRSTawards.org, the submission was in a text box similar to the one we enter posts in here (except there's a counter to enforce the character limit), so I think a conventional multi-column set-up may be difficult to properly format. I'm not sure if it's possible or not; I just don't think you'd have an easy time of it.

The copies you print out to bring with you to competition can be formatted any way you want though.
Hope this helps.

Re: Submitting the Chairmans award...
 

I have most definitely seen it done before, I was just wondering if the rules have changed at all. XD Where there's a will, there is a way. Especially in this competition! It definitely did help, though. Thank you very much for your response. Perhaps I'll just bring a copy to the competition in that format. Luckily I have a few months to think about it.

Re: Submitting the Chairmans award...
 

I would like to add two things.

First, even though we won the Chairman's Award our team must still create a Chairman's Award entry each year. We have always done ours as text in paragraphs, but last year we decided to do our in a poem. I think it was more work, but it was more fun and FIRST seemed to enjoy it...don't know about the judges since they don't read it.

Second, in 2005 when we won the Chairman's we wanted to post five photos, but, as you know, we are only allowed to post four. Our solution was to use a photo editor to combine two photos into one jpeg file. Since it met the format and size guidelines it was accepted.

I would suggest, read the rules...don't break them, but be creative. Remember, format isn't the important thing in the Chairman's submission, it is the content. Tell your story...clearly and completely. Make the judges know that you are the best team.

Good luck to all.

Re: Submitting the Chairmans award...
 

FIRST has changed the submission requirements for Chairmans essays so that they are easier to move electronically and so that they are consistent. They want to judge the content and value of the efforts, not the creativity of the layout and formatting.

For 2006, the submission was text typed or copied into a blank block in FIRST Awards. Although we wont know until January, it is probably a safe assumption the 2007 will be similar.

You are free to prepare a different format / style to take into your interview and can take along other information to tell your story.

Re: Submitting the Chairmans award...
 

Robert,
the others are correct, in that the ACTUAL online CA award application MUST be simple textual fill-in-the-box responses

However, you can and SHOULD be thinking about other printed collaterals and selling tools that can be given to the judges that do indeed very much look more like a "newspaper".

Somewhere in CD "resources" I put a spreadsheet that lets your team do a draft of the CA award (with the appropriate word counts) and will update that template once the 2007 season starts. But you can assume that FIRST will likely ask "roughly" the same questions for the formal CA application process.

Re: Submitting the Chairmans award...
 

Yes, you are given a text box, but there are many styles of writing. If you are most comfortable writing the Chairmans like you would write a newspaper article, go for it. Just as long as you include all the accomplishments (non robot related) of your team. One of the best ways to write an essay is to write a story, and this is the way newspaper articles are written. You can even get quotes from students on the team on how FIRST has affected their lives, or how the team has affected the lives of others or the community. Include all content, tell your team's story, and make it interesting.