Re: Team Award Trophy Cases in School
 

Well Done. Hopefully you will have to find room for even more.

Re: Team Award Trophy Cases in School
 

We too have a case large enough for robots to fit in. Our first two robots are in there, and then the remaining space got overtaken by other academic trophies because the school wanted to display them for an open house years ago. They never left.:( The case was built using team money, and is large enough for at least six robots.

Re: Team Award Trophy Cases in School
 

Prior to this year, we did not have a spot for our trophies. They sat in our cage on shelves in the ISS room. Lovely place for them...

But alas, with some convincing of administration, we were allowed to take over a display case in the main lobby - because Yearbook got a bigger one.

I just find it sad, why on earth would a school not want to show off their Robotics Team's awards? It shouldn't be a hassle.

Re: Team Award Trophy Cases in School
 

We have probably as many problems as you do. Our team's first season was in 2003, and we got a trophy from winning the Rookie All-Star Award. It was not allowed to go in the trophy cases from sports teams, and we were not given our own trophy case, so it sat in the room. This continued as awards built up, until we won a regional for the first time in 2006. The Board of Ed ended up issuing a "proclamation" for the team, and in this ceremony, the superintendent gave us the case right outside of the room to set up a display in. (Before that, they had been storing cardboard in it.) At the end of the year, we were warned we would have to take our stuff out, and this went on through the next year and the next. In 2008 some parents donated their time to help make a really sharp-looking display set-up for our banners and trophies, and a display with computer monitors running powerpoints... it was truly a beautiful exhibit. However, we were told multiple times by the new principal that it was intended to be a display case for artwork, and we had to move our stuff out. They packed everything up for us and left it in our room. He said he would be willing to negotiate a new spot for us to keep our stuff, and took the Management Team on a tour of the then under-construction wing. A deal was never really reached. Both partied remained unhappy. Currently, our stuff is back in the original case outside our room. There are a lot of politics going on around the issue. No one is really satisfied.

Unfortunately, I think our team is stuck in the same hard place as yours, so I can't offer any suggestions from my experience. However, you say that you haven't gotten any reasoning as to why you can't have any trophy space. I think you should approach the administration calmly, and ask them what the reasoning behind this is, so you can understand what you are working around. Thank them for explaining this to you. Then, based on their qualms, work with your team to write up ways to work with them around these issues, and explain why it is important to both them and you that your robotics awards can be displayed. Try to remain level-headed throughout, even if the process gets frustrating. Hopefully you will be able to win them over. I think this is the best approach available.

Re: Team Award Trophy Cases in School
 

Before 2008 we didn't have a place for awards, the school built a new building intended for autoshop, then canceled our autoshop class. We got the entire room and it has a trophy case maybe 3 feet wide and 5 feet tall. It has a window on the outside and inside. Then they decided hey lets put tinted glass on the outside. So you can see our various awards and keepsakes from the outside if you look really really closely at the window.

Re: Team Award Trophy Cases in School
 

I will admit, at first our school didnt really know what to do with us. They saw us as "another club" and really for the first three years, we were allowed to put up displays in a few of the cases that were rotating for different groups (ie Art got it for a month, student council for a month, robotics for a month, etc). Right in the front of the school was a huge trophy case of awards, but as one of our students noted, the last award from one of the events was 1992, and they were collecting dust. Im all for history, but thats before I was in high school!

But in our first year we racked up 6 trophies, including Champs RAS, and while they were proud of us, they just didnt have a solid spot. So we kept asking to borrow the cases, and kept asking, and asking...

Around the start of our third build season (two more trophies just hanging out in our shop), they finally agreed to give us our own case up by the science wing. Neat because it was right near our shop and one of the tech rooms.

Last year, we revamped the case, and also our tech teacher bought us a bulletin board from his technology funds and we had it installed on one of the walls near our case. Now we can communicate AND display our trophies!

For any teams that are struggling, just keep asking, and keep letting the school know that you appreciate their support. Its hard for a lot of schools to recognize the difference between robotics and their 30+ other clubs, but if you can convince them that FIRST is different, you have succeeded, and you will get your case eventually :) Do as many Board of Ed presentations and demos as you can, the more the adminstration knows about you, the more likely you are to get your foot in the door as "something different". And if all else fails, fundraise the money to buy your own case and ask if they will give you a safe place to put the case.

I have attached pictures from last build season of our bulletin board, our trophy case, and the display area that Harris gave us. Good luck!

Re: Team Award Trophy Cases in School
 

Hmm, I feel a NEMO paper coming on....

I have different "Wish Lists" I give out to targeted people to help teams. It appears that having one targeting school administrators is needed.

Re: Team Award Trophy Cases in School
 

I'll admit.
Every year, we've been acquiring more facilities. We have lots of space to put awards in our robotics facilities.
Our main construction room has high ceilings and conduits where we can hang our banners 20 ft in the air.
We haven't tried it yet though.

http://www.waialuarobotics.com/roboticsroom.html

Re: Team Award Trophy Cases in School
 

This is an old thread, but I took the initiative this year and we had a brand new trophy case given to us by the school that sits right in front of the principal's office and the front entrance of the building. We even have other display cases for all our stuff. Our sponsors all share trophies as well.

I know this may not be much for other teams but it felt like a huge showing of respect for our 14 year old team to finally have a beautiful trophy case at the gates of the school and the principal's office. :) We're really happy with this. 09 was an awesome rebuilding year.

Re: Team Award Trophy Cases in School
 

Our team has a little trophy cabinet in our front foyer. It's big enough to hold 2 of our trophies, as well as "the claw" from our rack-n-roll robot. It was an effort just to get that little thing, but it's better than nothing! =] We also have a bulletin board by the metal shop.

The best part is when students STILL say "oh, I didn't know we had a robotics team...."