Quote:
Originally Posted by Carolyn_Grace
leading me back to my MAIN POINT of this thread: Why submit a Chairman's Award if I know that I won't win?
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This is probably one of the main reasons my team doesn't even make any attempt at a Chairman's award. We do however try to win as many other awards as possible each year, especially awards about robot design, because we put the majority of our team's focus on a team building a robot to compete in an event - and even that has mixed results.
So I think the main underlying reason is because we as a team have determined how we participate in the FIRST program, and we chose to participate by building students, a robot, and enjoying the experience of the sport.
I have on many occasions brought up the need to try a Chairmans award, but just thinking of how little we do is in NO WAY any matchup to any other team. So really the time and energy is better served elsewhere.
Even more important, what is the real interest in winning it? YES it is the greatest honor FIRST can give a team, YES it will give us some nice swag for the trophy case, YES it will give us national recognition and we will no longer be that team between 173 and 175, YES we will be forever mentioned in a list of the most amazing teams in history of FIRST... but for a team like us, all of the students and mentors just aren't as interested in doing all of the work. We would have to shut down the entire robot part of our team to have enough resources, time and people-power to compete with the likes of teams who have won at the regional level forever.
It's too much of a hurdle
and that is ok. Mentors and students of our team understand the importance of the Chairman's Award, and know what it means for the winners. Trust me, we do want to see our team's number in the hall of fame and be remembered. But we can't do it - many teams can't do it - and
that's alright.
I don't want every team to submit a Chairman's award because they feel like they have to. Having this secondary project is great for a program like FLL, but for FRC it has a lot more meaning when its something your entire team must strive for. You can't just walk into a Chairman's presentation and list off a couple good deeds - which is what the Chairman's award would turn into if everyone had to. By making it an award that some teams don't bother with, you heighten its importance because it really is a bigger challenge that you think - and
thats a good thing too.