[ebarker]

Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?

At a minimum it forces the team to sit down and ask

"what have we done to promote the mission and vision of FIRST ? "

"are we heading in the right direction ?, are we supporting our students right ?"

and so on. It is a way to stop and think about what we are doing as a team.

You don't pursue the Chairman's Award. You arrive at the Chairman's Award.


Over time, this self examination, reflection, and adjustments to the team efforts and work results in a culture that is very positive and gets some results.

A story - the students on our team have been running around trying to help others as best they can. They really haven't thought about awards or anything. It was just a lot of fun helping others. The team went to the Peachtree. During the closing ceremony they called out our team for the J&J GP award. We all kinda looked at each other with surprise and said "well ok, let's go on down". It really caught us off guard.

Submitting for the RCA, properly done can help focus the team on what needs to be done. It can change the culture of the team and make the team much better. Doing the right thing has rewards all by itself and the plastic trophies are ok too! Everyone should submit for the RCA.