[EricH]

Originally Posted by yash101

What do we mean by gracious professionalism? Is it those little and nifty things that boost the team's reputation, like shaking hands, cheering even for your opponents, helping someone out if the seem like they are struggling, etcetera?

Yes and no. Those are signs of GP... but they can also be signs of sportsmanship, which is similar but not quite the same.

It's VERY hard to define what GP is. I look at it as a mixture of being gracious (which all of the above are examples of) and being professional (which the above are not always examples of). Even FIRST takes a while to define it, but doesn't really go into specifics. (By the way, if there are any questions about one of FIRST's mission statements or core values, I generally tend to start at the source--the FIRST website.)

I actually asked this question myself about a year and a half ago--thread is at http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=103726 if you want some more detailed answers, including what I managed to come up with.