Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve W
Is it really GP if you have to list the things that you have done. GP is a way that the team is or isn't. I guess that teams that actively seek out teams having issues, provide material for those that lack, make themselves available at events are what should be noticed or talked about by others. Patting yourself on the back and listing all to whom you have helped shows a team trying to win an award.
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Steve, this is a debate that is much better had in person but I don't hear people bring this side of the argument up enough and I think it's something the entire community might need. Our team doesn't do any of the things we do for other teams because of the award, if the award didn't exist we would happily give away parts & advice like I always do. We would invite teams over and help them build their robots, we would still post in our build blog every night and share our designs. However we also do a lot to win the award. We spend weeks writing an essay and making sure that we have pictures and documentation from all of our events. We work hard on our presentation and our materials for the judges and a bunch more. It is nice to be recognized and FIRST makes the Chairman's Award the highest honor for a reason they want teams to try to win it. Hundreds of students work really hard each year to try to win these awards and every time someone says we shouldn't do things to win the award it diminishes their efforts just a bit. I'm sick of the we shouldn't do it for the award argument, if a team feels that way fine don't submit for the award that is every team's right but I sure hope more teams do try to win the awards, we are a much better program because we celebrate these things and elevate the teams that win them to such high regard in our community and because teams try to win them. The entire chairman's award process is about documenting how you have helped the community and why you should be a role model team and this is a piece of that. I assume that every single hall of fame team wanted to win the award and did a huge amount over a ridiculously long time to win the award, was that their only motivation absolutely not but it is always part of it.