I look at it slightly differently. With the district model, you are going up against the same teams every single year - and some of those teams are monstrous when it comes to chairman's programs. Up till just recently, we knew that we were going to have to go up against 27 every single year - plus teams like 33, 548, etc. With the new 'presenting at multiple districts' model, it makes it that much more likely that those same teams will show up every year because they can't knock eachother out by presenting at the same district.
I think (like everything else in the district model) you end up with better teams going to worlds at the end through the system, but it also means that to break into the 'big time', you're going to have to take down the big dogs every year.
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Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery
As (mostly) engineers, it's easy to pick out and remember the "numbers" in the awards presentations you see. And numbers certainly are a concrete way to distinguish yourself from other teams, and give the judges a certifiable reason to select your team as a Chairman's Award winner.
However, there's a lot more to Chairman's than just the numbers. I'm lucky to be able to work in the shadows of the Mid-Atlantic's three Hall of Fame members, and to witness two of the three of them before they picked up the Championship edition of the award. John Larock (365) and Al Ostrow (341) have stressed that there is a "heart" element to the award that must be fulfilled. You must communicate to the judges the impact your team has on a personal level. The judges have to be able to sense that your team "gets it."
While the big numbers of teams started/mentored/assisted/etc and the flagship outreach programs in other continents are impressive, that alone isn't going to win you an award. You need to show that your team and you community is feeling the impact. That your team has a role model culture worth sharing. With the 1114 video, they had both their "45 other robots competition teams" with their "Big Simbot, Little Simbot" program.
In terms of how this has changed since a decade ago, my view is a little different. If anything, the bar isn't quite as high as it used to be in the Mid-Atlantic. Part of that is the swap to districts creating more award opportunities. Part of that is that the New Jersey regional had a long history of the same team never winning RCA twice. Part of that is that 365 and 341 are in the Hall of Fame, and not claiming RCA trophies each season. Part of it may be that the Mid-Atlantic is rather saturated in terms of team growth, so there isn't a whole lot of opportunities for constantly starting and mentoring new teams. That's not to say that the teams that are winning the award these days aren't incredible role models. Each of them has a tremendous impact on their communities and have built very strong programs. But I think the fact that the two teams recognized at MAR Champs this previous year didn't really have that flagship singular outreach effort or huge quantity of teams founded demonstrates that being able to effectively communicate your impact on a local level is still a viable path to the Chairman's Award.
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