[Andy Grady]

Usually, I stray from the whole Chairmans/Championship debate, but I would like to throw my thoughts out there....

I am one of those people who values the Championship over the Chairmans. Though the ideals of what Chairmans is about are good, I have never really been one to believe that the purpose they uphold is truely what "inspires" students. I come from a team with a long history in FIRST. Over my ten years of involvement, I have grown up with a number of people with a certain passion for FIRST. I love the games, I love the excitement, and I love the friendships involved. These are all things which I can honestly say that I have gained from just plainly and simply being a competitor. For instance, I look to team 121. Back when I was a student, they grew into one of our biggest rivals. Over the years, the rivalry remained, but as a result of that rivalry, a friendship grew. I am proud to call the guys from 121 my friends, and I still love to compete on a high level with or against them. This competitive spirit is in my opinion, exactly what inspires people to engineering, as it is what inspired me. What I have found with Chairmans, with all due respect to the past chairmans winners, is that the award has been judged on a gimick basis. Though deserving of awards for all the hard work and effort that these teams put into the programs they build within their team to promote FIRST, I think that these teams only represent a portion of those who truely deserve recognition for their efforts. I think there are tons of teams out there who focus extremely hard on really exciting their own students, giving them a passion for the competition aspect. That passion is most definately contagious. I am proud to say that I am part of one of these teams who goes out of their way to get all students on its team involved, as well as make sure that the quality of their education is at a high level. Lots of things go on behind the doors of NYPRO on a given night during build time that never see the light of day on a chairmans award basis. For instance, the hard working engineers who actually spend lots of time sitting down with students to tutor them in math, science, or in some cases even english. I know for a fact that my team is not the only team who does this. I think things like that are just as important, if not more important than starting up 10 to 12 lego teams, starting an offseason competition, or initiating some sort of program to promote FIRST. Rule number 1: If your students are happy, if they are excited, if they are competitive, they will keep comming back...I've done so for 10 years...I'm not the only one. I choose the national championship over chairmans because I dont need an award to tell me that my team does an excelent job at promoting FIRST...I already know they do...from within. If we win a national championship, its a feeling of accomplishment that tells me that we worked as a team, we struggled as a team, we came together as a team, and in the end...we succeeded as a team.

I'll take that any day.

Good Luck,
Andy Grady