[Lil' Lavery]

Well, if a team hasnt won the "ultimate prize" (the championships chairman) but they do have success at the regional level, why should we say you cant compete this year for your larger goal because we want to give the other regional teams a chance? That would be just as unfair to the big shot as the little. I mean, sure 341 has won 3 straight regional chairmans, but they havnt won the championship. The last two years they have been a finalist, an honorable mention. That shows how good, and how close they are coming. But for us to say to them, "sorry, you cant make it all the way this year, wait 'til next" is just a bit cruel. I mean, what about the seniors who dont have a shot at winning that year?
Plus, the chairmans isnt a guaranteed award. You dont have to be a huge team to win it. Just because you have a big sponsor, lots of cash, hold an off-season, sponsor 10 lego leagues, and mentor 30 teams doesnt mean your going to win. In 2003, team 388, who is from a little town in the very southern tip of Virginia, and who isnt exactly a rich team, won the NASA/VCU regional chairmans. They dont hold an off-season. They dont do many of the things a larger team does, but they did show outstanding gracious professionalism, amazing role model characteristics, prepared well, and did the rest of the things the chairmans award is for. That proves anyone can win it. This year, they won Engineering Inspiration at NASA/VCU.
There have been plenty of repeat or threepear chairmans winners, but with the current rule of once you win championships, you cant enter again, you wont see a team win a regional every year for more than maybe 4 or 5 years, AT MOST. By then a team should be able to break through to the championship level. And even if they dont, if they can best exemplify the qualities of FIRST, dont they deserve the chairman's award?
Isnt the chairmans award about showing role model characteristics that other teams can emulate to better acheive the goals of FIRST? If you want to compete with a multi-chairmans winning team, why dont you emulate them? I mean, their characteristics obviously work, so why dont you blend them with yours? They win the award for a reason, so follow their lead, and become a better team because of it. Team 116 does that. We have adapted characteristics of the reports, presentations, and the teams of championship and regional winning chairmans teams, and this year we were labeled "Strong Contenders" in Annapolis (where we lost to 341), and last year we also came close judging from the single comment on our paper and full marks in all but one category in VCU.