Quote:
Originally posted by Mike Norton
I have watched over the last 8 year of who gets the award.
When you see a Big corp. enter into this competition. One of those teams they sponsor gets the award. Just look back at all the winner.
For you to win you need to get a big corp to give lots of money to FIRST to help out and surpise you get something.
I have seen this in all awards. If your team is sponsored by a great company, you will most likey get a award.
They do this to make all the big company happy.
So if you are a team that goes out and gets all these small corp. to give money you have a slim chance of winning.
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I have to agree with you that large teams with big corporate backings tend to win the chairman's award, but not for the reasons you have. Large teams have more time and resources to go out into the community and recruit and mentor new teams. I'm not saying that smaller teams don't have the opportunity to win the award, it's just that bigger, more established teams tend to have more time to spread FIRST.
Also, I'm confused by who you consider to be a "Big corp." Looking back at last year's winner (Chatsworth) I don't see any companies that I would consider big corporations. What about all those 180 or so teams sponsorsed by NASA? You can't get much larger than NASA.
As for the other awards, most judges (the one's who give out the awards) are guests and so they don't know who the super-power teams are. It is very hard for them to be biased when the only information they know about teams is what they find out by asking the team members.
All you have to do is mentor some FLL or robotics teams and exemplify the ideals of FIRST and you have a good shot of winning the chairman's award, especially with the new regional chairman's awards.