[Bob Steele]

I think the reason that the poll is so evenly divided is that the question was not medals only or pins only. Or for what? Medals are great for winners...not so good for participation....

My opinion (which is similar to many here..) is to do medals for champions (gold), silver for runner up... medals for Engineering Inspiration, silver, chairman's award gold... I don't know how you give out "third place" medals...it already takes a long time to bring up all the teams for Champions (3 teams) and Finalists (3 teams)... to bring up 2 more alliances would mean bringing up another 6 teams.... too long... so I say we should keep it to gold and silver

Everyone else should get pins... I like pins for participation ... You can wear them all at once... and collect them...

I have lots of medals at home.... they are hard to display... or to store...
Pins can be stored in a single frame...

The only thing worse than medals is giving trophies to everyone....

I would imagine that the budget for the bronze medals is HUGE...

I also wish there were a way to give back the bronze medals if you win one at a regional and then win gold or silver at a later regional... I know that this really doesn't help FIRST because they have to make enough for everyone. Our team has two boxes of bronze medals that were not even used because we had gold/silver ones from a later regional...


Pins are a good idea for participation or patches....
I personally like patches (with the year's logo on it...) They can be sewn on a jacket or blanket... a good reminder... Patches in bulk would be MUCH less money....

What would be even neater would be regional patches... LOGO and regional name.... but that would be tougher logistically...

I can imagine having a letterman type jacket with all the patches of the regionals that you attended on your back... pretty cool