If people care that much about shiney hunks of metal I hear punched sheet metal works just as well.
But really, what Eric said sums it up. Since pins would cost less I'd be all for it.
Wouldn't you rather have saved a very low budget team just enough money because of those pins so they can enter another year as an FRC team, rather than complain about losing participation medals that the team who couldn't participate didn't even have a chance to earn? (If this is incoherent babble, I apologize, its 2am and I've been teaching FLL camps all week).
As a last post, I'm all for the pins because they would cost less to make, eventhough I still stand behind the opinion that material possessions shouldn't be needed to remind someone of a special time in their lives.
P.S- We gave out our box of participation medals at the finale of our FLL camp this week. The top 3 teams of kids got those medals. When we asked the kids on the other 7 teams(ages 11 and under) what they felt about not "winning", ALL of them (yes its not a hyperbole) said that they had a lot of fun and wanted to come back to FLL again. Did they care about not getting those medals? NO. Not significantly enough for them not to have a good time and learn.
..Last post since I don't see an end in the topic.