This is actually an interesting point. Also one I have a little bit of personal experience with. This year was my team's first year submitting Chairman's at the Championship (second year presenting the award overall). And, throughout the presentation process, I noticed many things:
- Last year, we submitted in Hartford. Because it was only our first year, we were just looking for feedback. However, many (if not all) teams there seemed to have the same mindset when I talked to them "Oh, it's going to be 236. It's not even a contest."
- After Atlanta last year, many people on many CT teams (ours included, truth me told myself included a little bit...not that I'm proud of this), were happy for 236. Not so much that they won, but that now other CT teams actually had a chance to submit.
- As I was working on our Chairman's binder on the way to the WPI regioanl this year, one of our mentors asked me what I thought. I told him I was unsure, but we may have had a slight chance to at least make an impression. He then asked me what planet I lived on.
- In the hotel in Atlanta, when our Chairman's presenters were going over our presentation, we seemed to get off task a lot. A few times I tried to get us back into focus, to which they responded "We're not going to win anyway, why does it matter?"
The Chairman's award is known as the most prestigious award in FIRST. It doesn't award a team that builds a good robot, nor a team that does a million and a half things for the community and the world. It's about being a model for other teams to emulate: finding a balance that all teams can celebrate and appreciate. However, it does create an insane amount of pressure of teams. But not the teams that do end up winning Chairman's. Rather, the pressure it put upon the teams that aren't at full Chairman's caliber...yet. They see what other teams have done and either become discouraged because they assume that they can't do the things other teams do. Or they become inspired to do better than those teams. Neither of these should be occurring. A team should see a Chairman's winner and feel the same way that we want kids to see when we demo for them, "I want to do that when I grow up."
That being said, kids don't just decide they want to build robots then build the next Einstein champion the next year. They tinker, they experiment, they get feedback, they learn. Yes, it's frustrating at times because it may seem like there's always the kid that can do it better and faster, but it will come.
Like Jane said, not every team is ready to submit Chairman's right away. They need to tinker and learn and get feedback for themselves. But, if we want to show kids that we're good role models for them, we first have to prove to ourselves that we can appreciate other good role models- not compete with them.
Congratulations to team 341, your work is nothing short of what I want to do when I grow up.