Chairman's Award presentation - post 2/19

[Gary Dillard]

Just wanted to make sure I didn't overlook something....

Is there anywhere that it says we can't work on our 5 minute Chairman's Award presentation to the judges after 12:01 a.m. Feb 19th?

This is my first year advising the Chairman's award sub-team, and best I can tell we've never put together a presentation before other than what we submitted up front. We plan to prepare some scripts, handouts and displays but I wasn't going to do that until after build season when we've got some time to breath. Is that OK?

[jessjank.]

In consideration of all guidelines presented in this year's manual and the ongoings of previous seasons, I do not believe there would be any major issues or conflicts with your team preparing for your interview following your submission of the entry on the deadline. You only need to specifically have your entry submitted by the date and time you have noted, whereas everything else you produce will not be judged until your presentation in consideration for awarding your team with the Chairman's Award. Your team may spend time as necessary after submitting their entry to practice, produce any supplemental documents, displays, videos, etc, and prepare as you may deem as being necessary to clearly present the efforts of your team to the judges during your allotted 5 minutes. If I am mistaken in anything I have said, please correct me. Massive luck!

[Kyle]

Yes you should keep working with your chairmans team after you submit it. Like Jessica said it is a good idea to work with the students on making displays and working on the bullet points to say in the interview so the students can learn to keep the presentation under 10 mins. (I always have trouble doing that at demo's ) Also anything that you would like to show the judges like team year books and info on things you did during build that are not covered much in the submission.

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

Thanks for bringing this up.

Yes, it is immensely important to work on the Chairman's Award presentation. The Fix-it-window idea applies to technical aspects of the robotics process. There is no window on the presentation, since obviously you can't resubmit a new award after the deadline. Try to spend time creating a fluid and practical presentation. The first 5 minutes (as mentioned in the awards manual) are presentation time, where as the 2nd 5 minutes seem to be Judges ask questions time. Prepare your committee of three with care. Possiblities:

1) The primary student who worked on the Chairman's, if there is such a thing.
2) An exemplary leader from the more technical side of the team, so that they can present answers to questions that may simply apply to them more personally, or that they're much more knowledgeable about.
3) An advisor/coach such as yourself.
4) Another chairman's award writing student.
5) Another different type of student (i.e., a rookie or someone)

Good luck with your presentation!

[KathieK]

Something we just realized which may impact our choice for who does our presentation is that you DO have to give the presentation again in Atlanta IF you are fortunate to win the Regional Chairman's Award... and some of our key people are unable to travel with us to Atlanta...

Section 9.2.4 of the Manual: The Championship Award Process: At The Championship, a panel of judges will review the winning thirty (30) Regional Chairman’s Award submissions and will select one ultimate Chairman’s Award winner.

We interpreted that to mean that the Regional winners' online submissions would be the only things judged in Atlanta. However, I posted a Q&A about it and was told differently:

ID: 1524 Section: 9.2.4 Status: Answered Date Answered: 2/7/2005
Q: Will Reigonal CA winners undergo an additional presentation/interview with the judges or will they only look at the previously-submitted online submissions?

A: There is only one Chairman's Award submission, it is used at the Regional level. If a team wins the Regional Chairman's Award, that submission goes forward to the Championship. At the Championship, the team will be interviewed by the Chairman's Award judges and allowed the same time allotment for a presentation as at the Regional level.

[Rich Kressly]

Yes. The interview is a huge part of the process at Regionals and at the Championship. Also know that Chairman's interviews are scheduled with no regard to match schedules. It is possible that you could have team members in a Chairman's interview during a match. With that in mind, if your driver(s) will also be in an interview, you always want to have alternate members ready to go for this possibility, for illness, or for travel concerns.

[MasonMM]

absoluetly keep working on your presentation after you ship the robot. Keep practicing on your presentation right up until your regional. The more you practice the better you will come off and the greater chance you have to win. Also if you do win at regionals, dont be afraid to modify or change your presentation before the championships based on any comments the judges may have given you. Take every opportunity you can to make the ultiamte presentation because this is what FIRST is really all about.

[macurtis]

yeah. Don't be like our team where we just kind of draft people into the chairman's presentaiton at the last minute. Here are some pointers for a good presentation and helpful hints for being prepared:

• ALWAYS have backups if someone can't make it for some reason
• your presenters should be able to sell the team
• shouldn't be paranoid about public speaking
• have good eye contact
• decent hand shake
• should have a good understanding of the team's history
• have a good knowledge of the content of the essay and...
• never be afraid to bring extra handout materials to supplement the presentation.

and there are probably some other pointers I'm missing. You may not be able to find the perfect presenter, but it'd be handy if your presenters could have some of these qualities.

[KathieK]

Besides practicing in front of your team mentors, try and find some adults you DON'T KNOW - you may be comfortable in front of your mentors, but uncomfortable in front of adult strangers. Besides, what might make sense to your mentors, because they know all about FIRST and your team, might not make sense to strangers. Be prepared to answer any questions they might have.

Also, consider contacting your local Toastmasters club for assistance. Be sure to read their Ten Tips for Successful Public Speaking.

[RoboMom]

And 5 minutes goes really fast, especially if all 3 are taking turns speaking. Do an outline. Divide. Practice. Practice some more.

[Barry Bonzack]

I read in the rule book that regional Chairman's winners will do their presentations again in Atlanta, but what about Rookie All-Star winners? Would they present their Chairman's information as well for judging on the National All-Star? Would that be the same panel of judges as the Chairman's, or a separate one?