How can we improve awards?

[Grim Tuesday]

After going to a few competitions this year, I've noticed that there is quite a lot of confusion and various issues regarding awards on a number of levels. First off, let me say that every award I've seen given this season is 100% deserved by the team that got it and this post is in no way an insult to those who have or have not won awards this season.

However, I am seeing some issues with a number of awards and I'm curious as to the CD Hivemind's opinion on them and how they can be fixed.

I could make this into a number of posts but I'd rather not clutter up this subforum and I think they all fit under the common umbrella.


1. I don't think anyone who's been to a couple regional's won't notice that once you win one award, you can't win another. This is never stated in the manual, it is an unwritten rule. This is a complex and major issue because on one hand you don't want one team going home with all the hardware but on the other hand it just doesn't feel right to watch a team become downcast winning an award. Just this weekend, I watched my and another's team's spirits drop when they won a Friday award because it meant that our chances of qualifying for Championships with another award just got that much smaller. It seems ungrateful but it is true, and I don't know if there is a solution to this. Maybe the district based points system could help?


2. The 'Team Spirit Award' has some huge issues in how it is judged and how it is interpreted at competitions. When we won it for a second time in a season, we decided to look it up in the manual.

We were shocked to find out that it was in fact, not an award for cheering and having spirit at competition but for "...extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit through exceptional partnership and teamwork to further the objectives of FIRST." There's nothing in there about cheering at the competition. However, the MC's at most regional's make a big deal about the team that wins it being loud and coming down to lead cheers. This does not make sense, especially because there were certainly more spirited teams than us at the competitions we attended.

Are the judges judging based on the criteria of the colloquial definition of team spirit or the manual one? Is it the 'Friday Third Place Chairman's'? I think this award could use a lot more clarity.


3. Engineering Inspiration is another interesting and amorphous award. It is given to the team that has "outstanding efforts in advancing respect/appreciation for engineering and engineers, both within their school and their community." Does anyone know precisely what that means?

The teams that receive it always fit the bill and are deserving of such the award but I've never known exactly how it is judged. Is it the super-prestigious judges award and ticket to St. Louis? Is it the second place Chairman's award? Do the Chairman's judges have a say in the judging of EI?

One other oddity with EI is that the team that won it at Championships the preceding year is automatically invited to Championships the next and but is not precluded from winning it at a regional level. I would propose that FIRST makes it like the CCA: if you win it at Championships, you can't apply in the next x years but are invited back automatically for the duration. For EI, one year seems to make sense.

What do you guys think?