FRC Blog- Wireless at Championship, Two Award Winners and Real-Life Mario Kart!

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

^Well, in the past two years, Dean's List was practically held in a secret bunker, they sprung the Woodie Flowers Award without any announcement while I believe the winner and team weren't even in the stands, and they announced the CCA in the middle of a concert the night before they actually gave out the award.

Be on the look-out for awards at championships! They can be at any time, in any place, without warning.

I have to argue with 'secret bunker' - it's right on the agenda if you read it ... in the same ballroom where the other two FIRST programs have their opening ceremonies....

Also, FIRSTers complain that the awards ceremonies are too long, and then complain when they try to give out awards where a team or person may not necessarily be there, because they're announcing the award early. (Note, I'm not talking about the concert here, because that was definitely not the right way to do CCA that year.)

Pick a side. Do you want longer ceremonies with more awards, or do you want the recognition for some awards to still be announced, but not take up your Saturday afternoon...

Congratulations to Panteras, and to Parker. Nicely done.

[MagiChau]

No one has addressed the measures FIRST has taken to ensure Einstein runs smooothly. I am glad FIRST is willing to run practice matches to make sure everything is running. Hopefully, 2012 doesn't ever happen again. No storms would be cool too.

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by MagiChau

No one has addressed the measures FIRST has taken to ensure Einstein runs smooothly. I am glad FIRST is willing to run practice matches to make sure everything is running. Hopefully, 2012 doesn't ever happen again. No storms would be cool too.

There's a lot of measures planned. Trust me, the volunteers and HQ are trying hard to make sure things run smoothly. We all want the excitement to only happen on the field.

[Coach Norm]

Originally Posted by Libby K

I have to argue with 'secret bunker' - it's right on the agenda if you read it ... in the same ballroom where the other two FIRST programs have their opening ceremonies....

Congratulations to Panteras, and to Parker. Nicely done.

I thought the Dean's List award was an awesome event to attend last year. We were honored to have a finalist, Garrett Witowski.

It was definitely well attended and all seemed to have a blast there.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Libby K

I have to argue with 'secret bunker' - it's right on the agenda if you read it ... in the same ballroom where the other two FIRST programs have their opening ceremonies....

Also, FIRSTers complain that the awards ceremonies are too long...

I remember specific complaints about the location being hard to find/get to in 2011 (EDIT: Here is the first one I found on CD). The first thing I did this year was block off time for the Dean's List presentation to recognize not only the finalists from both 422 and 2614 but all of the others as well.

I've heard complaints about the Einstein spectacle being a drawn-out process, but not awards ceremonies. I may be in the minority who thinks that we are not recognizing unique merits of teams well enough. I wish regional committees were allowed to do something like creating an award that is physically and symbolically unique to the event, and recognized outreach efforts more officially outside of Chairman's. I'll probably get a better sense of it all after I attend my first Championship Event.

I guess when you group a lot of people together as FIRSTers, you'll find differing opinions, but that's mine. I'm content with everything, I'm just pointing out what I see to be room for improvement.

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

I wish regional committees were allowed to do something like creating an award that is physically and symbolically unique to the event, and recognized outreach efforts more officially outside of Chairman's. I'll probably get a better sense of it all after I attend my first Championship Event.

The Judge's Award is pretty much anything the judges want it to be. They see a team doing something unique worth recognizing and tailor the award to that. At most of the events I've been to, the award usually focuses more on the team dynamics than any of the technical aspects of their robot, as there are already plenty of awards for that.

It's not necessarily the regional committee creating an award unique to the event, but it comes pretty close.

[dag0620]

Am I the only one who doesn't mind the Awards Ceremonies (at any level of competition) and the way Einstein is ran?

I don't know, I guess for me, after all the hard work to get to that point (both by the teams to make it to whatever point we're at, or all the hard work the event organizers put in to make it happen) I'll never understand why we're in such a rush to call it a day and have it all be over.

My $0.02