FRC Blogged - FIRST Dean’s List Award – Update

[MamaSpoldi]

Originally Posted by Kims Robot

I'm not against this, but it seems like a really fast knee jerk reaction. Just like seeing the referees deliberate for 10 minutes at the end of a finals match - while nerve-wracking on the delay, makes me feel like they have taken a good amount of time to make the correct and appropriate decision, I sort of wish Frank had taken more than a weekend to release the "change of heart."

When Dean's list was introduced, we had something like 2 weeks to select our nominees and write essays, and we did it. This time we now have months and months of notice, and people are complaining that its not enough. Next year people will complain a year is not enough notice...

And Im waiting for the juniors to start whining that they are going to get caught in the mess because their seniors will be nominated this year, and next year they won't get the chance...

I hope Frank's openness doesn't continue to mean everyone that whines on CD gets their way, because there is a much much bigger community out there that this affects.

But 2015 implementation I suppose is a reasonable compromise that may at least quiet some of the masses of complaining.

Kim, I couldn't agree more... although IIRC it was more like a week that first year. Very rushed, but very worth it to give these students their much deserved recognition.

FIRST has been saying for the last 2 years that it was "strongly encouraged" to nominate juniors for this award. It seems to me that teams should have been looking at that as an indication that preference would likely be given to juniors over seniors and likewise they should have made those corrections to their nomination process over the last 2 years.

Let's not forget that FIRST should get to determine the purpose of their awards. They are clearly stating (as they have for the last few years) that they view this as something to help dedicated students on their college applications. Teams can (and should) provide their own recognition of team seniors who have been dedicated to the team.