[FRC Blog] Awards Section of FRC Administrative Manual Posted

[karomata]

[*]One mentor is now officially allowed in the presentation as an observer only. If a mentor does this, they are considered one of the three people in the room. Why does the mentor have to count as part of the three? It seems like it would benefit everyone if a mentor was allowed to observe without taking away the spot from student presenter.[*]

Not a huge fan of this. As a three time Chairman's presenter (One Regional Chairman's, one EI), I feel like it almost takes away part of the experience. It's completely understandable that the mentors want to be in the interview room because they put in a ton of work with the students when working on the Chairman's presentation and it's other aspects, however having gone through the process a few times, part of the experience is being independent towards the end of working through the presentation and getting the students to a level in which they are able to do it themselves. Also, if a mentor does come into the interview, they cannot provide any information, and can only observe. This accordingly means that it compromises the number of open positions for students if the team chooses to have a mentor in the room.

It's certainly and interesting change to the rules.