[FRC Blog] The Woodie Flowers Award and Two FRC Championships

[Hallry]

Posted on the FRC Blog, 6/2/16: http://www.firstinspires.org/robotic...-championships

The Woodie Flowers Award and Two FRC Championships

Today's Guest Blog Post is written by Dr. Earl Scime on behalf of the Woodie Flowers Awardees.


With FRC expanding to two championships in 2017, the issue of awards has been on everyone’s minds – including the Woodie Flowers Awardees. FIRST has announced that there will be a Chairman’s winner at each championship and clearly there will also be a winning alliance from each event. The Woodie Flowers Award (WFA) is a unique award because there is no “competition” for the award by the teams attending championships. The WFA is given to a single mentor chosen from the pool of all of that year’s regional and district WFFA (Woodie Flowers Finalist Award) recipients as well as renominations from previous years. It is only by incredible luck that the WFA recipient has happened to be attending Championships the past few years. We note that even with two Championships, there is no guarantee that an awardee will be in attendance at either event. Therefore, Dr. Murphy (the award’s founder) and the Woodie Flowers Awardees have decided to maintain the uniqueness of the Woodie Flowers Award and continue to select a single worldwide recipient each year. Because the selection process is sequential, in other words, awardees must first be recognized at regional or district championship events, there is very little time before Championships to organize travel for the WFA recipient. In fact, in the entire history of the WFA award, the recipient has never known they were selected until the announcement at Championships. The WFAs will continue to try to maintain the surprise of the announcement while working with FIRST on a strategy to get the recipient to at least one of the championship events for the presentation. We also note that the WFAs themselves are also unlikely to be attending both championships, so the award ceremony will also have to evolve. The WFA and WFFA are deeply cherished by all those honored to have been so recognized and the WFAs look forward to maintaining the singular nature of the Woodie Flowers Award while working with FIRST to make the presentation of the award a memorable experience for the teams and mentors.

[bkahl]

Only one final winner?

Wow, what an idea!

[Justin Montois]

Originally Posted by bkahl

Only one final winner?

Wow, what an idea!

"The WFA and WFFA are deeply cherished by all those honored to have been so recognized and the WFAs look forward to maintaining the singular nature of the Woodie Flowers Award..."

I used to look forward to the singular nature of the Championship too.

[efoote868]

Kickoff would be an appropriate place for this announcement.

[bitter]Unless they split that too [/bitter]

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by bkahl

Only one final winner?

Wow, what an idea!

You should time travel back to 1998 and prevent FIRST from awarding multiple winners in subsequent seasons.

[bkahl]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

You should time travel back to 1998 and prevent FIRST from awarding multiple winners in subsequent seasons.

Lol. Dude. Come on.

We all know what I meant, there's no need to read that deep.

[marshall]

The WFAs will continue to try to maintain the surprise of the announcement while working with FIRST on a strategy to get the recipient to at least one of the championship events for the presentation. We also note that the WFAs themselves are also unlikely to be attending both championships, so the award ceremony will also have to evolve.

This is going to be hard to pull off. In fact, I don't know how you can pull it off for two separate events happening sequentially. If the winner is at the first then the second event knows it ahead of time and if the winner is at the second then you aren't honoring them at the first.

But hey, if this award is remaining singular then there is hope that one day, we'll get back to a singular championship too.

[ATannahill]

Originally Posted by marshall

This is going to be hard to pull off. In fact, I don't know how you can pull it off for two separate events happening sequentially. If the winner is at the first then the second event knows it ahead of time and if the winner is at the second then you aren't honoring them at the first.

But hey, if this award is remaining singular then there is hope that one day, we'll get back to a singular championship too.

I think they meant a surprise for the recipient, not for everyone. They might be able to do this if they collude with the main or alternate contact of their team.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by rtfgnow

I think they meant a surprise for the recipient, not for everyone. They might be able to do this if they collude with the main or alternate contact of their team.

They don't even need to get that tricky about it. Just do what they do for Dean's List currently, and get in touch with all nominated mentors directly. Or, if you want to allow teams to keep it a secret from the nominated mentor, for renominations (which many teams do), put it as a check box when they submit the nomination - If awarded, which champs should it be presented at - A, B, or whichever the team attends (defaulting to the team's default champs should the team not attend one).

It might actually be best to just include that question with the nomination for both WFA and DL, just to take all the ambiguity out of it and ensure full knowledge for FIRST without having to manage the logistics of contacting 100+ individuals for each award!

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

You should time travel back to 1998 and prevent FIRST from awarding multiple winners in subsequent seasons.

per·verse
pərˈvərs
adjective
(of a person or their actions) showing a deliberate and obstinate desire to behave in a way that is unreasonable or unacceptable.

[JohnBoucher]

How about the Prize Patrol. Track them down where ever they are on live stream.

[Michael Corsetto]

This is a bummer.

I was really looking forward to watching the separate event in summer of 2017 where WFA Upper and WFA Lower duke it out to determine the 2017 UWFA (Ultimate Woodie Flowers Award)!

In all seriousness, it is interesting that WFAs are holding on to this. If the winner is at Houston, it kind of takes that element of surprise out of Upper Split Champs?

Maybe a separate mentor recognition ceremony will be added, even if the WFA isn't given out at both events?

-Mike

[marshall]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

Maybe a separate mentor recognition ceremony will be added, even if the WFA isn't given out at both events?

-Mike

I'm all about celebrating those who build the robots!

[EricH]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

How about the Prize Patrol. Track them down where ever they are on live stream.

I like that idea. Might take some coordination, but ought to be doable.

[tjf]

Though I don't agree with the 2Champs split, the fact they're keeping it singular means they're not treating it lightly.

It's not the solution many people want, but in this case, it's better than having 2 Woodie Flowers (at least to me.)

[In Reference to the Salt]
The core of the problem (imho) is the whole 2Champs brought a logistical nightmare for teams and FIRST itself. To coordinate two events of similar scale halfway across the country (vertically, at least) is an impressive feat, and hopefully the 2017 staff will be able to coordinate it as well as this and previous years.

FIRST made these changes because they see a bright future for all of the F** competitions, and we all have to trust in them, whether we like it or not, that they know what they're doing.