National Championship or National Chairman's

[ngreen]

Originally Posted by Figment

This year I hope we can bring home the 1st place medals and show our school that Robotics can be cool, maybe spark some interest and get some more community support

I thought the pink would be spark enough...Maybe if you win FIRST will make special pink championship metals for you guys.

i have to agree 100% winning the national championship does more for first than national chairmans.

I will agree it makes it easier for team to find support. It doesn't make it more possible for that team to spread FIRST a lot though.. Sure you will get the interest of business men and techies...mostly. Let's name programs FIRST has been on: CNN, NASA TV, Tech TV, CBS 60 minutes, Discovery Channel, ESPN2. We are trying to reach out to high school students and not everyone gets these channels (for instance I would have only been able to learn about FIRST through CBS) and most of these channels wouldn't have a giant viewing audience of people who can start FIRST teams and who will follow up. So it leaves us with the best way to spread FIRST still lies with the teams. And so the Chairman's probably does a better job at spreading FIRST. Until FIRST hits a more mainstream audience more often it will continue this way. I think people realize it is easier for their team to come home after winning a world championship and getting money and support from their community but it doesn't make it any more possible or more likely that they will come back and spread FIRST and its ideals. IMHO.