Let's see Chairman's summaries!

[Andy Baker]

As Kyle from 311 said, congrats to all of the Regional Chairman's Award winners:

GLR - 1 - Pontiac, MI
SoCal - 22 - Chatsworth, CA
MMW - 45 - Kokomo, IN
Buckeye - 49 - Saginaw, MI
WMR - 74 - Holland, MI
NYC - 121 - Middletown, RI
UTC - 131 - Manchester, NH
Lone Star - 148 - Greenville, TX
Seattle - 159 - Fort Collins, CO
Mid-Atlantic - 175 - Windsor Locks, CT
Canada - 188 - Scarborough, ON
Silicon Valley - 192 - Palo Alto, CA
SBPLI - 311 - East Islip, NY
KSC - 342 - North Charleston, SC
St.L - 343 - Seneca, SC
Philly - 365 - Wilmington, DE
VCU - 435 - Raleigh, NC

First of all... these are all awesome teams. They all deserve the credit and recognition. The unfortuneate thing is that there are sooo many other teams who didn't get Regional Chairman's Awards who deserve the recognition also.

But... on to my point. I am familiar with some of these teams, but not all of them. So... I assume that no one knows all of these teams and the great things that they do to deserve their Regional Chairman's Awards.

At the Championships, one team will be recognized as the Chairman's Award Winner, and we will all learn why that team is so deserving. But... I'm assuming that the other 16 teams will not be profiled during the awards ceremony (but it would be cool if they did).

So... here is what I propose:

All of these finalists could post their Chairman's Award highlights. This is not to judge each other, but just to see what all of these teams do. I'm sure that there are some really inspiring and creative things that these teams are doing, but we simply don't know the stories.

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So... I'll go first. Here is team 45's Chairman's Award Summary:

Community Involvement:
..... The "Bona Vista Project": We took our 1999 robot (TKO) arm, mounted it on a platform, added a ball grabber and built a 7 ft. box around it. This "TechnoBox" was developed as our fall project and given to a local rehabilitation school for physically handicapped and special needs kids and adults. There is also some other neat stuff on the "TechnoBox". This is something that we want to add things to over the years.
..... The "Ball Drop Project": we have been operating a New Year's Eve celebration event since 1999. A lighted ball was built, along with a light rope, by the TechnoKats. We host this annual celebration in downtown Kokomo for the community.

Mentoring:
..... Within the past 2 years, we helped start and mentor 7 FIRST Lego League teams in the Kokomo area. These teams are pretty much self-supporting, but our students still help out when they can.
..... TechnoKat seniors are given scholarships for their service and some have been awarded big FIRST scholarships in the recent past.

Helping the FIRST Community
..... We actively mentor other Indiana FIRST teams (2-3 per year)
..... We hosted a FIRST workshop at Ivy Tech State College for all of the Indiana FIRST teams.
..... We published mechanical designs, software, and a team handbook on various internet sites. These resources are all used by numerous FIRST teams.
..... The "Indiana Robotics Invitational" has been hosted by the TechnoKats for the past two years in Kokomo.
..... We hosted a remote kickoff in January 2002 in Kokomo for midwest teams.

Partnership:
..... A new partner was added to the TechnoKats this year: Ivy Tech State College. Ivy Tech brings CAD/Animation instruction and the use of their facility to our partnership. This addition has dramatically elevated our animation team and has provided opportunities to more Kokomo High School students to get excited about CAD and Animation. The partnership won an Indiana state vocational education award in February, 2002.

For those of you who want to view our Chairman's Award video, it will be on display in our pit at Nationals. We'll have a gaudy canopy with a PC projector and a viewing screen.

OK... I'm done tooting our horn. Now it's time for the rest of you to toot. I'm sure that there are some awesome stories, projects and examples of inspiration out there... let's hear 'em!

Thanks for listening,
Andy B.