Survey - Who respects their mentors?

[Amanda Morrison]

Many people recognize the importance of awards like the Woodie Flowers Award and the Unsung FIRST Heroes Award. UFH is acknowledged by FIRST, and even received mention in David Kelso's winning description for the WFA this past year. Most people will tell you that the UFH is a worthy award, something that is needed in the FIRST community.

Let me give you some facts. Since UFH's inception, we have honored 23 UFH's, 25 regional WFA winners, and all 8 of the standing WFA winners (David Kelso falls in all of these categories).

However, more UFH trivia that you folks don't see behind the scenes:
- In the months of Sept. and Oct. this year, only one person was honored each month. Both were written by members of the UFH Committee.
- In the first month UFH was around, we brought in 22 nominations alone.
- Total, we have received 83 nominations. We received an additional 18 at this year's IRI.
- Of those 83 nominations, around 13-15 were repeated nominations. As you all may know, the Committee does not judge based on quantity, but on quality. Quantity has no effect on the judging process, lest one nomination better the other.
- Of those remaining 68, 17 of them did not make it through the first voting process.

The Committee is not working with substantial numbers. There is a group of 10 people, ranging all over the FIRST community, to help with the marketing, the voting, and the upholding of UFH. Lately, we have had such a slump in nominations, the Committee has mainly been working on marketing.

If it had not been for the IRI Award this year and the amount of submissions we received, UFH would not last through the end of the year. It is solely on the Committee's decision to use those nominations (and judge them the same way as electronic nominations) that is keeping our award afloat.

A few common misconceptions and myths:
- you may only nominate your own mentor
- the committee only awards people they know
- the committee denies nominations from people they don't like
- the committee has a ton of quality nominations to choose from
- I don't need to submit, because someone else on my team will/already has

This is more than a sarcastic thread asking for nominations, it's a plea for help.

Respectfully,
Amanda Morrison