Chairman's Award Video

[KathieK]

Originally Posted by avwilloughby

Hello, , we are a rookie team and I just had a few questions about the whole Chairman's Award process...
I wasn't aware about an interview, so reading this is totally new to me. Do rookie teams also undergo and interview and when exactly do such interviews take place? It would be wonderful if you could elaborate...thanks a bunch!

The Chairman's Award is the most prestigious award that FIRST bestows upon a team. You can read about the whole process in Section 9.2 of the Manual. Although Rookie teams are ineligible to win a Chairman's Award ("CA") they are encouraged to go through the CA process because it is a good way to review what your team has accomplished during the year. You can use the information you gather later in presentations for potential sponsors, to your school administrators, etc. FIRST will also use this information for their Rookie All-Star Award. A Regional Chairman's Award winner will be chosen at each of the regionals. These winners will then be in the running to win the coveted CA at the Championships in Atlanta.

Step 1 of the process is to complete your Yearbook information in TIMS. This information is given to the judges to use when reviewing your entry. It must be completed by February 23 but don't wait - better to do it now while the TIMS system isn't swamped with everyone submitting their info. Step 2 is to complete a written entry online at www.firstawards.org. The specifics of the submission are detailed in the manual, but you are limited to a certain number of photos and characters for the entry. The entry should be done by Friday, February 18 (it is due one minute after midnight on February 19). When you go online to do this you must choose one regional competition that you are attending, to submit your CA entry to. Step 3 is the Judging Process. When you arrive at the regional you chose in Step 2, go to the registration table. They will tell you what day and time your interview will be. You may choose 3 members of your team (adults and/or students) to give a 5 minute presentation to the judges. It should supplement what you have already entered online. It can be an oral presentation, a PowerPoint presentation, a video, etc. But you are required to bring whatever equipment you need to show it. Following your presentation, the judges will interview the three team members for an additional five minutes.

Then you sit it out and wait until Saturday night's Awards presentation to learn if your team has won!

[RoboMom]

And always have a backup plan for your interview (this is also in other threads). You will be scheduled usually on Thursday, but maybe on Friday for an interview time slot, which will usually happen sometime on Friday. The interview may overlap when you are on the field.
Practice your interview. 5 minutes goes by really fast.

[macurtis]

Yeah. When we work on our Power Point Presentation, we always make sure we have back-ups. In the event that something happens and one of our team members can't make it, or, in the off chance that we make it to nationals and one of the presenters can't make it because they weren't planning on it, we always have back-ups. You can never be too prepared.

[MasonMM]

we've always gone with the no electronics in the interview strategy. Instead we just bring posters... can't go wrong there, never have to worry about a failure... except maybe your easle falling over.