Does FIRST give out too many awards? (Opinion)

[Philip W.]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

Perhaps your time would be better spent creating more teams near Waterloo, and convincing other teams to come to Waterloo then complaining about the worthiness of Waterloo's award winners.

I believe Jonathan was merely using the Waterloo regional as an example to express his ideas and opinions.

Anyway, this is what I have to say.

Originally Posted by jonathan lall

For those of you who have trouble with the concept I'm trying to present, it is my belief that FIRST is trying to do too much with its awards -- that is, trying to artificially further its societal goals with awards, rather than reward excellence in its competition...For example, we don't need a Team Spirit Award to ensure teams come out with enthusiam about FIRST. If we do, it means that that enthusiasm is not genuine. And it is this, and a less profound impact on award winners, that we risk by artificially trying to further FIRST's goals.

I agree with Jon that the goals of some of the FIRST awards are more to promote rather than award. The best example I can see is the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Award for Entrepreneurship, an award that just doesn't seem to fit the robotics setting. I'm sure FIRST had no real intentions of awarding entrepreneurship in its early years. By creating this award, most likely under the suggestion of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers after their large sponsorship, teams driven by recognition will work hard and contend for the award and thus satisfying the goal of the award, promoting aspects of entrepreneurship. It may be said that awards like this one create the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to acheive the award(such as animation and the Autodesk Imagery Award), but its ultimate goal would be to promote. Promotion of many "products" such as a future career in business and animation, or the use of a company's software.

These awards may still incidentally be won by well-deserving teams. Teams most likely do not need an award to give them team spirit and have their members dancing on the field to "YMCA", but there are those teams that go the extra mile to compete for the Team Spirit Award.

But, are all of these awards really needed? I would say definitely. Without some of them, the domains they represent would never be explored. Call me materialistic if you will, but the goals of these awards work for me and do make me want to toil and achieve them. No matter what the value of the award is, as long as it's not for participation, last place, or second to last, I probably want it if it was within my reach. If I don't get it? I'll have self-gratification replace its reserved spot on the mantleshelf and it'll suffice for me.