FIRST $CASH$ prize...

[TheNotoriousKid]

Okay no cash prize...what about a refund for the national registration fee?

[Cory]

Originally Posted by TheNotoriousKid

Okay no refund...what about a refund for the national registration fee?

Thats the same thing as getting paid...

[TheNotoriousKid]

FIRST has the money....they make over a million each season...Their budget is listed on page 22

[Cory]

Originally Posted by TheNotoriousKid

FIRST has the money....they make over a million each season...Their budget is listed on page 22

It's not an issue of having the money. Why waste up to $20,000 (alternate on the winning alliance) on something that would be bad for the program? This would encourage cheating. Gracious professionalism would be a sham. Nobody would help each other at the events, since that would lower their chances of winning.

If FIRST wanted to blow $20,000 on something, they could find tons of better ways to do so, that would actually have a benefit.

[Bill Gold]

Originally Posted by TheNotoriousKid

Okay no refund...what about a refund for the national registration fee?

No. Any kind of monetary reward for getting any kind of placement or award is a bad idea. We don't need to give people any reason to either perform hollow acts or sabatoge other robots / "go for the throat" on the field in an attempt to get any kind of monetary gain. This program is about learning, competing with honor, and having fun.

[robbekid]

yea i dont think money is a part of FIRST or should be a part of FIRST, the way it stands now... money would be really against the top award FIRST offers.. Chairmans its all about helping others without any expectations and making the world better arounnd you, if theres money involved wats differentiating first from battlebots or some of the other competitions out there.

[Jevin H]

i say no cash but maybe a deduction from next years registration to keep teams in it

[robbekid]

Originally Posted by huff_dragon

i say no cash but maybe a deduction from next years registration

I guess this would fall under giving a team an unfair advantage for winning..

[Joe Matt]

To simply put, no.

To complexly put, when you add money, you add corruption and greed. FIRST was never, and will never be, all about getting trophies or money. As stressed earlier, FIRST has always been about the learning experience involved, never about some piece of plastic or metal.

The money that gets payed into the kit and into signing up for other events isn't done to get into a competition, it's done to get the tools and assets to teach kids to be critical thinkers, have mentors work and spread their knowledge, and foster an environment of genuine success and feelings of accomplishment

[Tim Delles]

FIRST is and always will be about inspiring students to be the best that they can be. Yes i will agree that possibly putting money into the equation will make kids want to be that much better. However you must weigh the positive and negaitve effects that having a monetary reward would have. Once you have thought about your opinion is sure to change.

[Ericgehrken]

FIRST is about inspiring students in science and technology. They just make it a competition to make it even more inspiring because science and technology are exciting and competitive. Sports seems to see what America is about and that's why Dean founded FIRST as a competition, to be more inspiring to students. If you want cash prizes for building robots then you should just go do battle bots or something like that not FIRST. If we were competing for cash prizes could you imagine how little support we'd have because that would just make FIRST a go for broke competition like any other sport and not a learning and inspiring experience.

[Lil' Lavery]

No cash/refund/etc. should ever be given to a Champion of an official FIRST event. Period.
As for Scholarships, there are already a multitude available, including one that essentially is a prize. The winners of the Championship Chairman's Award select one student for the Allaire Medal:

5.21.5 The Allaire Medal - Leadership Exemplified
The Chairman’s Award is presented at the Championship to the FIRST team judged to have the
best partnership effort. The Allaire Medal recognizes leadership exemplified and is awarded to
an individual student on the winning Chairman’s Award team.
Named in honor of Paul A. Allaire, a long-serving FIRST Chairman of the Board, the Allaire
Medal is given to the student who has demonstrated outstanding leadership on his/her FIRST
team, within his/her school and community, and whose personal character best embodies the
spirit of FIRST.
The team receiving The Chairman’s Award at the Championship will select the Allaire Medal
recipient. The adult and student team members determine the winner. The recipient must be a
high school junior or senior who has been accepted into a four-year degree program at a college
or university. The Allaire Medalist receives the Allaire medallion and up to $10,000 in total
scholarship support for undergraduate tuition, room and board, fees, and books at his or her
intended university or college.

If $10,000 isn't enough motivation for the students to strive to fulfill and spread the meaning of FIRST and the Chairman's Award, I don't know what is.

[kawelch]

8+ million in scholarships isn't enough of an incentive?

Besides... if a team just one the championship do they really need any more help the next year... how about helping th eteam that came in dead last... I think they would need more help... If you reward the winners with money or refund it will just make it harder for other team to compete... and that will make newer teams quit.

[nparikh]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

No cash/refund/etc. should ever be given to a Champion of an official FIRST event. Period.
As for Scholarships, there are already a multitude available, including one that essentially is a prize. The winners of the Championship Chairman's Award select one student for the Allaire Medal:


If $10,000 isn't enough motivation for the students to strive to fulfill and spread the meaning of FIRST and the Chairman's Award, I don't know what is.

But there's a difference between winning Chairman's and winning the Championship Event. Winning the Chairman's award entails years of hard work--for many over a decade's worth. Winning the Championship event results from your work over the course of that one year. Yes you can argue that from experience you become better,etc, etc, but regardless--it's based on that year's performance. In 2000, just our 4th season as a team, we won the Championships--but the Chairman's Award wasn't in our reach.

Now the Allaire Medal is something wonderful, but why not have a scholarship for one member of each party of the winning alliance? Or as someone said before--perhaps some kind of technological incentive. I don't think teams are going to cheat any more than they do (if (hypothetically) they do) because they might win a computer, software, etc. It's the thought of cash money that perhaps could drive people to doing extraordinary things. (and not in a good way)

**edit**

I agree with Libby's above statement but disagree with a certain point. You are getting a wonderful reward by just participating in FIRST, yes--but why not reward teams with stellar performance with an incentive or a means to continue. Let's say you get some kind of pass that gets you a discount next season or at some point in the future. Many teams go onto perform very successfully--but die out because of a lack of funding at some point. Why not give these teams that have performed exceptionally some kind of a break.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by nparikh

Now the Allaire Medal is something wonderful, but why not have a scholarship for one member of each party of the winning alliance?

Because simply put, you cannot win Chairmans by luck. Teams most certainly can (and have) won nationals by luck. There's nothing that makes a student on a team that's won 20 regionals and nationals, and technical awards out the wazoo better or more deserving than a student on a team who's never made the elimination rounds and has never won an award. Why reward the former with a scholarship?

And besides, scholarships that are being offered are already going unfilled. Every year FIRST practically begs students to apply for them. Why give out more?