Regional Chairmans or Regional Championships?

[Pavan Dave]

This topic was made in 2004 and the results to me were interesting.

I am bringing this poll back up to see what people truly think of each award, and see if the ideas are the same three years later. For most teams this is about a generation considering four years of high school.


Which award would make you happier?
Regional Chairmans or Regional Championships.

Discuss.

[Liz Smith]

Regional Chairmans. Because winning Chairmans means that your whole team has come together to accomplish this award. Your year-round effort and development of the team is the reason you win a Chairmans award.

[sanddrag]

I'm going to be honest and say regional win, because we've been within a hair's width of getting it before, but never got quite all the way.

Although, regional win is based a lot on luck, whereas regional chairman's is not.

[JamesBrown]

I think I am going to have to agree with Sanddrag, atleast this year I would prefer a regional win, I am far more involved with the engineering and strategy portion of the teams I work with than I am with the community out reach.

Chairmans however would be a big honor, and it is a good thing to shoot for but because I am mentoring more on the Engineerin/strategy side I feel that I would have had a bigger impact if the students I wouk with win the competition or a technical award. However I am sure other mentors on the team(s) would prefer the Chairmans. I am really only involved with the FRC teams during build, it is one of the drawbacks of going away to school, you can't be with either team full time.

For FLL however I would rather see my team get a directors award than having the best score.

-James

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I'm going to be honest and say regional win, because we've been within a hair's width of getting it before, but never got quite all the way.

Although, regional win is based a lot on luck, whereas regional chairman's is not.

I say both are the result of hard work and perseverance.
I've never got to experience our team winning the Chairman's awrd (there's only a handful of team members left from those days gone by) and, of course we can never win it again. I am very very proud to be e member of FIRST's most elite club.
When we won FLR in 2005 we went nuts as 14 years of near misses and almosts went by the wayside and we finally tasted sucess on the filed for once. It was so awesome!
I am fascinated with winning a Engineering Inspiration award (the next best thing to a Chairmans Award. I just don't really inderstand the criteria and how to go about getting one.

[Greg Needel]

This year for my team 73 I would prefer a regional win. We are re-inventing the team right now and are not a chairmans team, but a regional win would be great positive reinforcement for the students accomplishments.

[Kyle]

My last few years as a student on MOE I was really involved with the Chairmans team and when MOE won at Philly in 2005, along with the regional win and WFA it was a great experience, one that I will never forget,

I think that the regional win is something that shows that you have done something great in 6 weeks the Chairmans award shows that your team has done something great in X many years on a constant and continuing basis and also always working to better your team and the area that it surrounds.

[Lil' Lavery]

Same reason I posted in the old thread, but here it is again.
These are my opinions and in no way express the opinions and feelings of FRC or FVC 116, or any other of its members
At this time I would prefer a Regional Championship. That being said, I would be thrilled to win either award, and I (and the rest of 116) are working feverishly to win both awards.
The point of the Chairman's Award is not to win it, but rather to strive to win to win it. The improvements and efforts a team makes are the real goal of the award, not the trophy. Beyond that, I don't need a judge to tell me what I have done to spread science, technology, engineering is meaningful and has been successful, I already know that. I know the efforts of my team, and I know my team has made a huge difference. Another team at my regional may or may not have made a larger difference, but that really doesn't matter that much to me. I don't need an outside arbiter to tell me what I already know. My efforts have already been validated.

[Erro]

Personally, I would prefer to win a regional Chairman's. The Chairman's Award recognizes an entire team for the effort that they have put in over many years to make their team a role model for FIRST teams across the world. Now, aside from that, I'm also one of MOE's Chairman's presenters, and so I have a teensy bit of a bias...

[DBiehl]

3 teams win a regional, only 1 team wins chairmans.

[EricRobodox]

i would love to win a regional, i mean its always exciting when you are in eliminations and you have a shot.

but, i like the idea of spreading technology and learning more. Last year at AZ and LA regionals i didnt see a single match until the final day, i was working at the machine shop/FIRST Aid Station (a spare parts inventory RoboDox do to help out teams at regionals). I actually preferred it to watching the matches as it helped me learn more about machining, i got to meet cool people by helping them solve problems to help fix their robots, and met some cool people from ambassadors coming around and asking questions. Also, outside of competitions, its really cool to see people have their eyes widen and have them say "cool" or "i wish i could do that" and then you show them they can. ( we did a little demo for an elementry school and then had prebuild robot kits (EDU) that had preassembled manipulators, and they made robots. in an hour they competed. probably one of the coolest things i have seen). Chairmans is by far more important to me than winning a regional championship. Sorry if it seems like im bragging, i have a passion for the stuff as most the people on delphi do.

[SPurekar]

This year, I'd have to go with Chairman's. 226 has done so much to try to get ourselves known this year and I know the whole team would be thrilled with the Chairmans, we were pretty close last year and have followed our feedback results all year.

And we have a cool medium to present with that I really like!

[KelliV]

Regional Chairmans.
Although it is great for a team to win a competition, engineering award, website award, or other judges award, those awards are given to a singular aspect of a team. Even the spirit award is given to the attendees of a regional. The Chairman's Award is unique in the fact that it is earned by everyone on the team. Everyone, past and present, who has helped the team in any way. Chairman's is shared by any person who has helped rake leaves, sold raffle tickets, or donated countless hours to help make a students life better. When we won this year it wasn't just the 2006 WildStang team, it was the 1996 - 2006 WildStang team. And being able to share that with everyone was the best feeling I could ever have, I only hope that everyone in FIRST can one day feel it.

Don't get me wrong, a regional win is magnificent, and a great feeling for any FIRSTer, but think of how much greater that feeling is when you can share it with every member of your team.

[jagman2882]

i would like a Regional Chairmans just cause we have already won a few regionals.....but if we are talking national championship then i would def rather have that

[coin_operated]

I want to win a regional Chairman's award more then the competition. I'm a senior in high school and all those years I worked more on the Chairman's award then anything else. I have put a lot of effort into it and even put myself through the presentation, even though I am scared of it. Somebody said it best before: The regional award is essentially just the 6 week build season where as Chairman's includes your teams entire history.