Chairman's is in!

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by OZ_341

Experienced teams doing great things ( like 116) can't even come close to describing their activities in 10,000 words or a 5 minute presentation. So much gets left on the proverbial "cutting room floor".

It comes down to a choice:
If you itemize everything you do, your submission reads like a laundry list.
Or you write from your heart and cut out half of what you did the last few years.

We always choose to write with some heart, but I always worry about the things that we have left out of our submission.

The choice is very difficult.

We certainly know that feeling. We planned/wrote/rehearsed our presentation tonight, and we had to leave out several pretty cool things from that too. At least we have most of our major topics covered in the submission and/or presentation.

And I was mistaken earlier, we did manage to sneak in one sentance (but that's it) about the television appearances. But we had to reserve our recent visit to capitol hill to our exec summary and presentation.

[WEHickok]

This thread asked about the length of submissions in the past. In 1997, our first year, there were no restrictions as to what you submitted. Some of our earlier submissions included a book that we created (like 191), a video, and pleanty of "stuff" (like newspaper clippings, things we handed out, programs to events that we attended, etc.) As the number of teams grew, restrictions appeared, until it was only a 10 minute video. Then, several years ago, it was changed to the 10,000 characters--again due to the time it took judges to go over the material. I would not be surprised to see it shortened again in the future as the number of teams submitting grows.

To me, 10,000 characters is plenty. Most people put in too much non-relevant stuff. You need to be precise and tell the judges the story. Remember they were not there. You must tell them what happened...and why. Remember in your submission and presentation to talk about the six primary things listed in the rules. The most important is--What makes your team unique...why are you special. One of the six items is "Document an innovative way that your team has spread the message of FIRST." Another is "How has your team demonstrated that they should be a role model in FIRST?" Don't just tell what you did--tell how that demonstrates leadership. The Championship Chairman's Award winner is a team that demonstrates leadership. This is why a small team can win the CA. They don't have to do many things by themselves, they need to demonstrate leadership to get stuff done.

As to the TV stuff, that is great. We were on ESPN coverage of FIRST in 1998 at the Championship. But that wasn't too important. We did not harass ESPN until they told our story. We were one of the final four that year and they interviewed all four teams. This was great, but not, in my opinion, Chairman's material. It didn't demonstrate leadership, just being in the right place at the right time.

Good luck to all teams that submitted for the Chairman's Award. Prepare well for the presentation to the judges. Remember to leave the room by having made them believe that you have the best team at that regional or Championship. Tell the story of what makes your great.