Pros and Cons of the Championship Event.

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by PhilBot

As for local judges not knowing what FIRST wants in a Chairmans or EI award..... It seems unlikely to me. By definition, Chairmans award goes to a FIRST team that is a "role model" for how other teams should act. Seems to me that it would be essential for the judges to know what FIRST expects.

I was not referring to judges not knowing what FIRST wants in a CA or EI team. I was referring to the cooperate goals of the organization. While the award criteria is fairly defined it is not necessarily a reflection of FIRST's long term goals.

The other thing about this program is that judges at every event are different and there are many qualified teams. As you were fortunate to be recognized for your efforts, there are many teams who are highly qualified and don't. To give a real life example, 1629 does great things but did not receive the CA or EI at Chesapeake. That doesn't discount the work you did, but it is a factor with multiple qualified teams and limited amounts of awards. You guys went to your second event and won, but I can guarantee there were other qualified teams that didn't win at that event also. Going back to my point, not winning an award isn't justification that your efforts are wasted, and as your proposed program suggests it would only be the teams that do win awards which are qualified to help their communities.

There are lots of STEM grants out there to help with the funding of both community programs and your FIRST team. It just takes people to seek them out an apply for them. I still stand by my thoughts that making something like this connected with an award is a bad idea.