Pros and Cons of the Championship Event.

[PhilBot]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

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.

I would hope that if you really knew me, that you woudn't assume those were my beliefs. They are very far from it.

I have never disparaged ANY team, based on them not winning an award.

I said that a Chairman's or EI award winning team has demonstrated to FIRST that they can "formulate a local program to inspire more involvement in Science and Technology". I never said that other teams can't (that's your interpretation, not mine).

My ultimate goal in this discussion is to DISCOURAGE teams from just wanting the "win the award" for the glory of it. So adding a simple "Cash Prize" would be counter productive to this goal. My wish is that by adding a fundable "plan" to the submission, it would encourage the KIDS to think about ways that they can have an impact "in the future", rather than just extolling past actions (which freshman & sophomores may have had no part in).

Sure, mentors could write "yet another" STEM grant application, but I was just trying to think of ways where the FIRST kids (who covet these awards) could be more involved...

Maybe I'm just dreaming...
We can agree to dissagree.