Chairman’s Submission: Why Even Bother?

[Pavan Dave]

(NOTE: I am pro-impacting community. I believe it is a matter of principle to do something for the greater good rather than for merit. That said, this post may contain some sarcasm, mockary, and seriousness.)

FIRST [no pun, just emphasis] off, American Idol and Survivor are by far the worst television shows on the face of the earth. Meredith, I am disappointed in you!

Chairmans should be something that comes natural to a team, not something to strive for. You SHOULD help your community for more than a stupid pin (OMG!!! Did he say that?). You should strive to do what’s best for your community regardless if that gets you Chairman's or not. Example: BEST, GEAR, EARLY, Botball will stay in my arsenal although many FIRST people frown upon.

Now your considerations.
1. Chairman's isn't something you should be forced into doing. You do it because you love what you do. You enjoy helping your community, you enjoy technology, etc.
2. Rookie teams don't know what’s going on essentially. You can't do what the RCA award wants you to do in six to ten weeks. It just doesn't happen. You'd be lucky to have a great impact after two or three years. Establish your team, THEN your community. If you spend your time doing RCA while you're starting, and you [your team] die, you didn't accomplish much in the big picture.
3. Atlanta is nice, but not everything. ("Oh no he didn't!!")
4. That SHOULD be true, but you're absolutely wrong. Maybe for some teams this actually may be true, but for many, they see Chairmans as the only reason for impacting their community as opposed to what should be happening: the team's existence is to impact the community not for Chairmans.
5. Recognition isn't everything. Many greats in Math, Science, and Engineering didn't do what they did for recognition.
6. Honestly? Come on!! If you don't have anything interesting or intelligent to say from learning engineering from trying to build your robot then something during the build season went HORRIBLY WRONG!7. I can't argue with the 10K, and I'm pretty sure.
7. I can't argue against 10K. And I'm pretty sure that student can make another $10 bucks off the medal too!!!

Now that that's out of my system let me say this:
The winner's of the Chairman's are not the ones who win the Allaire medal. They are the ones who got some kid to become an engineer, or helped someone respect the trade and contributions of scientists, engineers, and so forth.

Not what you had in mind, eh?

Pavan