From Bill's Blog: Merits of replacing bronze participation medals

[Mr. Lim]

I've had the pleasure of being involved in FRC as a student from 1998-2000, and as a mentor from 2003-present.

By my count, that's over 20 bronze participation medals I've amassed over the years.

I have no idea where a single one is right now.

Conversely, the Gold and two Silver medals from the 2009 FLR, GTR and Curie division are proudly displayed on the bookshelf behind me... right beside the 2006 GTR WFFA. They will continue to be proudly displayed there as long as I live.

Everytime I picked up one of the bronze medals, whether as a student or a mentor, I rolled my eyes and smirked a bit. Call me a poor sport in that regard, even a bad example - but at least I'm being honest. I felt there was something inherently tasteless in giving out what is a very nice medal just for showing up. The fact that this medal was much nicer than some medals I've gotten for actually WINNING something made it feel even worse, even going as far to say it almost felt condescending.

In retrospect, I feel bad that I have placed such little value on such a physically nice piece of hardware - but it's true. I've treated them as if they were almost worthless. I probably shouldn't have, but I did.

Of course, this is just a single anecdotal account from a particular student turned mentor experience, but since Bill asked for our opinions, here's mine: I for one wouldn't bat an eyelash if these medals were to disappear next year.