Suggestions

[MollieElizabeth]

I'm a senior on my team, and for the last two years, I've sort of stumbled my way through the Chairman's award. I only thought of asking for help from my mentors, and they had some great suggestions believe me. Then I had the magnificent idea of coming here and asking possibly a over-asked question. But I was hoping you wonderful people had any suggestions on how to structure the essay and the video.

Your suggestions would be really appreciated.
Mollie Elizabeth

[Phoenix Spud]

I know that some teams put up their Chairmen's Videos, so you might want to check some of the regional award winners. Also, during Kick-off they showed last year's award winners.

[Carol]

Many of the winning essays are posted on CD - check the white papers. Our winning essay is posted on our website under Road to Chairmans (http://moe365.org/chairmans.php). (This was before the video requirement)

Remember, there are two parts to the essay - the Executive Summary and the essay itself.

The posters shown were used during the presentation to the judges. Another important aspect that you can't neglect.

[GrantWeinmann]

What I have experenced as the best way to make the video, is to highlight some of the best aspects of your team, and just remnd the judges of what makes your team stand out more.

[Salbert]

You need a binder documenting EVRYTHING your team has done since its inception. You also need goodies to give to the judges so they remember you. MARS gave the Judges a life-size MARS alien last year.

[waialua359]

I think teams place too much of an emphasis on the writeup (essay) as opposed to focusing on meeting their own personal team goals and criterias that FIRST uses to judge teams.
Personally, I think the judging and documents you bring with you (presentation) is much more important, as it is a validation of what you say IN your essay. The video will definitely help also (unofficially).

[RoboMom]

Unfortunately it appears the terrific Senior Mentor call on RCA featuring many judges from Dec 2009 has not been posted on the FIRST website. Maybe one of the Senior Mentors can look into it and at least post the outline. I posted some notes in this thread on the same subject: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...29&postcount=6
You can see advice from last year's call here: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr....aspx?id=10124

And Amanda has quite the offer here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=80787