Chairman Award Repeats

[burlymon33]

As I sit here watching the ceaseless snowfall out of my window, and dreading the 3 feet already accumulated on my driveway, I came across this thread.

The hardest thing for me to grasp about the Chairman's Award was that a team doesn't do things to win the CA. A team should instead do outtreach in hopes of replicating a similar enthusiasm for STEM among other youth.

It can be really difficult to think of unique community projects that will set your team apart from others in the presentation room rather than to emulate the outtreach programs of other winning teams. But as long as a team is putting forth the effort, they are a Chairman's Team in my book. It really is a shame that more teams don't apply for the CA, because so much outtreach by teams then goes unnoticed.

This can be especially difficult when your team is still struggling to form its own sense of identity. But in the case of our team, we identified the lack of FIRST in our own community, and wanted to change that. At the time, the only thing we knew about the CA was that our buddies the Falcons had deservingly won it the year before. We didnt even know that we would qualify to apply as a second year team.

The CA is, in my opinion, the epitome of cooperatition and GP, because without it teams would not have any incentive to spread the word of FIRST.

Teams should not be intimidated to submit a CA application in the face of teams who have won consecutive times. I encourage all teams to submit a Chariman's application! As other posters have mentioned, the CA application journey will foster valuable growth in your team.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by burlymon33

I partly feel that a team should not be able to win the CA on consecutive years, because this may discourage some teams from pursuing all important outreach effort. So please teams submit anyway! As other posters have mentioned the CA application journey will foster valuable growth in your team.

The two ideas in this paragraph are greatly confusing to me.

I disagree that teams should not be able to win consecutively. Teams at the same regional as consecutive winners should have the mentality of "Be them, then beat them" not "oh no fair, let's not even try."

I agree that they should submit anyway.

Your two points seem pretty conflicting, IMHO.

Your team obviously "gets it," but I think that if you took it fully to heart, you really would see the inspirational part of competing side by side with a consecutive winner. (Disclaimer: we won NJ 05 competing against some of the toughest RCA teams in FRC at a regional with no consecutive winners in its history. Winners such as 175, 103, 25, 75, 1676)

[Madification]

After winning the Chairman's only one year and having such an amazing example of a true Chairman's team (842,) I'm proud to say that I believe our team is understanding what Chairman's is truely about. The awarding of the Chairman's is more like FIRST saying "Look at what this team has done, this is what FIRST is about" rather than "OMG! Your team is amazing!!"

Being a Chairman's team is realizing the impact FIRST could have on your community and doing everything you can to make it happen. This year, while brainstorming for our Chairman's submission, our team had to decide what was most important to put in our presentation as we had spent nearly our whole off season working to change the culture in our community. And as we thought back as a team, we realized that, while doing the things we did, we weren't thinking about how good it would look in our presentation. We weren't doing it just because we are a Chairman's team but just because that's what we've learned FIRST teams do.

Once a team has reached this mindset of what FIRST is all about, then they are a Chairman's team at heart and then just need to present it well. And you never know, you might just win it when you are least expecting. Anything is possible in FIRST, we learned that when we won last year as a second year team. If we can do it, you can to and if you need help google CocoNuts Robotics and we'll help you out!

[jwj3027]

How many people do we need to write the essay for the chairman's award

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by jwj3027

How many people do we need to write the essay for the chairman's award

As many as it takes. There is no rule.

[jwj3027]

we area rookie team and my team is doubting that we should send in an essay for the chairman's since we already dont qualify. im telling them that it can also be used in the Rookie insperation. Please reply back so my team isnt depending on my essay writing skills and my team will believe me.

[EricH]

You submit one (1) essay, written by as many people as you need, one (1) executive summary, written by as many people as you need, and one (1) video, again done by as many people as you need.

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by jwj3027

how many people do i have to have summit an essay?
JWJ3027

As a rookie team your team is not eligible for the Chairman's award. While writing a submission as a rookie can be a valuable learning experience, at this point in time I would advise against attempting to rush and submit one via the online system. The only benefit to doing so would be to gain experience with the online system.

What I would recommend would be to review the requirements for the Chairman's award both in Chapter 5 of the Manual and in the Chairman's Award document on this page.

Take your time to create a good essay and bring a copy of it to your event and show it to the judges. This essay is a great way to impress the Rookie All-Star judges. The judges will not see your Chairman's submission if made through the online system so either way, make sure to bring a copy to the event.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by jwj3027

we area rookie team and my team is doubting that we should send in an essay for the chairman's since we already dont qualify. im telling them that it can also be used in the Rookie insperation. Please reply back so my team isnt depending on my essay writing skills and my team will believe me.

Take a moment to look at the awards that are available to the rookie teams. Also, look the requirements and the deadlines. You are on the right track, you just need a little confidence. Many rookie teams are overwhelmed and don't take the time to look at all of the awards that the team can qualify for and they overlook a lot of the fun and possibilities that are there.

In writing for the Chairman's, you can write by yourself - at least making an outline of the areas that you want to touch on in your essay. You can certainly ask others to help you and it would be up to you to encourage them to understand that it will take commitment on their part to help you with the essay. On 418, we didn't submit for many of the awards available to us for a number of years. It took a while for our team to understand the value of the process and of participating. We have a sub-team that is the awards sub-team. That sub-team, like all of our sub-teams, has a leader who guides, directs, and manages the time demands for the submissions. The leader and the other members of the sub-team work very closely with one or two of the mentors as they work through the process. If they need anything from anyone else such as information or photos, they go to the mentor or students or parents on the team and ask for assistance. They also contact sponsors who have supported us and administrators of the school if they need to. It is a small sub-team of 3 to 4 members and they divide the tasks up among themselves, again - under the direction of their awards leader and their mentor.

We've learned what works and what doesn't work on our team and it varies year to year, depending on how many veterans are on the team and how many rookies and 1st year members are on the team. Teams go through cycles and they have rebuilding years that have some similarities to rookie teams.

Your team will learn to understand the value and purpose of submitting these essays for the Rookie All-Star, the Chairman's, the Woodie Flowers. Sometimes, teams need someone who believes in them and who can help guide the team in the direction needed to submit. That person on your team may be you. Don't lose courage.

I looked under the awards section here in CD and there is a sub-forum for the Chairman's. Check it out. One thread that has a couple of links in it that you might find valuable is this one. Read the other threads in the sub-forum as well. There is a lot of help available for you. Follow the rules in the manual in the awards section, ask questions if you need to, and get busy.

If you would like, send me a pm anytime, with any questions that you have.

All the best,
Jane

[jwj3027]

Thank you now that takes a load off, i was having a heart attack trying to get this essay done. Since i can bring it to the competition that gives me a few weeks now.
Thanks
Jwj3027

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by jwj3027

Thank you now that takes a load off, i was having a heart attack trying to get this essay done. Since i can bring it to the competition that gives me a few weeks now.
Thanks
Jwj3027

Take a look at the Woodie Flowers Award. It has a deadline, too but... it is a valuable award and one of your mentors on your team would be very touched to know that an essay was submitted. Even when the essay doesn't garner the award, it is always so wonderful for the mentor to receive a copy of the essay and know that he/she is valued. Something to think about.

[Wendy Holladay]

A short followup, I'm the mentor that posted the original question about chairman repeats, well our kids worked really hard to package up all the great work they had done all year to earn chairman's, did a fantastic write-up, a humorous and informative video, and an outstanding presentation. We were lucky enough to win the Chairman's Award at the Bayou Regional. We are still in shock. I think the lesson is never give up but work really hard to earn it.

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by EricH

There is another streak that's probably about to be broken; 236 has 6 straight RCAs and finally got their Championship CA. This leaves the CT RCA up for grabs in a tough bunch of veteran teams.

It's actually 7. 236 won at BAE in 2003 and then won CT for 6 straight years.

[MadeAtMidnight]

Originally Posted by whollada

A short followup, I'm the mentor that posted the original question about chairman repeats, well our kids worked really hard to package up all the great work they had done all year to earn chairman's, did a fantastic write-up, a humorous and informative video, and an outstanding presentation. We were lucky enough to win the Chairman's Award at the Bayou Regional. We are still in shock. I think the lesson is never give up but work really hard to earn it.

Congrats!

[Al Skierkiewicz]

whollada,
Congratulations! It is wonderful to see you stick it out and receive a great award!