paper: Growth of FRC

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by nuggetsyl

I think we are losing way too many teams because of the Chairman's award. The Chairman's award has started an arms race in FIRST.

I am genuinely curious about what causes you to reach those conclusions. Do you have any specific data that shows teams are leaving due to the Chairman's Award? Please, not anecdotes about one or two random teams that mentioned something about the CA in the middle of a whole bunch of other reasons (we get way too many one-off stories about individual incidents that then get generalized to the entire population - these anecdotes are interesting storytelling, but informationally devoid). Rather, I am seeking real information from a statistically meaningful sample size that specifically cited the CA process and/or effects as their reason for leaving the program.

I am curious about this because I have exactly the opposite impression. Right up front, I will state that this is my own perception based on the particular series of anecdotes that I have encountered. I have not conducted a quantified survey on this particular question (yet). But I have received numerous stories about teams that remain in the FIRST program specifically because of their efforts associated with the Chairmans's Award (this includes reading all of the nearly 200 CA and Rookie-All-Star write ups that I receive every year as part of the NASA grant process). There are quite definitely teams that have never done well on the competition field but consider themselves very successful in FIRST precisely of the CA, not in spite of it.

Again, I have not quantified it, but it I certainly have the impression that there are many more stories like those than there are of the CA efforts causing teams to leave. If there is real data to show that impression is incorrect, I would genuinely like to obtain that information. Because that would imply that a rather significant recalibration is needed by many people concerning the effectiveness of the CA.

-dave



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