Quote:
Originally Posted by rmyoung
Is it worth suggesting some way to recognize the next tier teams, the 'almost there, keep going'? Not adding more awards or taking away from Chairman's, but sending the message that you're on the right track, or that you reached a milestone? Judge's feedback is nice but very brief and a bit vague, and ours has almost always been the same - nice job, keep it up, start some new teams.
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Let me hop back on my FiM soapbox for a minute. With
the 7 district awards, finally there
is some recognition for
the "almost there teams". In my opinion, FIRST does an absolutely lowsy job of recognizing really good efforts that aren't "the best". Who gets awards,
the winners.
I wish they would take a lesson from 4-H and/or SAE design comp series. 4-H May only award 1 Grand-Champion, and 1 reserve Grand Champion, but they also award several "honorable mentions". While striving for
the grand champion, it felt good
to get one of these "honorable mentions".
For FiM, I have been suggesting giving of season seeding points for Chairman's. X points for applying, and Y points for being nearly there or "Honorable Mentions". I was told this makes
the judges job tougher, but having judged many other competitions, I personally believe this makes it easier as you don't feel so bad leaving Team 4444 out in
the cold because they were only 99.99% as good as team Winners. With 10 points this year going
to the District chairman's winner, I would give 2 points for applying, and 4-6 for an honorable mention (judges discretion on number).
Just like FRC
is not solely about
the robots, and
the robots are
the hook,
the Chairman's award really isn't about
the award, but
the award
is the hook. Without
the award, many would still do
the work, but would they document it and share it they way they do now? I know our team wouldn't. In fact most of
the stuff we have done
the last 2 years, we have been doing for
the last 6 years I have been on
the team.
The biggest difference
the last 2 years
is the documentation, and
the fact that once
the students won a District, they believed they had
the ability
to do more. Altruism
is a lot
to ask of most teenagers. Childrens brains are hardwired
to be self-serving. This
is for preservation of
the species. That
is why we work on sharing at a young age and continue
to work on it into adulthood. We have a hard enough time making
the freshmen save a piece of pizza for a mentor arriving late from a hard days work. By Seniors, most of them "get it".