Chairman's Award -- is the bar too high now?

[Tom Line]

Not to nitpick... but I'm going to nitpick.

If you're feeling stress, and pressure, and believing that there might be a bar that's been set too high for chairmans...

You're doing it wrong.

I can see the presenters having stress - any good presenter does before going on stage for the big event. If, however, you're stressing during the off and on-season about the award, I'll say it again: you're doing it wrong.

Chairman's is about helping other people. Getting them involved. Opening their eyes to how they can help. There shouldn't be any stress in that picture.

Ok, I'm off my soapbox now. I do have one additional comment though. I wager very few teams would pursue a course towards a chairman's ideal if that award didn't exist. FIRST holds the winner up high to tell us how good a job they did, but don't fool yourself. The Chairman's award is really about motivating EVERY team to pursue that agenda. Even if they only pursue it a tiny bit.

Every team that does even a single outreach, demo, or community service event because of that chairman's flag and medallion has already won.