pic: 2009 FRC Medals - New Design!

[Molten]

This may sound cheesy, but....Isn't the 120 pound regional winning bot a big enough of a trophy? Honestly, I'll keep a little medal for a commemorative thing, but if it gets too big it just gets in the way. Don't know, I just never cared for the ridiculously huge trophies that take two hands to carry.

[waialua359]

Trust me, I am sure teams wont mind having that problem, if they win either a CA or RC award ('08 and previous year's trophy size).
My recommendation was that events keep the boxes they came in, so teams can easily transport their awards without damaging or scratching them.

The FIRST symbol at the top of the trophies can break off easily if your not careful. We know from first hand experience........

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Alivia

Finally, a bit of confusion on my side. While unpacking the awards, it came to my attention that FIRST ships awards for several different regionals to one event. (i.e. I was at Midwest and there were awards there for three-four other regionals not taking place this weekend). These awards were not back-up awards, and the crates were never opened. It seems to me that this would cost a lot of money to do. Does any one know if it is actually cheaper to do this?

The fields tend to make a trip around the country to a bunch of regional events before making their way back to NH - I half expect to see the red transport boxes from NJ this past weekend to show up in NYC this coming weekend.
It more than likely saves money (and lots of time) to just lump the contents of multiple regional events in the same transport boxes rather than ship separate ones from FIRST at increments throughout the season.
You may have also noticed typically that field elements (Orbit Balls in this case) are in marked boxes for their (future) events as well, and if one regional "taps into" the supply of the next one, they need to note that before they send it on it's way so the next regional can be covered in case they are short anything.

[Josh Goodman]

Are the CA and EI awards red and blue strips as well?

[flyingcrayons]

yeah the medals we got for chairman's have blue ribbon stuff... however, the medals themselves aren't that great quality, some of them are starting to fray on the bottom, and a couple of people have broken theirs because they fell off the pin holding the ribbon to the medal itself...

on the other hand, the pins attached to the ribbons look like the national CA award, the clock, and they are AWESOME!!!

[nlknauss]

Originally Posted by Molten

This may sound cheesy, but....Isn't the 120 pound regional winning bot a big enough of a trophy?

I agree. If you were to hand these medals or trophies to someone who has not had experience of being in FIRST, they would be worthless. Whether FIRST is trying to save money or be a little more green, we should still appreciate the experience. And not many people can say they have a 120 trailer dragging orbit ball handling trophy!

[Josh Goodman]

Originally Posted by flyingcrayons

yeah the medals we got for chairman's have blue ribbon stuff... however, the medals themselves aren't that great quality, some of them are starting to fray on the bottom, and a couple of people have broken theirs because they fell off the pin holding the ribbon to the medal itself...

Hey, at least it's better then in 2007, when the Motorola Quality Award.....broke.

[IKE]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

If we wanted to compare apples to oranges, a study could be done about & the effects they have been trying to "go green" I guess.
I agree the control system change to keep them year after year will help with this, - less repeat manufacturing (in theory) but what are the effect of holding more tournaments in lieu of less (Michigan competition Structure) which means more energy used at events, more waste from teams at the sites & more supplies for making more fields.
The alternative is that teams aren't competing miles away & may be traveling less, but I hardly see the environmental impact (in a positive way - yet at least) this may bring.
I guess we may see the results of that as time goes on, but like I said, I don't see the immediate positive impact... yet.

Look at the MI structure as a environmental value impact. With the robot bagging system the robots are traveling directly to the event with the team traveling to the event in a 150 pound configuration. This is saving 250 pounds x 40 teams or about 10,000 pounds of shipping. Plus with the drayage system, there is a ton of extra run around. Yes it may be net environmental neutral since there are more events, but this is more return with neutral impact. That sounds like a good thing to me.

[usbcd36]

I noticed a few changes at the Buckeye.

- Less cameras than previous years (there were at least 3 last year, but only one this year). I don't blame them, though; renting cameras and hiring operators has to be pretty expensive, and it didn't really detract from the game.
- No sponsor banners beside the screen, but they showed sponsors on the screen every chance they could get.
- Smaller Friday trophies (both this year and last year, 1787 won Xerox Creativity, but the trophies this year are slightly smaller). Most of the size change is due to reducing the thickness of the base blocks of the trophy; the prisms/cylinder are close to the same height.

[Jetweb]

Originally Posted by Molten

This may sound cheesy, but....Isn't the 120 pound regional winning bot a big enough of a trophy? Honestly, I'll keep a little medal for a commemorative thing, but if it gets too big it just gets in the way. Don't know, I just never cared for the ridiculously huge trophies that take two hands to carry.

I have to dis-agree, getting that big award after a big win is a really cool thing.

I mean just look at there faces.

[Libby K]

I'm not a huge fan of the smaller trophies, or the solid ribbon... but I like to think about it this way:

YOU STILL WON!

I know for the veteran teams that have a lot of wins behind them, the trophies look tiny, but for teams like mine that have never won anything official before- I'll take it no matter what size it is! I know my team accomplished something, and I'm proud to display whatever FIRST will give me to commemorate that.

I agree with a lot of posters that there are definitely better ways FIRST could have cut costs, and downsizing the trophies was not one of the best-looking options to us, the teams; but then again, none of us work at FIRST, right? We don't know what goes on there.

I think our best bet to voice this concern is to send that email Bill Miller suggested here, and actually have another suggestion to back it up. An email saying "OMG! THE TROPHIES SUCK THIS YEAR!" won't accomplish anything. A well-crafted reasoning, as well as your ideas and thoughts, might have a little more impact.

[Fireworks 234]

Originally Posted by Josh Goodman

Are the CA and EI awards red and blue strips as well?

The engineering inspiration awards are red and say Regional Engineering Inspiration Award on them

[A_Reed]

I think the medals themselves look really nice and the idea of the solid ribbons is growing on me (didn't the national chairman's medals used to come in a solid color?).

As for the trophies I recall saying to myself when they were carted out 'where is the second table with the "Big" trophies on it'. It wasn't until they started awarding the Finalist awards did I realize that was it, no big ones. I'm not complaining about the size or anything, I would be honored to be a recipient of any of the trophies FIRST produces to commemorate the efforts of the teams, I was just shock at first sight of them being so small.

All in all no matter how small the trophy they still carry the same meaning and carry with it the same memories of how it was earned through blood, sweat, tears and ultimately Gracious Professionalism.

No matter how small, carry it and yourself with pride!...You DID just WIN!

[Tt321b]

Can someone explain why a team is given two exactly the same trophies when they win one? Wouldn't just giving a team one trophy cut costs by half?

[A_Reed]

Originally Posted by Tt321b

Can someone explain why a team is given two exactly the same trophies when they win one? Wouldn't just giving a team one trophy cut costs by half?

Typically one trophy is given to a team to keep the other is to give to their major sponsor and more can be ordered at the expense of the team after the event.