WFFA limits at District CMP

[wilsonmw04]

Sadly those of us in districts don't have the opportunity to celebrate our mentors. We CHS used to be able to celebrate 3 team based mentors. Now we only get one. Somehow, I feel this a huge mistake FIRST is making.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

Sadly those of us in districts don't have the opportunity to celebrate our mentors. We CHS used to be able to celebrate 3 team based mentors. Now we only get one. Somehow, I feel this a huge mistake FIRST is making.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's a decision made by the WFA committee. It's group of people who have won the really heavy Möbius strip and is endorsed by and run interdependently of most FRC judging. I think as recently as 2013 I'm pretty sure that committee directly processed the submissions, and if that's still the case they must feel overburdened. I do think it's unfortunate and it feels like part of a shift in FIRST culture. It feels like we no longer recognize a number of really good people and a select few for being awesome, but instead we recognize everyone for being OK and a select few for being extra OK.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's a decision made by the WFA committee. It's group of people who have won the really heavy Möbius strip and is endorsed by and run interdependently of most FRC judging. I think as recently as 2013 I'm pretty sure that committee directly processed the submissions, and if that's still the case they must feel overburdened. I do think it's unfortunate and it feels like part of a shift in FIRST culture. It feels like we no longer recognize a number of really good people and a select few for being awesome, but instead we recognize everyone for being OK and a select few for being extra OK.

I don't think I'm breaking any rules -WFFA is not judged by the blue shirts.[1]

I also want to point out that winning is NOT the real part about recognizing the mentor. Merely being nominated is a huge recognition. I know when I was nominated it meant a ton of me that my students felt I'd had an impact. [3]. While I would like to see more folks be recognized by FIRST, I do think recognizing only one mentor in a district for WFFA but announcing all of the nominees is a GREAT compromise.


[1] Neither is the Safety Award (Red Shirts) the VOTY (Grey Vests) or the Highest Rookie Seed (Zebra Shirts[2])

[2] Ok, not STRICTLY true, it's based on on field performance. But I had to stick with it for maintaining structure. Also, I like calling them Zebras.

[3] With more than whatever game piece I threw at them when they were being silly.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

I don't think I'm breaking any rules -WFFA is not judged by the blue shirts.[1]

I also want to point out that winning is NOT the real part about recognizing the mentor. Merely being nominated is a huge recognition. I know when I was nominated it meant a ton of me that my students felt I'd had an impact. [3]. While I would like to see more folks be recognized by FIRST, I do think recognizing only one mentor in a district for WFFA but announcing all of the nominees is a GREAT compromise.


[1] Neither is the Safety Award (Red Shirts) the VOTY (Grey Vests) or the Highest Rookie Seed (Zebra Shirts[2])

[2] Ok, not STRICTLY true, it's based on on field performance. But I had to stick with it for maintaining structure. Also, I like calling them Zebras.

[3] With more than whatever game piece I threw at them when they were being silly.

Is the gray vest a New England thing? I think ours are navy or black here.

It would surprise me if the blue shirts were judging for it since the manual shows explicitly they don't .

[Lil' Lavery]

MAR choses to recognize all the candidates nominated at each district event. I was unaware that other districts did not follow this trend.

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

MAR choses to recognize all the candidates nominated at each district event. I was unaware that other districts did not follow this trend.

At the two events I attended, two different things happened.
1. At Blacksburg, they posted all the names on one slide of a PowerPoint. They did not announce the names. The names were so small we couldn't read them.

2. At Doswell, I think they skipped the slide.


I feel they should have three awards come DCMP. It only makes sense.

BTW:there wasn't a volunteer award at either event. FIRST needs to take every opportunity to highlight and thank all the volunteers that make FIRST work. They shouldn't be reducing them.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

At the two events I attended, two different things happened.
1. At Blacksburg, they posted all the names on one slide of a PowerPoint. They did not announce the names. The names were so small we couldn't read them.

2. At Doswell, I think they skipped the slide.


I feel they should have three awards come DCMP. It only makes sense.

BTW:there wasn't a volunteer award at either event. FIRST needs to take every opportunity to highlight and thank all the volunteers that make FIRST work. They shouldn't be reducing them.

These sound like issues to take up with your local district committee, not FIRST. FIRST HQ doesn't administrate how this portion of the awards ceremony is conducted. Your district has the power to influence how that slide is made and presented, and if volunteer awards are given out.

In MAR, each name is read off one at a time, and the nominee is asked to stand. Volunteer awards are given out at each event.

[Jon Stratis]

It is rather nice to have all the nominees recognized like that. At the regional level, you never k ow who was nominated, just who won. At least here in MN we also do a "mentor parade", having all the mentors parade across the field and line up around it right before the award is given out. It's a rather cool thing, I don't know if it's done elsewhere as well.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

At the two events I attended, two different things happened.
1. At Blacksburg, they posted all the names on one slide of a PowerPoint. They did not announce the names. The names were so small we couldn't read them.

2. At Doswell, I think they skipped the slide.


I feel they should have three awards come DCMP. It only makes sense.

BTW:there wasn't a volunteer award at either event. FIRST needs to take every opportunity to highlight and thank all the volunteers that make FIRST work. They shouldn't be reducing them.

I think VoY is the only thing that FIRST is limiting here. I would not be surprised if the WFA committee asked for FIRST to have districts help the faucet of WFFA winners turn to a trickle so they are not covering what would literally be 100 essays every year. It's not a decision that I would agree with but I don't think we are in a position to affect change there.

I don't know everything you are including on your Week 4 survey and it's tangential to this tangent, but in mine I said that comparing the AV crew in NCASH to VABLA/VADOS, FIRST Chesapeake probably isn't getting a real bang for their buck w/r/t quality and consistency of the AV production.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

At the two events I attended, two different things happened.
1. At Blacksburg, they posted all the names on one slide of a PowerPoint. They did not announce the names. The names were so small we couldn't read them.

2. At Doswell, I think they skipped the slide.


I feel they should have three awards come DCMP. It only makes sense.

BTW:there wasn't a volunteer award at either event. FIRST needs to take every opportunity to highlight and thank all the volunteers that make FIRST work. They shouldn't be reducing them.

I believe that nominees are only mentioned at the team's first district event - so perhaps the only teams that had nominated a WFFA candidate had already attended an event?

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

I think VoY is the only thing that FIRST is limiting here. I would not be surprised if the WFA committee asked for FIRST to have districts help the faucet of WFFA winners turn to a trickle so they are not covering what would literally be 100 essays every year. It's not a decision that I would agree with but I don't think we are in a position to affect change there.

It's actually more than that, I think, since previous winners are allowed to be resubmitted. I believe each team only gets to nominate one WFFA recipient for WFA consideration every year if I remember correctly.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I believe that nominees are only mentioned at the team's first district event - so perhaps the only teams that had nominated a WFFA candidate had already attended an event?

That might be how it is done in New England but this is a procedure that is either not regulated or not being followed where Matt and I competed. I'm assuming it's the first one.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I believe that nominees are only mentioned at the team's first district event - so perhaps the only teams that had nominated a WFFA candidate had already attended an event?

They're recognized at whichever event the team submitted the award for. Given that the essay deadline doesn't change and there's no interview process to account for, I suspect most teams just pick the first event.

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

They're recognized at whichever event the team submitted the award for. Given that the essay deadline doesn't change and there's no interview process to account for, I suspect most teams just pick the first event.

There were teams who were at thier first event.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

There were teams who were at thier first event.

Not every team submits WFFA.

[Maldridge422]

At least at the Northern VA Event, the slide was not customized for the event. It listed all the submissions in the district, including teams not present in Haymarket.

See @~3:42