FIRST Hall of Fame changes

[Koko Ed]

From the home office:

TO: FIRST's Hall of Fame Teams



FROM: Ceci Neumann, FIRST Executive Advisory Board Member



DATE: January 12, 2007



RE: Set up in Atlanta for Hall of Fame Teams





FIRST Greetings. Recently, I was speaking with a number of Executive Advisory Board members and FIRST staff about the Hall of Fame.



As you know, the Hall of Fame was established to honor Chairman’s Award winning teams, as well as to motivate such teams to continue with the great work that earned them FIRST’s most coveted award. To that end, FIRST created an area at the Championship exclusively for Hall of Fame members, a portable physical Hall of Fame. We also have annually asked our ambassadors who are very senior VIP guests of FIRST, to visit with HOF teams at the Championship to ascertain if each member of the HOF is indeed continuing with Chairman’s Award caliber performance. HOF teams who are performing at such a level are presented with a pin by FIRST ambassadors immediately prior to the award ceremony.



We are aware that there is some dissatisfaction with the Hall of Fame and we would like to address those concerns. FIRST is committed to establishing a committee to work over the summer to address all of the concerns. You may be aware that FIRST has considered, but not yet implemented, a separate level of competition exclusively for HOF members. FIRST has also considered, but not yet permitted, HOF teams to re-enter competition for the Chairman’s Award after a certain period of time. FIRST has also considered a number of options to increase the visibility of the HOF teams. Those are the kinds of topics we would like to address with you later this year, as well as any specific concerns each team may have.



With respect to the fast approaching 2007 Championship, we would like your input on the following. We currently propose to keep the portable physical HOF (complete with the panels provided by Delphi as well as each of your individual set ups) as it was in Atlanta in recent years. However, we also propose moving all of your individual pit areas to a “Hall of Fame Row” adjacent to or very near the physical Hall of Fame set up. In addition, we propose arranging specific interview times for each HOF team to meet with a panel of ambassador judges for an interview very similar to that experienced by Regional Chairman’s Award winners vying for the Chairman’s Award. Those interviews would take place on Friday commencing in the morning.



Please let me know via return email at your earliest convenience if you have any comments on the proposal or if you have alternate suggestions. Naturally, we need your response immediately, as plans for the Championship layout in Atlanta are currently being finalized.
Thank you for your assistance.


Interesting.
I'm curious to see what kind of design they come up with and how it will change th pit layout.