Hi, quick question: I’ve always thought of chairman’s as a celebration of a team’s 5+ years of outreach and the spreading of FIRST. Team 6909 is a team from Chiba, Japan who qualified for world’s and is in the Telsa division. 6909 does a tremendous amount and was recognized with the 2019 Hawaii Regional chairman’s award. I’m just wondering the circumstances as normally you need 5 years to qualify for chairman’s. Thank you in advance
I don’t know where you got the impression that the CA requires 5+ years. Only first year teams are not eligible. 2nd year teams earning a CA is unusual but not unheard of.
Just wanted to know, I was sending resources to a team that had the presumption that you needed to have 5 years of experience, plus you don’t see too many younger teams winning chairman’s at 2 years. Thank you
The award criteria includes a clause about “sustained impact” which is probably related to this misunderstanding. A young team that has had Chairman’s level impact in their community for their whole duration seems plenty deserving of the award.
Also, the numbers have been thrown around that suggest you need to win Chairman’s for several years (4 or 5 I think) to be a contender for a Championship Chairman’s Award. This is also not a hard rule, just an observation of teams that have won CCA in the past.
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While 6909 is the youngest team to win Chairman’s this year, they’re not that far of an outlier. This page shows every time that has won the Regional Chairman’s Award this year, and there are two teams founded in 2017 who won this year, and four teams founded in 2016 as well.
Thank you, I honestly didn’t think this question would be answered as fast as it was. I Iearned something new
To be fair to the OP, the description of the Chairman’s Award does include the phrase “five years” several times. However, it doesn’t mean your team must be 5+ years old, only that the judges will focus on the past five years.
The criterion for the Chairman’s Award has special emphasis on recent accomplishments within the last five years. The judges focus on teams’ activities over a sustained period, as distinguished from just the robot design and build period.
- Briefly describe the impact of the FIRST program on team participants within the last five years
- Describe the impact of the FIRST program on your community within the last five years
[…]- Describe the strength of your partnership with your sponsors within the last five years
- For FIRST Robotics Competition teams older than 5 years, briefly describe your team’s broader impact from its inception
I read the “within the last 5 years” to mean that activities more than 5 years ago will be minimally considered, and that sustained impact is important, not that you have to have been doing stuff for the last 5 years.
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I would strongly recommend that any team eligible for chairman’s at champs should submit for it at world’s. A second year team can present a submission that is worthy of an RCA, but it is unlikely that this will be recognised at champs as it does not demonstrate “sustained measurable impact” at a championship level.
However, I strongly believe that the practice is worth it regardless if you think you have a chance. The more times you present, the more questions you receive from the judges and the more you learn what they’re looking for. This will help you refine your process. Additionally, your current generation of students will benefit greatly from the learning process regardless of any award.
4967 won it their second year.
Bingo. And our 4th. Funny enough we haven’t won it in our 5th or 6th. Guess this rule doesnt apply to us
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6331 won it in Ontario in their second year as well - mostly it just requires a standout performance in the judges room. The 5 years mostly comes into play so people aren’t just using stats from so long ago that they’re irrelevant.
(unrelated but 6909 is from Japan, not China)
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