What all should we include in our Chairman’s Interview?
What topics are we supposed to discuss, and any other advice would be great?
Thanks
It is normal to include short summaries of your award submission/season during the interview. Typically if you have the resources available (projector) you can get this accomplished with a powerpoint presentation. If you don’t then poster boards,handouts, videos, cue cards, pictures and the like will be helpful. Make sure to include unique attributes of your team in the presentation and important outreach activities. Let me know if you have any questions.
Mind the 10 minutes limit.
First 5 minutes are for presentation and the last 5 minutes are for judges questions.
Focus on issues that you weren’t able to fully explain (or include at all) in your award submission, as well as reinforce critical issues. Read over the award criteria, and make sure you have each section covered. Have some form of presentation, whether it’s a powerpoint, poster, display, scrapbook, or something else. If you have any particularly special/unique effort, try and bring a physical representation of it (ie, do something cool with vex and outreach? bring a vex bot).
Be prepared to answer questions about all the judging criteria, particularly ones you didn’t focus on in other aspects of your report and/or presentation. Be prepared to answer questions about your business plan (if you had one), even though it is not explicitly stated that this is part of the award. If you don’t have a business plan, be prepared to answer questions about the future direction of your team, and future goals.
Some judges really care about the 5 minutes, some don’t. Plan to be right around their anyway, but if they don’t care, feel free to add a little more elaboration on key issues and fully answer every aspect of their questions.
Be aware that the 10 minutes with the judges includes set up time. So if you have a powerpoint presentation or something complicated, it will eat into your time with the judges. We used four posters last year. The presenters carried in two easels with them and would swap out the posters during the presentation.
Another key was that our presenters practiced, over and over again. Even to practicing walking into the room, setting up the easel, and swapping out the posters. For their presentation they wrote a script which they memorized (although they did have notes on the back of the posters). Basically they highlighted some of our various programs and some facts and figures about the team.
Our essay and posters, and the script that the presenters used from last year are on our web site - they only used four of the posters shown and I don’t remember which three.
http://www.fsrobotics.org/moe365//chairmans.php
P.S. It is so nice not having to worry about this award ever again! We are instead working on our Hall of Fame display and video. And we are in the process of shipping back the clock - sniff, sniff - to be presented to this year’s winner. Good luck to you all!
Note, I will release one TechnoKats secret to you. I seriously do not suggest doing a power point. Think about it, what do you think the judges are going to see the entire day?? Try something else, like your shining faces! (seriously!)
I’m anti-technology, make it all physical and practical. That prevents distractions and the problem of cramming too much into powerpoint/whatever you use slides.
Get the feeling of what Dean and others were saying at kick-off and talk about some of those things in the presentation, don’t make it 100% about it, but note it out.
STAY ON YOUR TOES. If you are picking up a vibe they’re more interested in mentor/student collaborations than your relations with the school, shift focus! Don’t lie, but make sure to highlight what you do, even if it’s small or insignificant!
Finally, make an impression! Dress professionally and uniformly. Slacks, not shorts. Nice shoes, tucked in shirts, etc. No distracting jewelry, gum, etc. Sell the team and who you are as people. That’s what the presentation is for, the human connection. They don’t want a fashion statement or distraction.
Use handouts! They will cover what you don’t get the chance to say in the five minutes! Plus it is something they can have afterwards.
How many teams send an adult in to the presentation?
We do not…Its their baby!
I went in with 2 of our students last year, and will probably do the same this year. I did, however, let them do the talking. I was more there for moral support. The judges did not seem at all bothered by the fact that an adult mentor was one of the 3 presenters.
We did once, then we had 3 kids at championship. It’s not better or worse, just, different.
We send in 3 students. We train for a couple of weeks before hand, to the point that you dream about what we have done. 
Ditto !!
There is no way we would send an adult in. It is their gig.
There is a lot of time the next couple of weeks for the students to get prepared and can practice in front of other crusty adults.
Our presentation is also done by 3 students.
In your “training” and practice for the presentation, get to the point where you are smooth and polished but not memorized and mechanical. We had one comment once that the presentation sounded too rehearsed.
If your presentation does feature technology, make sure you have a back up plan and can also talk while setting up. Our presenters do sort of a tag team, each introduces themselves and tells their story while the other two are setting up and rotate until the set up is done.
And I agree with the “dress nice.” It is the only time you’ll see our team members out of “uniform” at a competition. Our trademark camo is featured in a tie that the presenters all wear.
One other tip…we practice the question and answer period as well. Find business people in the community who are familiar with the team and FIRST, but don’t know the inside scoop. Give them your presentation and have them ask the questions. They ask things from a business perspective and it is great preparation! And it usually sells the team to the business and they are more likely to sponsor you the next year.
I think each team’s situation is different. Our eventual goal is to have students do the Chairman’s presentation by themselves. However, we are not a suburban school with an abundance of students able and willing to do such a presentation. A few of the students who are most familiar with the team and the most outspoken are on this year’s drive team, and they can’t be on the Chairman’s panel, as they are too busy in the pits. We are a hand-on student team where robot building and design is concerned, with the students doing the work on the bot under the supervision and direction of the mentors. That’s where we’re at for Chairman’s as well, but at this point the students actually prefer to have one of the adult mentors in the room with them to supervise and observe. It also lets me evaluate their performance and helps us to improve for the next year.
Each team is different and approaches the competition from a different vantage point. Issues that one team may contend with are non-issues for another.
For me, the important part of continued team growth and maturing is the on-going evaluation of how areas can be improved, strengthened, changed to meet the dynamics and evolving development of the team.
Continuing to participate in the Chairman’s Award will expose the team to the experience of conducting interviews with professionals, making formal presentations, and developing public speaking skills. It is always incredible to me to watch a student blossom and open up when they take that deep breath and step up to the challenge. One of our quieter team members last year is our lead for the Chairman’s and Woodie Flowers essays this year. The presentation team is in process of being determined and I’ll bet she will take that deep breath, again.
Good luck with your competition season!
Jane
Well said, Jane. One of our quieter students was chosen as a presenter last year, and she did a great job. It really boosted her confidence. We, too, are in the process of finalizing our team for this year, but she may well be chosen again, along with a young man who did not present last year but is intersted this year and has a real flair for public speaking.
Best of luck to all the teams who took the time and effort to do Chairman’s!