FIRST Hall of Fame changes

Competition Championship Event
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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.

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Personally, I think that some of these changes sound good.
I would be in favor of the Hall of Fame teams to have some type of competition between them. At least some other type of criteria, that is different than the Chairman’s Award criteria, for a submission.
I also think that having all of the HoF teams’ pits all together would be a cool idea.

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My main issue is if the HOF is also the HOF teams pit area then those teams pit areas are going to be very cluttered up with visitors and make it very hard to get their work done and could possibly dull their competitive edge.

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I don’t know all the details of the situation here, but while having pits together could be an interesting and possibly inspiring prospect. However, I think that having an entirely separate competition for HOF teams seems a bit elitist and could be intimidating for new teams.

Just my $0.02

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That’s probably the point. If FIRST wants teams to go after Chairmans, make it worth it. If FIRST really wants to drive it home, the HOF teams would get the best pit spots in the place, ie right near the entrance. I never make it into the pits myself (since I’m VCing on a field the whole time), so would this be an improvement to what they have now?

This also makes it incredibly easy to walk VIPs around. I’ve taken VIPs through the pits before, and the less walking the better. They want to go in, see a few teams of interest, and get back to the VIP area.

Since there are so few HOF teams in relation to the rest of the teams at Championship, I would also recommend doubling the size of their pits. This allows them to have room for the natural stream of visitors with a designated HOF area while also giving the same amount of room for robot work as everyone else. Most of these teams are so large they have the people to handle visitors, but its the size of their area that is the problem. Again, is this an improvement to what HOF teams have now?

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My understanding of the email makes me think that the two would be separate, but close–perhaps the HoF displays on one side of the aisle, pits on the other.

Assuming it doesn’t cause any issues from having them out of their division’s pits, I’d think it would be pretty awesome.

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I’ll second that… heck, give them 4x the space. Their pits should be 20x20. These are the elite teams. We all look up to them. Let’s give them space to work and compete while still inspiring the rest of us. They should be able to do this while not splitting their teams between two areas, as they did last year.

Andy B.

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It appears to me that this is going to be handled carefully and thoughtfully, regarding how best to showcase the HOFs and encourage them to continue to grow and develop.

The Hall of Fame row as they are describing, is something that could be tried this year to see how everyone likes it and if it is a good fit. Afterwards, it can be reviewed to see what worked and what didn’t work. Nothing is ever set in stone - this is an example of exploring our options in a positive way with hope of improvement and enrichment.

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All HOF Teams need to send in Ideas as soon as possible.

I responded the same day.

On suggestion I had was, keep the HOF Gallery as it was the last few years. Make a back to back row of pits in center Isle for the HOF teams away from the HOF gallery but still close to the other pits and divisions as we all have to get our robots to the dome.

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When I first heard of this I thought the HOF was going to be located right at the center of the venue where all 4 divisons meet and the HOF teams would be located out there with their displays.

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According to what I have read from FRIST this is just an idea right now. They have not decided if they will do this or not.

As Mike and I suggested, if they don’t do this, then maybe they should give the HOF teams a special banner or flashing light or other way to designate them. There was discussion about putting the pits into the HOF. This, I think, would be a disaster and ruin the HOF. Then FIRST talked about putting them on either side of the hall leading to the HOF. Right now they just don’t know…and might not do anything.

I just think it is great that FIRST is looking for ways to help make the HOF teams more visable as the role models that they are.

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I agree that HOF teams deserve our respect and admiration, but wouldn’t a larger pit than the rest of the team pits be perceived as an advantage…one that these elite teams certainly didn’t need in the first place to succeed? Don’t judges and VIPs stay out of the 10X10 pit itself and observe/interact via the isleway? If a larger pit is to provide space for visitor, wouldn’t that be a safety issue? Regarding a featured isle showcasing these great teams…by all means…

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I think FIRST would design the pit area and the display back to back with the display facing this HOF aisle they were talking about. I know last year traffic was a big problem in the HOF and there was this lady there playing traffic cop all day chasing people in and out of te HOF. I think this would be a etter solouton.
Also I want to start the annual call for the Woodie Flowers award winner to get a better display than what was there last year.

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HOF teams are elite teams, they don’t always build elite robots. Currently, the only way to become a HOF team is to win the Championship Chairman’s Award. Only partially by coincidence, most HOF teams typically do build highly competitive robots, but the extra pit space would have nothing to do with that.

The only issue I would have is the location of the pits. Being right next to the tunnel to the Dome (where the 4 divisions meet) would be awesome for the teams, but that would put them far away from the “general public” entrance, right in the heart of the pits, which wouldn’t accomplish the added exposure that FIRST wants for these teams.

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The one great thing about the HOF is that the teams get to do in the HOF what the team competing for the Chairman’s award are no longer allowed to do and go totally multi media to express their mission to the rest of FIRST in an almost totally free expession of ideas. Almost no limits in creativity indesign. You can use video, graphics, music and design. There are alot of really creative fun ideas bouncing around down there (even though FIRST has cracked down a bit and has banned the 3D displays like the really cool pyramid that the Scarabian Knights erected. Which is too bad because they did a really nice job on it).
We’re getting started on this year’s design right now. Hopefully all will turn out well to what we have in mind. I can’t wait to see what everyone else come sup with!
One thing I hope returns in a much better form than what was down there last year, is the Woodie Flowers award winners. With a little more time to plan for it I hope it gets the attention that it deserves (don’t make me do another petition, because I will!). These folks who gave their time and energy to FIRST and had help to make FIRST the great institiution that it is today and they deserve to be up there on the same pedistal that the HOF teams are. They should be treated with more respect than the display last year had shown. If they had done such a display as a last minute afterthought to Woodie or Dean there would have been hell to pay on these pages. It should be the same for these people as well. No last minute throwing it togehter. If it cannot be done in a reasonable amount of time for a professional looking display then it really shouldn’t be dome at all).

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If I recall there were a few threads last year talking about the scheduling conflict with the WFA ceremony and FRC and FVC matches going on at the same time… both a concern before Championships and complaints about it after Championships. I wonder if those concerns are being addressed this year?