When I first read this thread I immediately jumped to the idea that the team might be wearing their shirts during meetings with potential sponsors. A team that can only afford one tshirt per student would then by necessity have these awards printed on the shirt to gather notice of these potential sponsors. At that point GP doesn’t enter into the decision.
I am definitely not opposed to a team highlighting their accomplishments. My prior comments had to do with the intent of GP, not displaying earned accomplishments.
I was thinking about how awards mentions are displayed in football/basketball stadiums with the signage.
For $ 40 bucks you could do a very nice 20x30 sintra sign that would list the accomplishments and sit very nicely on an easel at public displays or corporate presentations, and in its spare time live on the wall at school.
Keep in mind that information can become dated very quickly.
The awards that have been garnered in the previous season become dated when the current season begins. Listing those awards on your team shirts is costly and will remain current for only so long. If that is not a problem with your team budget and short-term or long-term plans, then it is fine.
I love to see the Hall of Fame teams tell us that they are HoFs on their shirts. It’s cool and is never outdated.
I think your question is valid. The bottom line is in how your team conducts itself and how you promote your achievements and your efforts as a team. I’ve seen some great team pits where teams have taken the time to lay out and organize their pit so that it is efficient, productive, and promotes the team in an effective and professional manner. People pay attention to that.
Good question, stargirl. Good luck to you and to your team in 2010!
I don’t think it is either, not arrogant and not ungracious (especially in good taste)… At IRI last summer, the HOT team was wearing tye dyes with “2009 National Champions” on them - but they were on the winning alliance at Einstien and they deserved to advertise that fact. That is a great marketing tool for award winners to use for drumming up support, I don’t see it any differently than a football team advertising that they won a championship or rivalry!
My .02,
Gracious Professionalism - To compete with others are truly care about the outcome. Yet all the while caring about the other. To be Gracious and Professional. To help them when you are needed.
In the end its like superheros really. They hada sense of GP about them. They were scared to show their accomplishments. They wore costumes. 1. Disguise themselves. 2. Show who they are. And that in its self shows what they have done. So my opinion would be that saying you have done something great is in no way wrong or against GP. For as it has been said. GP is not a gauge. Simply another way of saying “I have morals”.
This really does not have as much to do with Gracious Professionalism.
I’ll break it down for you. What messages do you send when you put your awards on a shirts?
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If done humbly, you help build up your team morale. It helps motivate existing members and new/upcoming members will presume that you are a “successful” team. This is good.
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You help your schoolmates realize that you have some success backing you as long as you don’t brag about it. This is good for your school.
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You help friends, family, acquaintances, and the like know that you have some success. This is also good as long as you don’t brag about it.
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I assume you will also list a few sponsors. Yes, this is also good. Most sponsors LOVE recognition. I would check with them first though. A couple of them did not want to be on any of our promotional material.
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Ten years from now, when you happen to stumble across this shirt while you are building a shuttle for NASA, you will realize that this is where it all started.
I am not going to list more. You should see where I am going with this. Having at least one team shirt with many accomplishments listed is extremely valuable in my opinion.
In short, should you list your sponsors, names, awards and accomplishments on you shirt? HECK YES. Just don’t brag about it verbally and always carry a humble attitude. It is almost guaranteed to work in your favor.
Let’s avoid the “If its ok for football, its ok for me” logic. Though I believe the moral decision based on it is true. This logic seems to go against FIRST’s changing the culture mentality.
Not trying to single Dan out, I’ve just seen this argument made on a few occasions and thought we can all use a reminder on occasion.
I dunno, it seems that FIRST has no problem with the sport concept. The direct connection to the relevance of sports is becoming stronger not weaker.
To add - we, ourselves, risk becoming negative and our passion distorted, if we don’t remain somewhat open-minded and flexible in our thinking. Gracious Professionalism is as wonderful an attitude and applicable philosophy as it ever has been.
.02
Jane
I apologize, this post is going to be rather general, in my opinion this decision does not involve GP, it does not involve the community, it involves you and being proud of your accomplishments. I would caution against putting awards on shirts, it means that shirts cannot be reused from year to year.
Art is right, if you are so worried about offending someone that you are no longer proud of your accomplishments… well that is just pathetic. As Art said, if someone is offended by your listing of accomplishments then they need to stop thinking of what they didn’t do and instead start thinking of what they need to do to win.
I’m going to end with another quote, Ray Bradbury. In Fahrenheit 451 he talks about how censorship destroyed our culture. The truly terrifying part is that this was no state mandated censorship, the people did it. That is what you are doing if you let the fear that you might possibly be “Non-GP”.
There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist / Unitarian, Irish / Italian / Octogenarian / Zen Buddhist / Zionist / Seventh-day Adventist / Women’s Lib / Republican / Mattachine / FourSquareGospel feel it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse….Fire-Captain Beatty, in my novel Fahrenheit 451, described how the books were burned first by the minorities, each ripping a page or a paragraph from this book, then that, until the day came when the books were empty and the minds shut and the library closed forever.
I am not saying that you should start cursing and insulting people, instead I am saying do not be afraid to disagree in a professional and respectful manner. You have an opinion, it is just as important as anyone else’s, don’t ever let anyone take that away from you.
Andrew, your caution also applies to sponsors. Many teams get new shirts every year to reflect new sponsors; when this change happens, the award list can change.
Or you can put a year and event tag on the award; this allows for reuse each year.
“My other T-shirt lists all our awards… but it’s too big to wear.” 
I deffinately agree with you. It’s something you feel proud of and if that’s how and where you want to display that pride, then go for it! I know we don’t have room on our shirts for much because we have a bunch of sponsors. I deffinately think that it’s a great thing to be proud of your accomplishments and I say go for it.
Cass
Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Agreed, you never know what could happen.
Cass
I couldn’t help but contest that statement in official CD-style. While this statement is sometimes true, there are many examples (1114, 111, 67, and the list goes on) of teams who continue to succeed year after year. They did something that was right and I think ALL teams have a lesson to learn from this. These teams have identified what they do “right” year after year in order to succeed. Of course, FIRST is very varied and not all teams are able to get all the “success factors” right every year. But, they can learn from things they did right.
Lessons can include:
"While driving the robot around at the end of build season, we figured that we can accomplish these tasks best by doing so and so. " Playing your robots strengths can work for you year after year.
“Having a solid storyboard and plan was a major factor in us winning the animation award”. This factor can help increase your chance for success year after year.
“Booking hotel rooms early in the season for X regional helped us save X amount of dollars”.
While I think your statement is sometimes correct, I would argue that past performance and results can sometimes be an indication of future results. It depends on whether you learn from it and continue to do what you need to do in order to succeed.
Yes, but to imply that’s a reason not to be proud of past accomplishments (or, more frankly, not use them to your advantage where you can, such as showing them off to sponsors) is even more ridiculous.
as I browse the thread, this appears in the little quoter section at the top.
“Gracious Professionalism at its finest - Competing like CRAZY on the field, then working together like professionals off the field to make these events the best they can be for everyone involved. - Stu Bloom”
There are differences between pride and hubris, I think, and feel personally that lauding your achievements to people that have not demonstrated any interest in them is distinctly the latter.
Can you think of a situation where someone reading your shirt would think “They are proud of winning award X? What a bunch of jerks!” The only ones I can think of are along the lines of “Why is my sponsor logo smaller than / obscured by award X?”
When I read the title, I was about to knee jerk reply about “against GP”, but saw that people more eloquent than I already handled it. Thanks!
I’m going to have to jump on this bandwagon, hopefully it isn’t full yet.
I really hate to nitpick, but “indicative” is a poor choice for a word in that sentence. Perhaps you intended “is not a guarantee of” instead? “Indicative” is loose, like suggestion: Today’s weather is a pretty good indicator for tomorrow’s weather, but it is by no means perfect. To Dancin, although we can not predict the future with certainty, throwing away data is counterproductive. Engineers make best-faith decisions everyday in the face of these uncertainties.
The reason I push this point is that past performance truly is a valuable indicator of future results, and more importantly, that knowledge of past performance can effect* future results. It can help with sponsors, help freshman feel the “We Can Do It” vibe, etc.
- go-go-gadget nounform-effect!
I’ll make a few comments on the several subjects that have come up here. Please forgive my long reply.
FIRST (and other competitive robotics programs) are built on the sport model. We compete. We award the best competitors. We celebrate human accomplishments in something that in and of itself produces nothing. The preparation for competition and the actual tournament provides competitors (and spectators to some extent) a way to improve themselves. This personal growth is the product of all sport.
The primary difference between sport as it is often practiced and FIRST is that sometimes sport takes war as it’s model (“crush your opponent!”) while most engineering competitions have embraced Dr. Flower’s Gracious Professionalism as their model for competition.
We need to put both of these ideals together. FRC is competitive robotics, not a robotics exhibition. We celebrate our accomplishments and compete for that recognition.
I’m all in favor of celebrating our accomplishments! List those awards.
A list of awards and the year you won them gives new team members a sense of pride - they are part of the team that has achieved to that level. (I remember when I was rowing in college, there was a great photo on the boathouse wall of the Henley '54 & '55 crews from the one time the school had traveled to England and won the most prestigious collegiate rowing event in the world. Every time I walked passed it, I felt motivated by the accomplishments of that crew - even though it happened over 10 years before I was born.)
I take pride in the accomplishments of my team, and of all the awards that we have received, I count the Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism award the most important. That we have received this award 7 times in the past 7 years tells everyone what kind of team we are. It is also hopefully an indication of what kind of team we will continue to be.
-Joseph Vanderway
Coach, Robodox