Personally I think it’s great that there are teams that have great outreach programs in their communitities.
But, FIRST has been around a long time. It started out as being only a few teams and the numbers are growing. It’s getting harder to win Chairman’s. There are teams that may have won it 10 years ago, and therefore are able to go to Nats every year.
Do they deserve to though? Because their predecessors won it for them, they get to reap the benefits…
Should there be a rule that they are allowed to attend Nats for 4 years and then they need to earn the privelege again?
I think they deserve it! It was a hard-earned title, and they should reap those benefits. Yes, it’s getting harder to win Chairmans, but that only means that every team is doing better things! but if the incentive is kept high, then we will still strive for it. I know that some of you will respond to that comment with “that’s not the only reason why we should do good things in our community” and of course it’s not. But anyways, keep the stakes high and the competition fierce and great things will come of it!
Chairmens isnt about what students do, its about the teams fundementals, its the team that has the standing programs that make a team. its how the team works, not about the studenst, its FIRST highest award becuase in my opinion, all the other awards (except for a few) are awards students earn and win
Chairmans award a whole Team/School/Sponsor/Community earn through their actions, programs, fundraisers, community service etc
I think they most def. should Its such an amazing honor to win an award like that.
If you had asked however if I think that they should be able to win it more than 1 year… I say mayb not… or atleast a prescribed period of time before they can win it again
Of course they should!
It’s FIRST highest achievement (though you wouldn’t know since very few people bothered to congratulate 103 for winning the thing) and let’s just say it’s the award that keeps on giving. It won’t kill FIRST to reserve 11 spots for these revered teams.
I like the idea of being allowed to go for 4 years (high school career)… you really shouldn’t be reaping the benefits of someone else’s hardwork.
If you want to go, then follow the example set by prior years to work hard and get to the nationals. Because teams change, it does not mean that for 10 years they’ll be the same or just as active in the community.
I agree with you monsieurcoffee -
I know a team that has won chairman’s and I love them to death,
but the team doesn’t really do all that much to try and win it again. And I’m not sure that it’s fair to let them have a special privelege that they didn’t earn.
*Originally posted by kevcan *
**Its not like there isnt enough room! they opened it to all teams this year! **
I don’t agree with this statement. My team had an awesome robot for once this year but we weren’t able to attend because we’re an even number team. Because of the war we knew some teams would be dropping out. So we waited to see if we’d be able to register, but we weren’t. We even won the Engineering Inspiration Award at our regional, which is the miniature Chairman’s but they wouldn’t allow us to register.
The Chairman’s award is FIRSTs greatest award to give, and any team that is organized and grounded enough in the ideals of FIRST to win it SHOULD attend Nationals every year.
Besides being a reward for that team’s hardwork, it lets FIRST show them off for PR at Nationals
Yes, previous Chairman’s award winning teams display great PR for FIRST, and by letting them attend nationals every year, other teams from around the country may be able to observe them and ask them for advice.
And keep in mind, only about 1% of teams have won the Chairman’s award, and that’s not a large enough number to really prevent any other teams from attending nationals.
Chairman’s award is coveted because it IS so difficult to win. An award looses meaning if it’s easy to achieve, and yes it is getting more difficult to win every year, but it’s not impossible.
Just work hard and keep your hopes up. And remember, what your doing should not be done specifically for winning Chairman’s, your doing it let other people know what you’re so excited about, and to possibly… change the world for the better a little.
*Originally posted by Erin Rapacki *
**Yes, previous Chairman’s award winning teams display great PR for FIRST, and by letting them attend nationals every year, other teams from around the country may be able to observe them and ask them for advice.
**
Okay - so do you know all of the Chairman’s award winners so that you can go up and ask them questions/advice??
Also, how can a team that has won it say 8 years ago give you advice if they didn’t do it. The only people who might remember what they did would be the mentors, assuming, they are still helping out the team.
The other thing is, what that team did to win the award is outdated. It takes a lot more to win that what those teams did.
I’m not campaigning against the Chairmans award, I just don’t agree with the way they’re deciding to use it. The cool thing with Chairman’s is each and every year you have to be really creative to get something that can compete with other teams. Just imagine what the judges have to go through to pick a winner.
*Originally posted by Jessica_166 *
**Okay - so do you know all of the Chairman’s award winners so that you can go up and ask them questions/advice??
Also, how can a team that has won it say 8 years ago give you advice if they didn’t do it. The only people who might remember what they did would be the mentors, assuming, they are still helping out the team.
The other thing is, what that team did to win the award is outdated. It takes a lot more to win that what those teams did.
I’m not campaigning against the Chairmans award, I just don’t agree with the way they’re deciding to use it. The cool thing with Chairman’s is each and every year you have to be really creative to get something that can compete with other teams. Just imagine what the judges have to go through to pick a winner.
-Jessica **
My team won in 2000 and I am very offended by your statements, not because my team won but because of the x-cats. They are the ONLY team to win twice and will forever be the only team to win twice(it is soooo hard for a former chairmans award winning team to even be considered again because it is always in the back of the judges’ minds). Go look at the x-cats, they won very long ago(92 and 94 I think) and tell me that they don’t deserve to be there every year. They always build a robot that performs in the top 20, they always have a chairmans that considered and they along with the Bomb Squad(my team) and ChiefDelphi were selected to be ambassador teams. If you pull out a list and go look around you will find that all former chairman award winning teams are very similar to the x-cats and that they always bring a very high quality team that does very high quality work with them everywhere they go. So perhaps you should go research former Chairmans award winning teams and what they did and what they do before you go off and start saying that it is harder to win now that it was in years past.
I think they should make the robot competition worth more than Chairmans. They make a bigger fuss out of Chairmans than they do the winners of the national competition. I look at the eligibility, and teams that won last year should be able to attend this year. There is the points system, but there is no garentee that a championship winner meets the requirements.
*Originally posted by AJ Quick *
**I think they should make the robot competition worth more than Chairmans. They make a bigger fuss out of Chairmans than they do the winners of the national competition. I look at the eligibility, and teams that won last year should be able to attend this year. There is the points system, but there is no garentee that a championship winner meets the requirements. **
