This is a follow-up to my Regional Poll
Chairman’s edged Champion at the regional level but what would you have to say about Nationals. Would you rather win the national championship or the National Chairman’s award?
Without a doubt National Chairman’s Award
Never believed in the chairmans award…Championship for me
The competitive nature in me says Championship.
Ya i’m gonna have to go with the national championship as opposed to chairmans
For my four years on TechnoKats we never won the National Chairman’s or Championship. Although we won the regional version of each one while I was there, and the stories I’ve heard from the past, and the mutliple rushes I felt from winning regional championship awards. I say National Championship.
National Chairmans all the way. Once you win the national chairmans you can come back for life to win your first, second, or whatever it is national championship title. Plus I was lucky enough to be on RAGE the year we won the Championship and it was awesome but chairmans would be better.
I enjoy doing stuff for other people. It’s just in my nature to help other people, and have fun doing it.
So I’d definitely have to say National Chairman’s.
My Team all ready won National Chairman’s, definetly championship for me.
-Aaron
The win at nats is not all its cracked up to be. they tell you all these great funa nd exciting things you get to do and it never happens. wheres the inspiration in that? national chirmans however means you are CONSTANTLY inspiring others. Now thats what FIRST is for me.
For me, its National Chairmans Award, having a winning robot is just a part of FIRST. My team puts lots of work in year round. I started crying at LA cuz we won Chairmans Award, regionally. If we won nationally, being recognized for what we do as a whole and not just during the six week period, my team would be ecstatic for years to come. I would be crying hysterically for days to come.
The robot, its just a piece of the FIRST puzzle, whether u win or lose, u gain something, whether it be a lesson, or an awesome friend from a cross the country. I dont get worked up about that, the guys on our team get stressed out about that sometimes. Yep, all of the jocks on our team get extremely competive. Thats the only thing that gets me stressed out, when people on our team are bummed out because of a bad match.
Chairmans award, one of kind recognition, commemorating ur team as a whole. Like the gracious Proffesionalism awards we recieved from Team 60 as well as Team 22, (THANK U GUYZ SO MUCH!!! IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US)
Oh I would most definatly have to say chairman’s award. With it comes so much prestege and even hall of fame worthiness. Not to mention being qualified to attend the championships every year there after so you ahve more chances and time to win that Championship
Championship all the way.
It depends on what you work on. For me, I was the driver, so winning the championship was as good as it gets. But for someone who works on the chairman’s (which I believe Jon K. did in 2002, right?) that’s as good as it gets.
Personally, I think it’s called FIRST Robotics Competition for a reason.
would everyone still think the Chairman’s is the ‘most prestigious award’ if FIRST had not told us every year?
Even though I believe in the Chairman’s Award, I find it to be too corrupt. And although I like how it forces the FIRST market to constanly change and revamp itself, I don’t like the reprocussions of that reinvention.
I’d much prefer a National Championship. It’s easier to explain on your part, and on your sponsors part.
i voted for Chairman’s. i find it very easy to explain. use pro sports. does the best football team win every year? no. if they did…the colts would win at least once 
the Chairman’s doesn’t go to the team who gets lucky (it takes luck to win…you can’t deny it) it goes to the team who helps engineering the most in their community
could you tell me (through pm/e-mail ([email protected]) is fine if you don’t want to post on CD the corruption? i’m wondering what I don’t know and how it may be hurting me. thanks!
Corrupt? 
How so?
I second that, I dont see any problems with Chairmans Award…in fact, i cant IMAGINE any problems with the Chairmans Award.
Oy! Okay, okay…I’ll explain. And please, I know that some of my viewpoints are…different than the normal FIRSTer, to say the least. That does not mean that they are not valid. Just because my opinion is different does not mean that I don’t have valid, unique skills to bring to the program to make it better, and also does not mean that my viewpoints would skew my willingness to help FIRST if it contradicts what FIRST wants to do with itself. It’s just how I feel, and I am trying to discuss my viewpoint in a gracious and professional manner…and I hope your responses are the same.
First of all, I like the idea of the Chairman’s award itself. I think that we should be striving for something higher than a winning robot, since the point of the organization is to change the culture, not to build the best robot.
I also like how FIRST is running the Chairman’s logistically now, with regional chairman’s. I feel that this allows the judges to give more attention to an award of such importance. I’m also not saying that FIRST itself is corrupt. I think the judges do a fine job, and in having regional Chairmans before national Chairmans, it reinforces the judges relationship by forcing them to rely on the opinions of dozens of judges from around the nation.
That said, I think that the teams are corrupt in how they go about obtaining this award. Think back at many regional Chairmans winners, national finalists and national winners…and even to teams that stuck out in your mind along the years but never made the cut. How many of the extraneous-to-the-robot programs that they created and used in the award submission are still going today? I’ve been really impressed with how these winning and finalist teams have put their teams together and created innovative ways of making the competition, as well as the culture of FIRST, better…and to see these extraneous programs die after the season (regardless as to whether the team won or not) really disappoints me. Why? Just because the season is over doesn’t mean the program isnt useful anymore. A need was found, a team filled that need (which is great), but to see that need reopen because the season is over is frustrating, because I feel like nothing has been gained. I don’t want to name teams because I don’t want to point fingers.
I also feel that impact can’t be quantified in all cases. If FIRST’s existence caused a 50% increase in graduates going to college, thats great, that’s a valid point that absolutley should be used. But to say that the impact is greater because a FRC team has a lot of FLL teams…that seems sketchy to me. Just because the FLL team exists doesn’t mean that it’s always 100% effective in inspiring students, and doesn’t mean that the team wasn’t already going to pick up those same students once they hit high school. And it also doesn’t mean by adding a bunch of FLL teams that the team is assimilating FIRST’s vision to their community in the fashion that will yield an optimum effect. The team should analyse their community and create something innovative that will be the best for them - not just something that FIRST is suggesting.
Note: And I’m not just picking on FLL…there are other programs that I feel are viewed as quantitatively scored that should rather be scored qualitatively.
In short, I feel like a lot of FIRST’s culture and community wouldn’t be here without the Chairman’s award…and I am grateful for that. But, when I see great culture-adding programs being created for the sake of winning an award - which is pretty apparent when it dies after the season is over - it upsets me, because I can’t tell if they were genuinely doing it to make FIRST better, or to make their team look better. I think that we are a strong and smart enough community that we can move beyond doing things for our own team and indirectly for FIRST and we can move to doing things for FIRST. I hope that one day these culture-adding programs won’t be seen as extraneous…they’ll be seen as essential as the robot itself.
Now, I know I’ve heard a lot of complaints about how when someone posts something contravercial that they feel afterwards because of the backlash that they shouldn’t have posted at all. So, I ask that you wait 30 minutes before you answer to anything directly related to what I say in this post - like how professors demand you wait 24 hours after an exam is handed back before questions can be asked. I think this will force posters to think logically and not defensively, so please abide by this, for both our sakes, and I eagerly await your responses.
I am not defensive, i promise you. Just curious to hear another point of you. You have valid points, I agree, some teams strive for Chairmans Award, then once they get it, they think that its over. I dont think that that makes the award corrupt, some teams need to rethink their priorities.
Of course there are always going to be some teams strving for their own gain. Its human nature, there is nothing we can do about that. And you know what? This is just another way FIRST emulates life. Short on time, money, and their are ppl in the world that do things for their personal gain, we just have to ask ourselves how we are going to respond to those people.
I apreciate the alternative point of you, makes ya think, how many teams truly do this for FIRST, science and technology, or just to get their own attention?
Not all teams fully understand the point of FIRST and its sad, they arent on Chief Delphi experiencing the full FIRST community. Maybe never hearing of this concept that is well known here on CD, Gracious Profesionalism. They get competitive.
For the teams that do only do it for their personal gain and then fade, its disappointing yes, but hopefully they have inspired someone a long the way. Whether during one of their exhibitions they inspire a child, or just a member on the team. Every person counts, even if the team does fade, they affected someone somehow, and it gives other teams a chance to step in.
Lets call it the Robotics Circle of Life. When one team “dies” another is “born”. Continuing to inspire the nation, and soon to be the world.
Jessica,
I thought that Chairman’s was the long-haul award, the award for the teams that do exactly what you say isn’t happening–keep sustained programs alive and provide aid to the FIRST community throughout their history. You can’t win the Chairman’s just because of one year–you have to build to it and really show that you’re keeping on.
I’ll use my team as an example because I don’t really know that much about other team’s efforts (sorry). We spent the money that would have gone to another regional on a machine trailer for the regionals to have machine shop support, and have helped a lot of teams stay operation at competitions. We brought it last year, this year, and will continue to take it to regionals to help out.
Mentoring teams can be ephermal, you are right, though. I agree that teams should spend a real amount of time mentoring a team, not just mentoring as many as possible and adding them to the list. Last year we mentored Milpitas (1120), and two weeks ago we played them in the finals in Sacramento. That’s pretty worthwhile.
You could very well be right; I haven’t been around FIRST for nearly as long as you. The judges at a regional have to pick someone, and it may be true that sometimes they just pick the team with the longest list of “accomplisments.” Hopefully, though, the teams that really do add to the community will be picked at their regionals, and the national judges will find the real sustainable programs for the national award.
Even still, I’d prefer a Championship.