I volunteered at the Midwest Regional this past weekend and was one out of a select few who had the honor of unpacking the awards and getting them ready for the Awards Ceremonies on Friday and Saturday. So, a few words…
First, make sure you thank each and every volunteer you see, because A LOT goes on behind the scenes that you probably don’t even know about. It took 3-4 hours to get the awards unpacked, looking nice, with their award tags on and lined up on a table to hand out. This was something I didn’t know happened until I actually got to work it, and it gave me some new appreciation for ever getting to win those awards.
Secondly, I understand it’s kind of disheartening that the trophies are smaller, but in this economic crisis, sometimes you just can’t go big. However, I think that if FIRST wants to show that the Chairman’s Award is the most prestigious award a team can receive, I think they should keep that trophy the size it was prior to the change. All the other trophy changes I can deal with.
Finally, a bit of confusion on my side. While unpacking the awards, it came to my attention that FIRST ships awards for several different regionals to one event. (i.e. I was at Midwest and there were awards there for three-four other regionals not taking place this weekend). These awards were not back-up awards, and the crates were never opened. It seems to me that this would cost a lot of money to do. Does any one know if it is actually cheaper to do this?