'The Dean's List'

FIRST General Forum
1

Posted by Michael Martus.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]

Coach on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central H.S. and Delphi Automotives Systems.

Posted on 8/3/2000 8:31 PM MST

Last year I tried to get FIRST to move on an idea to give recognition to more teams for all the great things they do and the hard work.

I had a lot of support for this idea, and I think it was close to being a reality.

Here is the idea again. If you like it discuss it at the Team Forum please.

“The Dean’s List”

What is the Dean’s List?
· The Dean’s list is a list of FIRST teams that have excelled in their FIRST efforts for the current season. Many of the same qualifications that make a team a candidate for the Chairman’s Award are used in the selection for this prestigious list of FIRST Teams. The Chairman’s Award finalists and winner are selected from this list.

Why create the “Dean’s List”?
· Many teams demonstrate extraordinary high quality efforts toward the FIRST program but win no awards to take back and display at their school, community or corporation. Recognition of their efforts often times can provide that little extra push that keeps a team going. This award also gives the teams that do not make the list another target to aim for in the quest for the Chairman’s Award.

Who is eligible for the “Dean’s List”.
· All current registered FIRST teams. A team may earn a place on the list each year if chosen by the judges.

How is the “Dean’s List” chosen.
· The teams are nominated by the judges that interview and collect information at all the competitions. The final list is determined by the judges of the Chairman’s Award with input from other designated FIRST employees and of course Dean himself.

When is the list published?
· The list is published Saturday morning at the National Competition. Teams will be listed in alphabetical order with all holding equal status on this list.

What will a team get if they are on the “Dean’s List”?
· Each team listed will be sent via the mail, 2 certificates (unframed) which they can proudly frame and display at the School and Corporation.

How many teams can be chosen for the “Dean’s List”?
· There should be no set number of teams making this list, the group should represent the best teams as determined by the judges. This list should represent no more than the top one third of the total number of teams registered.

2

Posted by Greg Mills.

Engineer on team #16, Baxter Bomb Squad, from Mountain Home and Baxter Healthcare.

Posted on 8/4/2000 6:30 AM MST

In Reply to: ‘The Dean’s List’ posted by Michael Martus on 8/3/2000 8:31 PM MST:

:

I have always liked this idea. Whether it is called the ‘Deans List’ or not and the details of how it would be handled are up for discussion but the basic idea of all good teams getting recognition is great. This should be a topic of debate at the team forum.

3

Posted by colleen.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]

Coach on team #246, a FIRST-aholic, from John D. O’Byrant High School/Boston Latin Academy and NSTAR/Boston University/UTC/Raytheon/MassPEP.

Posted on 8/4/2000 8:40 AM MST

In Reply to: ‘The Dean’s List’ posted by Michael Martus on 8/3/2000 8:31 PM MST:

I think much confusion with the Chairman’s Award is what ‘deserves’ to win it… is it teams who struggle from nothing to scrap it together and come to competiton… embodying the ‘everyone one who tries is a winner’ theory… is it the teams who reach out to do other things for FIRST teams… hold competitions, create how-to’s and support systems… is it the teams who recruit many teams and community volunteers… is it the teams that donate much to FIRST as a whole…is it those teams that reach out to the younger kids… those that turn high schools and kids lives around… or is it just those who accomplish the task at hand and do it well…

We all have a different perspective as to who should win it and why and for what efforts… voting for the ‘best partnership’ is hard when there’s no consistent definition of ‘best’…

i very much am in favor of something similar to the ‘Dean’s List’… but I also propose some additions to it…

It’s to no argument that teams with more money have more access to more resources to just plain do more… it’s how the world works so why shouldn’t it carry over to FIRST… in many ways, low-budget teams just don’t have the ability to do all of others because of the financial burden…

as well, the more people you have the more you can do… work can be spread out and different people can work on multiple projects at a time… a larger team is an advantage in doing many of the ‘extracurricular’ things not involving the 6-weeks of building…

so my point… other competitions split up by size… for example, in parades, bands are often judged in either the ‘Large Band’ or ‘Small Band’ catagory… there is a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for each… that way the people with less aren’t at a disadvantage… same reasons the have weight-classes in boxing/wrestling…

Proposed additions:

-still have one ‘win-it-all’ Chairman’s Award winner…
-instead of 5 finalists… have 10… seperated into 2 classes (by team size, team budget {this would be a secretive process so only the judges would know this info and not the other teams}) and 5 finalists are chosen from each the Winner comes from one of those 10…
-Have a couple other a little awards (also certificates) for ‘Outstanding efforts in team recruitment’… ‘Special efforts to encourage the youth’… those would recognize teams that may have only had the time to work on one outside project or so beyond building the robot… these also could be announced saturday morning… or add another 5 minutes to the closing cermonies and announce them there (much better recognition i think)…

those are my thoughts

4

Posted by Rachel.

Student on team #126, Gael Force, from Clinton HS and Nypro.

Posted on 8/9/2000 12:54 PM MST

In Reply to: working off that… and changes to Chairman’s… posted by colleen on 8/4/2000 8:40 AM MST:

your always thinkin colleen

5

Posted by Erin.

Student on team #1, The Juggernauts, from Oakland Technical Center-Northeast Campus and 3-Dimensional Services.

Posted on 8/5/2000 6:06 AM MST

In Reply to: ‘The Dean’s List’ posted by Michael Martus on 8/3/2000 8:31 PM MST:

Mr. Martus-

I have long awaited the release of the ‘Dean’s List’. I am hands-down all for the idea. Kudos to a great concept.

-Erin

6

Posted by Meg Z…

Student on team #349, Robahamas, from International Academy and Ford Motor Co…

Posted on 8/5/2000 5:13 PM MST

In Reply to: ‘The Dean’s List’ posted by Michael Martus on 8/3/2000 8:31 PM MST:

I would like to start by saying that the ‘Dean’s List’ is an excellent idea, especially as FIRST expands.
However, I think that within the judging section there is a problem. It’s great if there is no entry required, and nomination is based on judges meeting the team. But what are the Chairman’s Award judges going to make their decisions based on if there is nothing material? Rather than making the judges’ choices ‘nominations’, make the judges’ choices the final list. The judges who are meeting the teams and talking with them are the ones who will best know which teams deserve to make the list.
Also I think there should be a limit on the number of teams on the list. This does not have to be a low limit!!! But I think that every team, in their own way, works extra hard or involves FIRST in their community, and the ‘Dean’s list’ loses its point if EVERY team makes it, no matter how nice it would be to give special recognition to all of us.
Finally, may I assume that the pun was intended?

7