We want you to host a Chairman's Exchange!

Competition FIRST Impact Award
1

In 2013, my team, the CocoNuts, FRC 2486, hosted the first ever Chairman’s Exchange at the Arizona Regional. It was small, but teams seemed to get a lot out of it, so we decided to try one at World Championships too. The Exchange here was much more successful with about ¼ of the Regional Chairman’s teams in attendance. We will be hosting Exchanges again this year at the Arizona and Las Vegas Regionals.

So, how does this involve you? Well, we are looking for teams to host Chairman’s Exchanges at their respective Regional/District/State Championship events.

What is the Chairman’s Exchange?

The Chairman’s Exchange (ChEx) was created in 2012 and first implemented in the 2013 season, appearing at the Phoenix Regional and the FIRST World Championship. The Chairman’s Exchange is an opportunity for Chairman’s Teams to congregate and practice their Chairman’s presentations and Q & A session prior to the actual presentations. The Exchange happens at a set time on Thursday, before official presentations. ChEx is also a great inspiration and source of ideas for teams who would like to apply for the Chairman’s Award in the future.

Why is the Chairman’s Exchange important?

Not only does the Chairman’s Exchange allow teams to practice before their official presentation, it is a friendly and welcoming environment to exchange ideas and ask questions among teams. ChEx also promotes collaboration and friendship among Chairman’s teams that reaches beyond the competition. Looking ahead, we hope that the Chairman’s Exchange will continue to increase the transparency of Chairman’s teams and the award as a whole.

So what does my team do?

If you would like to host an Exchange, your team will be responsible for finding a quiet location at your event(s) where the Exchange can be held. You will also be responsible for promoting your Exchange at the event and for facilitating the Exchange. We will also need your help in contacting teams that will attend your respective regional/district event. This will need to be done via email in advance of the regional. We will also provide you with a template flier that you can fill in with your information, so you can advertise your Exchange at the event(s) you are attending. We will also provide instructions for facilitating your Exchange and will, of course, always be available for any questions or concerns you may have.

**Your team will also play a vital role in increasing the number of teams who apply for the award and in creating a greater level of appreciation for and collaboration between Chairman’s Team.

If your team is interested or has any questions, please feel free to comment/PM me here or email our team at The.Cairmans.Exchange@gmail.com
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Thank you for your time! :slight_smile:

P.S. We wanted to re-invite teams to Google + with us every Saturday (except today) at 2pm MST to talk about Chairman’s for our #omgChairmansTalk series. If you’re interested, PM me!

2

I really love this idea. Sharing opinions and helping other teams with Chairman’s is just as important as helping with their robot. I’d like to set up a Chairman’s Exchange with a few local teams instead of at a competition at first, just to get a feel for how it would go. How did you guys structure it? Did everyone just sit in a room and talk to each other and practice whenever they want, or did you have an order?

3

So, before hand we sent out emails and handed out fliers telling other teams to come to the exchange. When it came around to actually doing it, what we like is to kind of intoduce ourselves as the host team and then ask anyone if they would like to present. We then go through persentations followed by Q&A and comments until all the teams that would like present have done so. It’s really informal and we have had some really good disscusions form out of it. But, this was just our first time around, so we are looking to figure out other ideas, too. One thing we were considering is, if there are a lot of teams who want to present, is having a sign up. So, depending on the number of teams, doing 10-15 minute blocks for each team and then allowing teams to sign up. Not all teams are willing to present, too. Some just want to watch and learn and ask questions.

As for doing a Chairman’s Exchage prior to events, I think we kind of hope to do that with one of our Google + meetings between when build season ends and competition season starts. If you’re team is interested in hosting we’d definitly walk you through the whole thing.