Chairman's Award Criteria for 2006

9.2 THE CHAIRMAN’S AWARD 2006

The FIRST Robotics Competition is about much more than the mechanics of building a robot or winning a competitive event. It is about the impact FIRST has on those who participate in the program and the impact of FIRST on the community at large. The FIRST mission is to change the way America’s young people regard science and technology and to inspire an appreciation for the real-life rewards and career opportunities in these fields.

9.2.1 Overview

The Chairman’s Award was created to keep the central focus of the FIRST Robotics Competition as our ultimate goal for transforming the culture in ways that will inspire greater levels of respect and honor for science and technology, as well as encourage more of today’s youth to become scientists, engineers, and technologists.

The Chairman’s Award represents the spirit of FIRST. It honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and which embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST. It remains the most prestigious team award FIRST presents. FIRST will present a Regional Chairman’s Award at each regional competition. There are thirty-three (33) regional competitions scheduled for the 2006 season, therefore, there will be thirty-three Regional Chairman’s Award winners. Only the winners of the Regional Chairman’s Award will be eligible for consideration in the selection of The Chairman’s Award presented at The Championship.
Prior winners of the Chairman’s Award at the Championship are ineligible to submit for the Regional Chairman’s Award. All submissions by Championship Chairman’s Award-winning teams will be electronically routed to a folder judging as part of the Hall of Fame.

9.2.2 First-Year (Rookie) and NASA Grant Teams:

Because the Chairman’s Award recognizes sustained excellence and impact, not just a one-year team effort, it is not possible for a first-year (rookie) team to receive this honor. We encourage rookies, however, to develop a Chairman’s Award submission to use as a criterion to judge the Rookie All-Star Award. This submission will document where your team started its FIRST journey and will also provide background for documenting the results of your team’s efforts.
Rookie Teams: If you submit a Regional Chairman’s Award, print a copy to give the Judges when they visit you at your Pit Station. Teams receiving NASA Grants must provide a copy of this submission as part of the grant.

9.2.3 Submission Information

The criteria for the 2006 Chairman's Award are essentially identical to those in 2005, with the exception that the submission will need to be signed by the Team Captain/Student representative and a team mentor to certify that all the contained information is complete and accurate. The judges focus on teams’ activities over a sustained period, as distinguished from just the six-week design-and-build time frame. The FIRST Robotics Competition is not about machines; it is about the experience of people working together toward a shared goal. Documenting and preserving your team’s FIRST experience becomes an important
component of the over-all FIRST experience.

9.2.3.1 Submission Content

The Chairman’s Award is presented to the team judged to have created the best partnership effort among team participants and which best exemplified the true meaning of FIRST through measurable impact on its participants, school, and community at large. There is no single “best way” for a team to win the Chairman’s Award. Many factors come into play. The primary factors the judges will evaluate are:

1. How strongly does the submission document the impact FIRST has on the learning experience of the students, school curriculum, engineers, and/or community?

2. Has the team explained/demonstrated why/how it should be a role model for other FIRST teams to emulate?

3. How well has the team communicated its excitement and impact within the entire school,
community, and beyond (state/nation) through participation in FIRST?

4. Has the team documented an innovative way to spread the FIRST message?

5. How strong of a year-round team partnership effort is reflected? (You can define partnership in many ways, including: the partnership among the team’s students/corporate sponsor/engineers; school/university sponsor/engineers; students/adults; community/team)

6. As a whole, does the content of the documentation exemplify the true meaning of FIRST?
Your Chairman’s Award submission should include documentation for all the above factors.

9.2.3.2 Submission Format

Regional Chairman’s Award submissions will be submitted on line. The submission, excluding the Executive Summary, will be limited to 10,000 characters, including spaces and punctuation, and may include up to four (4) photographs totaling no more than 1.0Mb of memory.

9.2.3.3 Submission Process

The URL for the Chairman’s Award Submission is http://www.firstawards.org. Follow the directions shown on the site to submit your team’s entry. Teams may only submit at one regional event at which the team will compete. This site will be available beginning January 16, 2006 at noon EST. Submitters can easily enter information, save it, and return to the site to edit the Chairman’s Award submission until they are ready to submit it for final judging. All entries will be final on Thursday, February 23, 2006 at 11:59 p.m. EST. No entries will be accepted or altered after this date. Chairman’s Award submitters will go to the website and enter the required information.

• Team Number:
• Regional Selection:
• Executive Summary – Teams must complete the following fields in order to be considered for this award. The information included in the Executive Summary is not included in the total
character/word count for the Chairman’s Award Submission.
• Team Name / Corporate/University Sponsors
• Briefly describe the impact of the FIRST program on team participants (500 characters allowed, including spaces and punctuation)
• Examples of role model characteristics for other teams to emulate (500 characters allowed, including spaces and punctuation)
• Describe the impact of the FIRST program on your team and community (500 characters allowed, including spaces and punctuation)
• Team’s innovative methods to spread the FIRST message (500 characters allowed, including spaces and punctuation)
• Describe the strength of your partnership (500 characters allowed, including spaces and punctuation)
• Team’s communication methods and results (500 characters allowed, including spaces and
punctuation)
• Other matters of interest to the FIRST judges, if any (500 characters allowed, including spaces and punctuation)
• Upload pictures (maximum of 4 allowed, not to exceed 1.0Mb in total)
• Essay (10,000 characters allowed, including spaces and punctuation, or approximately 1500 words)
• Electronic signature of Team Captain/Student Representative certifying that the document is complete and accurate
• Electronic signature of adult team mentor certifying that the document is complete ad accurate
Once the Chairman’s Award submissions are completed, they are sorted and posted on a private, passwordprotected site where only the judges can read the entries. Each regional will have all the candidates listed and the judges will review the submissions. Teams should bring a hard copy of their submission to the event. In preparing this document, bear in mind that students, engineers, teachers, community, school, sponsors, families, and other supporters, as well as the machine itself are all integral parts of your team experience. Your submission does need to clearly convey the factors outlined above.

• Important Note: Chairman’s Award Judges look for and review the information entered in the
Yearbook Page as part of the Chairman’s Award submission. This information is entered as part of the Team Information Management System (TIMS) at http://www.my.usfirst.org. Refer to
Communications for more details about the Yearbook Page.

9.2.3.4 Submission Deadline

Chairman’s Award submissions are due no later than Thursday, February23, 2006. 11:59 p.m. EST.

9.2.4 Judging Process

The Regional Award Process: By 10 a.m. on Friday mornings of each Regional Competition a list of interview times for the submitting teams will be available at the Pit Administration station. Interviews will take place during the day on Friday. A panel of judges will review the Chairman’s Award entries at each Regional and will conduct on-site Chairman’s Award interviews with those teams who have entered a submission for that regional event. Judges will select one winner for the Regional Chairman’s Award at each regional competition.
Interviews are limited to ten (10) minutes with not more than three (3) student team members) to best represent them. The team selects these representatives. During the first five (5) minutes of the interview, the team members give a presentation to the judges, and the judges will use the second five (5) minutes for their interview.

NOTE 1: If the presentation requires special equipment, the team is responsible for bringing it to the interview.

NOTE 2: Teams are encouraged to bring copies of documentation, supporting their submission, to leave with the judges. This documentation may include, but is not limited to:
• Letters of reference
• Newspaper and magazine articles
• Program Books

As part of the Chairman’s Award judging process, FIRST judges will also review the Executive Summary page AND the yearbook page for each of the submitting teams. Your team’s submission will be a key factor in the selection process, along with the judges’ own observations of the team at the competitions.

The Championship Award Process: At The Championship, a panel of judges will review the winning thirty (30) Regional Chairman’s Award submissions and will select one ultimate Chairman’s Award winner. This winning team has the additional honor of choosing one of its junior or senior student members to be the recipient of the Allaire Medal.