[FRC/FTC] Dean's List, Woodie Flowers, and more updates!

[Jared Hasen-Klein]

Hello, everyone.

I, once again, hope you are all staying safe and healthy. FIRST has released some new information about how awards will be handled for events which did not happen.

FIRST Dean's List Award (FRC/FTC)

Students who were nominated for the award but did not receive an interview at an in-person event this year will all receive a remote interview over video chat. Judge Advisers will be reaching out to team mentors soon about scheduling a date and time. If your nominated student couldn't attend an event in weeks 1 or 2 (but the event wasn't canceled), you should email dean...@firstinspires.org.

Each Regional event will still pick two finalists (and they will be notified over email). Districts will handle this a bit differently (consult your district or the game manual to find out how many slots your district gets). 

The 10 winners globally will be decided by a panel as normal, with no additional interviews. In case you didn't know, students only get interviews once at their regional (or more than once within the same district) but never get interviewed again at the Championship. Announcement of the overall winners is TBD as to when and how.

 FTC has already interviewed its nominated students. The 10 global winners will follow the same process as FRC. So, FTC students nominated for the award do not need to take any further action.  

Woodie Flowers Award (FRC)

The Woodie Flowers Award, which recognizes an outstanding mentor, never conducts in person interviews. The finalists are chosen from events based on student submitted essays.

We don't yet know how these finalists and winners will be announced, but we'll find out at a later date. There will still be and equal number of award recipients (decided per event).

Other awards

We still don't know which other awards may be judged without the actual robotics competition taking place. FIRST will continue to work through these decisions and notify the community when they know.

Till next time,

Jared