Practice Day and Pins, Medallions, and Trophies

"Week 0 Scrimmage in Nashua" Photo by Steve Lipofsky (c) 2013

Practice Day

I was at the BAE Systems Granite State Regional Thursday for practice day, and saw some great robots.  I’m really looking forward to seeing the rest of the competition!

Pins, Medallions, and Trophies

We all know that FRC isn’t about the ‘extra hardware’ you may get to pick up at an event if you do well, or the participation pins you receive from pit admin when you check in.  But we also know how nice it is to have those mementos.  We’ve taken a close look at the number of participation pins and medallions we distribute at events, as well as the cost to teams for post-season sale items such as pins, medallions, and trophies. 

In the past, we typically gave out 25 participation pins per team.  According to our information, this is the average number of team members per team, which means many teams were not getting enough pins for every member. This didn’t seem right.  We also realized that we were recycling thousands of unused medallions from events at the end of each season.  This is a waste of money and resources.  Essentially, we were overestimating the number of medallions needed by winning teams while underestimating the number of participation pins needed by all teams.

So, we’re making some changes. For the 2013 season, all teams will receive 40 participation pins from pit admin when they check-in for their first event.  This quantity should cover the number of team members for about 90% of all teams. For awards that typically come with medallions, we will also have 40 medallions available for each team. For teams earning medallions during this transition year, FIRST will cover the cost of additional medallions needed up to the number they would have received for the same award last year. Teams will need to pay shipping on these medallions but in most cases, this should not be a significant amount. 

Also, we are reducing prices on post-season sale items and will have more details available next week.  Pricing will no longer include shipping, but I believe most teams will find themselves paying less overall.  To give you an idea, the most popular additional trophy purchased last year was our ‘A’ Trophy, which is the smaller trophy given out at Regionals.  This will be dropping in price from $60 to $45.  Additionally, the most popular additional medallion purchased last year, the Regional Chairman’s Award medallion, will be dropping in price from $12 each to $4 each.

I’ll blog again soon.

Frank