Trophy distribution for Pack and Den

[SharkBait]

We give out trophies to the top three in each den, as well as the top three in the pack. However, the pack winners get to go home with two trophies (pack as well as den). I'm trying to spread it out so that the pack winners do not also get a den trophy. The money saved can go to trophies to other kids (perhaps additional design awards or turtle trophies, which we might try this year). Does anyone handle their pack / den trophies like this? If so, how do you label the den trophies in advance? What if one den has the top two cars in the pack? That will mean that this den will only need to give one one third place trophy. Since we can't predict the outcome in advance, it is hard to know what den trophies to order. It seems like we might have to have all of the den trophies be the same. Any suggestions?

[gpraceman]

Our pack gives out trophies for the top 3 in the pack as well as the top 3 in each rank. If a racer gets one of the top 3 in pack trophies, he will not get a rank trophy. Everyone else in the rank will be moved up. This maximizes the number of boys getting speed trophies.

[SharkBait]

Our pack gives out trophies for the top 3 in the pack as well as the top 3 in each rank. If a racer gets one of the top 3 in pack trophies, he will not get a rank trophy. Everyone else in the rank will be moved up. This maximizes the number of boys getting speed trophies.

Are you saying that if the den winner is also a pack winner, the 1st - 3rd trophies go to the next in line (2nd - 4th), or do you just eliminate the trophy altogether. If the latter, are the rank trophies generic and all the same (without indicating placement)?

[gpraceman]

Are you saying that if the den winner is also a pack winner, the 1st - 3rd trophies go to the next in line (2nd - 4th), or do you just eliminate the trophy altogether. If the latter, are the rank trophies generic and all the same (without indicating placement)?

No trophies are eliminated. We just bump up racers to fill the 3 empty slots for the rank trophies. We explain all of this in advance, so no one has any heartburn. The rank trophies do indicate 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

[Darin McGrew]

We've done it the other way: We emphasize the age-based categories, and only race the top car of each category for the overall winner. Since these cars have already earned trophies, the overall winner doesn't receive another trophy. Instead, they receive a big blue ribbon. They can attach the ribbon to the trophy, or display it separately.

[Nitro Dan]

We just went through a huge discussion on this at our Pack last month. We also gave away three trophies for the Den Ranks and three for the Pack Champions. Because some cubs got two trophies last year they asked if we could figure out a way to spread it out so that kids only got only one trophy. In the end, we voted not to do this.

Our reasoning was that we felt that Pinewood Derby is not a "recreational sport" where everyone gets a trophy, win or lose. With Pinewood Derby, someone has to win and someone has to lose, there is no other way around it. We also explored the "bump method" as described by Graceman, but we felt that the kids who got trophies for their Den Ranks would know inside that they really didn't earn the trophy they were getting. To us, this didn't seem "fair, above all", which is the message we were trying to send out in our rules and guidelines.

Someone then brought up the point that we might be placing a perceived value on the trophies. To illustrate, a scenario was described where every winner in the Rank Dens got $7 (instead of a trophy) and the top three champions all got $8. The top three champs actually received $15 and the Den Rank winners all received $7, with everyone else getting participation ribbons. The question was then ask did this seem fair? Everyone agreed that it seemed fair. Since our trophies didn't cost but $7 and $8 a piece, does it really matter if the top racers go out and buy two trophies with their $15 and the Rank winners go out and buy one with their $7?

If a cub works hard on making his car, "doing his best" and he happens to win the Pack Championship, then we felt that he probably has earned the right to have two trophies. I know it may look "bad" to other parents within the organization, when one kids wins two trophies, but our 10 person committee agreed unanimously in the end, that doing it this way was the fairest thing we could do for our cubs.

-Nitro Dan

[Darin McGrew]

Just a thought... Assuming that anyone who receives a pack-level trophy will have already received a den-level trophy, I wonder if it would be possible to have the pack-level trophies be an "add on" to the den-level trophies? Something like this (forgive the ASCII art):

Code: Select all

   den          pack         combined

   o=o                          o=o
   _|_                          _|_
   | |                          | |
   | |                          | |
  =====         =====          =====
                | | |          | | |
                | | |          | | |
               =======        =======

Or maybe something simpler, like this:

Code: Select all

   den          pack         combined

   o=o                          o=o
   _|_                          _|_
   | |                          | |
   | |                          | |
  =====         _____          =====
               /=====\        /=====\

The idea is to have the pack-level winners end up with a larger trophy that has plaques for both their den-level victory and their pack-level victory.