[nlknauss]

There really is a lot to learn from reading through this thread. I have had the fortunate experience of traveling around my region to help support teams, both new and veteran, who ask questions along these lines. After hearing the question I remind them of what the mission of FIRST is, that one of the great things about FIRST is the mentor component, and I tell them that you get from the experience what you put into it. There are just as many team setups as there are teams in the entire organization. Everyone has different resources and means to achieve the ends, inspiration.

Whenever my team attends a competition, my mentors and I tell our students to go learn something. It can be anything technical or non-technical, and we learn a lot! The mentors make it a point to do the same with the students. From doing this, we are all able to walk out knowing that we will continue to improve for the future.