[Kevin Kolodziej]

This is all quite helpful.

Perhaps we have been operating under false assumptions.

Based on my time served as a judge for FLL, after the interview process, the judges work together to create a list of teams to focus on and then go visit those teams in the pit. This is likely the same for the judges that are seen on Saturday at a typical regional.

I always THOUGHT that the judges you see in the pit that aren't specifically talking about robot stuff work collectively along with the chairman's interview judges to share information and determine a short list for all awards. After all - you might hear something in the chairman's interview that you don't hear in the pit that might be related to a non-technical award, or you might hear something in the pit that expands upon something that was touched on in the interview. I always thought these judges talk to each other to get multiple views of the same story. But it seems that is not the case? I guess that makes sense to a degree - otherwise, why have the interview at all and not just do more pit judging, which makes it impossible to give everyone an equal opportunity to tell their story.

I know how hard the judges work. I've been a judge for several years in FLL and for our local Vex competitions. I've always come away from those 1 day events wanting to know more about the teams, so I just find it surprising that something like the Chairman's Award would be judged solely on a 10 minute interview and a fairly short essay (comparatively speaking) at a 2 or 3 day event. Not a complaint, just an observation. Not what I was expecting.

I also don't think I've expressed my congrats to Team 359 - CONGRATULATIONS! When I saw the list of eligible teams this year, you were at the top of my list, so I'm glad you finally got it! And thank you for the insights in this thread. We've got a loonnnnnng way to go to get to your level, but I think we're headed in the right direction =)