[dtengineering]

First of all, please remember that while we often focus on winning the Chairman's Award, that it is the effort to win that matters. No one "loses" RCA... if you've worked your butt off all year in the spirit of the award, then you've already won before you even get to the regional. Our team submitted for the Chairman's many times, comfortable in the knowledge that while we had done a lot over the course of the year that other teams had done more and were more deserving of the award. We were able to celebrate their success and still be proud of our own contribution. Formally documenting our efforts as part of our application was a capstone of the year's work. While we never won an RCA, we were a better team because we tried... and maybe once or twice we made it a tough decision for the judges!

And that decision can be tough. Last year I had the honour of being part of an RCA judging panel. I wish there was some way to truly convey the respect that the judging panel held for all the teams that submitted while respecting the confidenitality of the judging process. We read, carefully, every word of the written submissions. We were blown away by the quality of the carefully practiced presentations. Several teams finished their presentation within ten seconds of "the bell". Not that we were judging on time, but it underscores just how carefully they had practiced compacting a year's worth of activity into one short, dynamic presentation. In the end we had to choose one recipient of the award and it was very, very difficult to do.

It is probably too late to start on this for this year if you haven't been doing it all year long, but one thing that we truly appreciated was the documentation that teams provided that illustrated their activities and demonstrated their impact. Having photos of events, thank you notes, newspaper clippings... proven, hard facts that backed up the key elements of the presentation in an organized fashion was very helpful.

Find a team in your area that has won multiple RCA's and ask if they can show you the documentation that they bring with them to the judging room. The cool thing about the RCA is that the teams that truly deserve it are teams that want to help you win it. And believe me... there are many more teams who deserve an RCA than there are awards!

Be proud of your accomplishments, and go for it.

Jason