the whole process is the most valuable part, not the award itself ...
1. as a team, engage in the process as deeply as you can - you won't regret it.
2. Learn from others as much as you can (and, yes, FIRST needs to deliver on helping spread that information - ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S WRITTEN IN THE RULES
). Perhaps some of the HofF teams might get together and help push the agenda and/or begin to create and share like the WFA's have -
http://themobius.wordpress.com/ ???
3. As for the potential misrepresentations? Water off a duck's back. As soon as you start worrying or even thinking about that, you're losing focus on maintaining your own team's efforts and managing the how your team best represents itself - which is the only part you'll ever truly know or control anyway.