[emmywashere3849]

For my team, I would say that they made the plunge in 2008. This was the first time that we won any really big honor. We won the Boston Regional Chairman's award. From then one, there has been a lot better student-mentor relationship, the students want to go to the shop every day, the mentors don't complain about volunteering all their time because now they can really see the equivalent commitment from the students, the team has built better robots, and the hope of winning is real, the moral is much better. Since that year of transition, the attitude in the shop is better and everyone really gives it their all, instead of a few students giving 120% and others only giving 60%. It was that dynamic change that tipped our team into being hardcore FIRSTers.