[mathking]

We have posted some of our Chairman's essays in the past and some we have not. Not posting was never an active decision but an oversight due to us being really busy at the end of the build season. Last year in response to this thread I posted our essay along with annotations on how we documented the claims in this post. We will post ours online again this year and plan to do so going forward every year. Each year's essay will be in our book at the iTunes store (a little bit of shameless plugging here) from now on as well. We have been asked to help a couple of other teams with their essays and presentations, and we will always share what we do.

So if publishing all of the essays was required it wouldn't bother me personally. But I am also not sure it is the right thing to do. If a team is sharing with and supporting other teams and the broader FIRST community well enough to win a Chairman's Award, I am not going to judge their motives in sharing or not sharing their essays. As some of the posters have said, I think there is even more value in sharing the activities in which a team engages than in the essays themselves. But the essay is a convenient way to share this.

So I think Rich Kressly's post sums up my belief. We will continue to post our essays unless someone convinces us there is a better way to share. But we will be perfectly respectful of other teams' choices not to share. And if any teams or individuals want help or advice we will be happy to provide it or try to connect them with someone else who can.