[SarahBeth]

We submitted for the first time ever this year - as we recently transitioned from a build-season team to a full-year team. We weren't going to, and then I was talking to another mentor from another team and she said that we should because we'd done a LOT this year and have great plans for the future.

So we did. The kids did the essay and the executive summary, as well as the video, and the presentation. The three girls who gave the presentation learned it in 2 days (yeah, we work under pressure) and they killed it in front of the judges. I was so proud of the work that they had done - and I'm still so proud of them.

We learned a lot about ourselves as a team, with what we'd accomplished this year and what we hope to do in the future.

The kids all said that it was a great learning experience overall and they'd definitely do it again. I think Chairman's is an award that you earn over time, I know that being a first year submitting team that I didn't think that we'd win, but I was very surprised at the extremely positive feedback from the judges. It will help us work on things to make us a stronger team and we'll submit again next year, and the year after, and the year after. The kids are really developing good presentation skills with this, as well as improving their writing skills.

I agree with others that at least writing a submission for Chairman's even if you don't submit or miss the deadline is a good way to document what you've done over the last year or so and see what else you want to do moving forward.