[Al Skierkiewicz]

Sorry that I am coming to this discussion late. I hear these statements year after year about "successful teams". Have you noticed that those teams have:
1. Students who are really engaged.
2. Students who spend a lot of time researching, gathering data, working hard.
3. Have a team that functions as a team at all times.
4. Has been around for a while and although they add new tools every year they maintain what they have acquired in the past.
5. They build on their past accomplishments, analyze what works and what doesn't.
6. They spend their money wisely, because it is so precious.
7. Appear to have a mentor designed, mentor built, mentor maintained robot because of all of the above.

As far as adding something to the competition to "break the cycle", that already exists. It is called graduation. Every team gets new students every year and that changes the dynamic. New students, new parents, new ideas, new build teams, etc. How a team reacts to that change is what starts to separate the good from the great.

If you want to know a secret, using the Chairman's Award as a goal is a great way to organize your team function. Teams that begin to look at that as a goal start to think differently, act differently, organize their team differently, work and plan and look to the future differently. While some will look at that award as being unachievable, others will look and say "that's hard but we need to try".

Good Luck Miss Daisy!