[Libby K]

Originally Posted by DarthCoder

We don't have a huge budget or a huge team, but we really want to make it over the hump and go for a championship run next year.

I came here to link Karthik's Effective FIRST Strategies conferences, since it's what our team has used to help evolve ourselves from season to season (I hope his from this year is archived, because it was excellent. WOOF!), but this is the biggest piece of your question that stood out to me.

You'll see this in this presentation, but recognize your limits and work within them. Example: 1923 doesn't have a lot in the way of manufacturing. Nothin' fancy. I've got a bandsaw and a drill press. We have to do pretty much everything COTS. Alright then! Let's roll with that, and do the best we can with what we have. (VersaFrame has helped us immensely this year.)

Here's the Chief post promoting his conference from this Championship - it has links to all of the earlier versions as well. Highly recommend. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...89&postcount=1