[Billfred]

If it's any good, I'll throw 1293's story thus far out.

We're one district with three high schools (the furthest two being at least thirty minutes away from each other). Two (Irmo and Dutch Fork) are rivals in EVERYTHING. If there is a contest both enter, it's a rivalry.

The FIRST team this year went marvelously. There wasn't any inter-school quibbling (alright, the odd joke about Dutch Fork engineering--we're human) that I know of. The only thing I noticed was a somewhat disproportionate amount of Irmo and Dutch Fork students. Chapin, our third part, is pretty far away from Irmo (where we built), and amounted for about four students out of some twenty or twenty-five. Of course, Chapin is also a much smaller school, so take that as you will.

But if there's one thing I can tell you about talking to school boards...well, here's the short list.

1) Speak slowly and clearly. They won't approve anything they can't understand.
2) Visual aids help. Pictures, slides, shoot, the robot itself can all be useful. Just make sure you don't drone on too long.
3) Like Chris said, overdose on GP (if that's possible).