[RoboMom]

Listen up everyone.
Rookie teams are not eligible for Chairmans.
Some rookie teams are required to submit a Chairman's essay because they receive NASA grants and this is part of the obligation. This entry is then sent to NASA per the instructions in the manual.
Rookies may be interviewed in the pits by judges as part of consideration for Rookie All Star and Rookie Inspiration.
Rookie All Star winner gets a slot at the Championship (but no funding to get there.)
If rookies were interviewed other than in the pits at your regional, this was at the discretion of the local organizing committee and they must have been well staffed.
At the Chesapeake, this was not done since it was fairly frantic getting all the eligible Chairmans teams interviewed since there was a field of eligible 18 teams.
If you are a rookie team, and you prepared a Chairman's essay, you may hand this out in the pits to the judges.
I will work with FIRST to clarify the guidelines next year. I spent a lot of time talking with the rookie teams at Chesapeake about this issue.