[Jessica Boucher]

Is it just me, or did we recently take a sharp left into "Off-topic Land"? (No offense, they are excellent arguments, but I don't get the connection to Baker's original post, and if someone can explain it to me I would be happy to listen).

Baker, I think you have your answer already. Through the last few pages of conversation, it seems to be apparent that through this discussion people accept that although we may not completely agree on how teams should be run, there are a lot of different teams out there, and not one is better than the other because their methods (and thus, their priorities) are different. Many people made this point long before I ever thought of posting in here.

I was once asked what business model I thought FIRST was. In my opinion, it is two-fold: HQ in relationship to team leadership is a B2B (Business-to-Business). Just like your local coffee shop buys cups from a supplier, teams are paying for FIRST to give them a kit of parts and a means to inspire their local youth in a unique way (the competitions themselves).
However, team leadership to the students is a B2C (Business-to-Consumer). Just like you buy a cup of coffee from your local coffee shop, the team leadership is providing something to the student that the supplier can not do as effectively on its own - inspiring the student.
Back to the coffee shop example, there is no one way that selling coffee is fulfilling to the shop owner. You have establishments that thrive on product quality, some that focus on profit, others that make money off of ambiance, and even others that have a strong local following. All have different views of success. Similarly, you have teams that consider themselves successful that have varying student-mentor mixes.

So, what does that all mean?

Trust me, I would love to track team statistics to figure out the most effective mix of team aspects and encourage teams to adhere to said guidelines, because it may do a lot towards team retention. But that's not how FIRST works.
FIRST's competitive advantage to the rest of their industry segment is it's openness for innovative thought. FIRST isn't in the curriculum business - they're not promising in January that by May your students on the team will learn A B and C. FIRST is offering team leadership a chance to uniquely inspire their students to go into science or technology-based careers. How does that happen on a team level? It's up to the team leadership to think of the best way for that to happen in their area. And that's (one of the reasons) why FIRST is the Hardest Fun Ever, not only for the students, but for everyone involved.

Why do some teams feel strongly about one method over another? Conditioning. What they are exposed to goes a long way to shape their opinion on the matter. As it has also been shown here, as teams get older, people (and perceptions) change. Part of these changes are because of discussions that increase exposure...discussions just like this one.
All we can really do in terms of this discussion is keep talking about our different perspectives and celebrating that the differences still achieve the same goal.