[Rich Kressly]

Chris,

Without having been there, I'll take a shot at the possibilities since I've helped to staff judges in Philly in the past. My guess is that most teams at your regional got similar feedback (in format) to what you got this year. Obviously the wonderfully detailed response you received last year was great, but it's not always possible for the judges to pull off given the time and resources they have in a given year.

Here are factors that could contribute to the format and amount of feedback you get from judges:
1. The number of judges at the event. Perhaps there weren't as many dedicated to the CA interviews this year.
2. The number of teams submitting a CA entry. If it's more entries and the same amount of time, obviously something has to give.
3. The event week you are competing in. This year the NJ event was week one (last year was week three). Judges can view the entries for their event electronically, but with you being up in the first week, I'd bet a lot of the entries were read for the first time on site in NJ. Wanting to spend a lot of time in interviews and with teams, that would limit the amout of feedback per team that is possible.

Those are all possibilites. I do know for sure, you should NOT feel your team didn't perform as well this year. It's more of the format/limiting factors in a given year. I've heard great things about the growth of 1089. I vividly remember when I attended NJ as a mentor with Team 103 in 2003, that a very excited Sarah Reffler came to our team wanting to know more about the
Chairman's Award process and she consequently spent a good chunk of the morning with two of our team members. 1089 has been making great progress ever since. Keep going and you'll be showing Wayne your medal someday.