[Donut]

Regional Champion. This almost always sounds more impressive to people who don't know the FIRST competition, I'm a very competitive person so I like to win, and to most of the students on our team this is why they are in the robotics club; this is their big project.

We have never had a seperate group for marketing or media stuff on our team (we finally created a media group starting this fall), which means in the past everyone has been involved in the robot building. Now we'll have people who will focus more on animation and website (occasionaly helping with the robot), but our marketing and all of that will still be done by the club as a whole (the brunt of the work is our officer's job). Since everyone on our team is involved with the robot, a Regional Championship will mean something to all of them.

My choice also has something to do with my mentality; when I first joined our robotics team, I cared about building a robot, and one that would perform well. I did not join our robotics team my freshman year with the intention of doing community service and teaching others about technology. After 4 years I do those things now; however I expect everyone who joins our team to have the same attitude I had at least their first year (more likely their 2nd and maybe beyond), and I definitely don't expect most of the members to get as involved with our team as I have become.

To me the competition will always be about how our robot performs. I would be ecstatic for a Regional Chairman's, but I want that Championship more.