I just joined a new team, but on my old team, their OI were a set of wings that was worn on the drivers back going up to the field from the pit (pretty cool...) This was reused year to year, except of course for the hole in the front that would continuously get bigger as I continued to create larger and larger Project Boxes full of buttons for the drivers
...
This is totally cool. The idea (I think... maybe up for discussion) that FIRST has is that the OI unit is replaced due to updates, and that modifications are made to controllers to better serve your robot, but if you have a theme or a solid design, you should not be required to change it. I think its kind of like a mascott; you don't change that every year, do you?
Just some thoughts,
Jacob