[EricH]

My two cents worth:

At college, we have a program, sort of similar to FIRST, called CAMP. CAMP (I forget the full name) has ten competition teams that participate in such events as Baja SAE (formerly Mini Baja), Formula SAE (Mini Indy), SAE Aero Design, Clean Snowmobile, and Human Powered Vehicle. All do well routinely, but the project is not the primary focus.

At this point, you're probably thinking, What did he say?? Well, it's true. the CAMP teams focus more on building the team. Building the team members and building the team as a team. It's no coincidence that the motto for CAMP is "Teams building." Because the focus is on working as a team, the projects do well.

So, you can go out there and win without a team, but what do you learn? Not much. But if you go as a team, even if you don't win, you have learned teamwork and responsibility. You have new friends and old coming together. Get your team together. Get your priorities straight. Get busy having fun. See you on the field.