Our subsystem has begun working on the chairman’s award, but we stumbled into an important question that we have, so far, been unable to solve. What is the difference between the submitted essay and the rest of the Executive Summary? 
It seems to us like the summary covers most topics we would expect to find in the essay, so we are puzzled on how to begin. Is it possible we could aquire some help on this matter?
The executive summary is mean to be what it sounds, a summary and the essay is the bulk of your information. If you think of it as the summary is like the back of a book, you are only going to cover those questions that need to be in the summary in brief and then the bulk of the information goes into the essay. The summary is meant to be brief bits of information that you want to lead the judges to read deep down in your essay. Your essay holds the details your summary will lead them to the details.
I hope this helps. If not, please PM me. 
Cassie
Think of the essay as a way to show what your team’s spirit and persona really are. There is no correct or incorrect way to write the essay, as every team is different. I would recommend taking a look at a couple of past winners essays to get a sense of how differently they can be done. For example look at 842’s essay which was written as a creative Diary and 111’s essay which was written as an expository essay one might write for class.
The essay is your chance to shine and really wow the judges, so live it up and show them everything you’ve got!
If you have any questions please PM me, I am always willing to help out.
-Kelli
The executive summary is what you did to be awesome, while the essay is showing judges how and why you’re awesome.
Check out previous team’s essay and executive summary for some ideas. (You can find many on the CD white paper section. MOE’s is at http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1983).
We had always written the essay first, then took the highlights to prepare the Executive Summary. A bulletted list is one way to do this - and it saves words. Other teams may do the opposite.
Important - make sure you read the additional information at http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/awards
This gives more detailed information as to what is required in the Executive Summary and some hints as to what the judges want to see. If you look at MOE’s submission you will see that we took the main points outlined in those instructions and wrote the submission around those.
(I’m sure many teams did this as well, but I can only state what MOE did. Successfully, if I can boast a bit 
)
Following Carol’s lead here are some links.
Here is the link to 842’s : http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2302
WildStang’s submission as well as our powerpoint that we used for the presentation can be found here: http://www.wildstang.org/main/chairmans.php
In addition to the great suggestions and examples above, here is a link to a workshop I’ve done in the past:
http://www.mdfirst.org/images/stories/documents2011/2012_Judging_101.pdf
Some suggestions on page 20. The source of these suggestions is cited on page 18.
Watch the formatting. What looks good to you may come across in a different format when sent. Others can give you suggestions on how to format for submission.
Formatting of the presentation as submitted for the judges is difficult as the submission system strips the formatting and white spaces. This definitely “levels the playing field” as far as formatting and visual clues are concerned, so the quality of the writing is much more important.
I would recommend well constructed paragraphs that are easy to read and flow to hold the judges attention. Avoid long run-on sentences as it is difficult to hold someone’s attention, especially without formatting and spacing. If the paragraphs are kept shorter, at least there are breaks to help make it a bit more readable.
Thank you everyone for all the Chairman’s award Tips!!! everything has been helpful
We have always written our summaries in bullet form and included the most important facts. Like stated above, it can be a broader idea of what your team has done, though we usually use the summaries to relly high light the important things, just so the judges get it multiple times.
We also always have a theme for our essay.
Best of luck! 
Just be aware that when you copy your entry on to the submission form on the website, you may** lose your formatting such as bullets. We always used “bullets” but in reality they were just typed characters: <space>o<space><space>.
Other formatting that may disappear are bold, underlines, tabs, etc.
And also don’t forget there is a character count max. Spaces, periods, are characters and add to the count.
** I say may because it seems to change every year
This is a very good way to put it. You want to write your summary with the basic of what you did and why you should win. The essay explains all of that and adds specifics.
The summary is a series of very specific, focused paragraphs, whilst the essay is a much more open version of the paragraphs. It’s tight promp versus loose propt.