I was wondering what other teams do to prepare for competition like get pins, come up with strategy, prepare for chairman award interview “design” pit area, ect.
first of all it’s teams*
We usually make the pins we plan on giving away in the pit, assign roles: safety captain, scouting, pit crew, etc…, set up scouting sheets, and discuss how we want the drive team to interact with each other (how the coach will see what the alliance needs and relay that info to the drivers). Personally, I sleep. Alot. Regionals take a lot out of you.
We have a Halo LAN party at school… 
j/k
We will be doing the same, getting our new team t-shirt design done and get the t-shirts, getting our buttons and freebies together, and trying to convince the rest of the team that we need to all bring light up lightsabers (well thats just me, but we are the “Lasers” so I think a lightsaber is sort of appropriate 
)
NEMO has some hints that might help like “30 Tips for 2007 - Checklist for FRC Post-ship/Pre-competition”
lots of sleep!!! lol
we usually are magically sick the next day after shipping, then we clean up the shop, gather tools, and have a Halo lan party at school (yes we really do) or we play guitar hero, then we sleep…
Spend the next few days relaxing, and getting adjusted to the new pace- no more build!
It’s probable that all of you have reached your melting points as far as pre-ship tension. Let that cool off.
After you’ve all gotten a break from robots, start working on stuff like buttons or other giveaways, and spirit stuff. Organize everything you need for the pits. Get everyone on the team psyched. Tell your principal and all your teachers about the event. Get as many people as you can to come.
Mostly: relax for now, then get geared up!
We usually just take the week off. So this week, for example, there’s no meetings.
Then next week onwards, theres meetings once a week preparing for the compteition, getting uniforms, a bit of administrative work, etc.
A hack circle comes in handy of course 
that and making 2000 bottons to give away with our cool flashing paws
finishing up the pit construction and the stuff we hand out. Then normally sleep and go thought FIRST withdrawals =P It’s been 4 days since i’ve seen our bot and our shop!!! IM SO BORED.
Among the things we have to do before Chesapeake:
-Order T-shirts
-Make more buttons than we have presently, unless there’s some stash I don’t know of in the classroom.
-Do our homework (television appearance is in the works)
-[strike]Extract[/strike] Collect the food money from the kids. (We’re quite lucky to have the district cover travel and lodging.)
-Scout
-Practice driving with Uppercut
-Plot
-Scheme
Yeah. Hackysack does help me calm down. Also, I spend my days until the competition on CD. And if anyone at jersey wants to play hackysack hit me up. But yeah the best thing to do is just relax and get yourself ready for the intesity of the competitions coming up.
To add to Libby’s wisdom -
We start our to-do lists in all the different areas, including travel plans.
Some of the sub-teams are still meeting deadlines and are working towards those.
Each team member has a fundraiser he/she is responsible for researching and/or implementing and this down time can be used for that. For example, we had one during the last week of build for our parents and friends at Taco Cabana. That was one team member’s fundraising contribution to the team. We will have a jewelry making workshop during this time as well. We make jewelry out of nuts and bolts, wire - different things we find and use in the shop.
Students will get back on track with their studies, their sleep cycles - yup, that is important people - and their social lives. Mentors will re-unite with their families.
There will be discussions regarding strategy, the other regional competitions, the robot, traveling as 418 and what that means regarding Gracious Professionalism and attitude.
And, as Libby says, we’ll start gearing up.
And for all those without lives… nothing changes.
Shouldn’t this be one of the the first things you do even before you start building? What I’ve always been taught is that strategy dictates design. Or do you mean strategize against/with opponents or potential alliance partners?
make sure you’ve checked the “team checklist”
Section 3.20
page 19