A List of IRI Thanks
 

IRI was indeed our team's best competition this year. A lot of thanks goes into our (somewhat) success, and there are so many people that have contributed to our progress this year that they are well deserving of more than just a 'thank you'.

Andy Baker - There are so many things that are more than just words, but I will do my best. Andy let us come a day early and work in the aux. gym to get our robot running, and was a constant help throughout the competition. If I needed anything, Andy was right there for us.

Libby & Scott Ritchie, Chris Fultz, and David Kelly - Thank you for pulling off such a great event this year. Even though the amount of teams doubled this year, you managed it with style and grace (and Libby, with only a little bit of craziness :) ).

Teams 71, 447, 461, 494, 222, 1000, 68, 872, and 45 - For bailing us out time and time again. If we needed parts, an extra hand, or just moral support (which we needed a lot of), you were always there. Thank you for your friendship and your wisdom.

Ken Leung - Although you had a hectic week, you pulled this off without a hitch. I know you worked very hard to get everything going on Friday morning, and IRI wouldn't have been as smoothed over without you there.

Josh Hambright - For all of his help and support throughout the whole event. You deserved an award all on your own. Your cheering, advice, and even teasing helped a lot of people keep their sanity this weekend, and it didn't go unappreciated.

Team 980 and Doug Hogg - For our 'even trade' : We gave you some parts, you gave us an entire weekend of help. I really hope that we get to compete with you next year - come back to the midwest!

Great judging, EXCELLENT referees (yes, that also means you, John), and a well-put together event made for a great couple days of competition. Thank you for everything, but most of all, for giving this little team a big second chance.

I'd also like to give cudos to all the people mentioned above, including team 393, the Cyber Blue Parent Crew, all the other Refs who did a great job, the IRI Crew, and all teams who attended. You all, and many many other people all came together to make this great event possible.

Can't wait for next year's IRI :)

I agree. Thanks so much to everyone who made IRI possible. It is arguably one of the most well-run events around and it gets better every year! Also, a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE THANK YOU has to go out to The Prank Monkeys, Team #1020 for bailing me out with a laptop after my computer crashed literally 20 minutes before the Chairman's Award was due!!

Also, for those of you who asked me about getting copies of our Chairman's Award, Andy Baker told me to talk to David Kelly about getting it posted as a download on IndianaFIRST.org

I'll keep you all posted.

Big thanks to teams 234, 45, and 393, and all of those involved in the IRI planning, setup, execution, and clean-up. I can die happy now that I've experienced the IRI. Anybody who wasn't there: try your hardest to get there next year.. it is well worth the drive/flight/bus ride.

Wow i think amanda covered alot of my thanks.

But i definately want to throw a thanks back to her for giving me a place to stay friday night so i didn't have to drive anymore, and for keeping ME sane with her constant encouragement and her great attitude that is an inspiration to everyone

To all the CD'ers who were there, thanks for saying hi and being cool, and thanks for coming to indiana and making our competition even more fun.

To all the teams involved thanks for coming and giving us the chance to compete with you.

To 393, 447, and Metal in Motion, thanks for the shirts:)

Libby Ritchie: Thanks for keeping me laughing and making sure everything was going allright.

To all the crew and people involved, thanks for making sure things went smoothly and thanks for the great music

To my team: Thanks for giving me one last chance to have my 'glory' and get down on the field. Who knows maybe i'll coach some matches for us next year.

Brandon Martus: Thanks for coming down to indiana and doing something rarely done, making ME feel short

71 (Especialy Mr. Noble) thanks for the continued help and support and the assistance with cleaning our brake, and for the laughs and such. 68 (Especialy Bob Evoy) Thank you thank you thank you, for your help cheering, your never ending compassion and help and for just being such a great team! 447 (Especialy Rufus and Kurtis) Thanks for keeping our spirits high and helping us out when we needed it, i always love having our pits next to yours.

Thanks to everyone that did the Go Nuts cheer with us, we always love it when people join in.

And to whoever was using their robot in the AUX gym without a tether whenever we had matches, thanks for making us have to work 10 times harder and appreciate what we did all the more (*jerks*)

No problem. Glad I could help. :D

I will pass it along and thank "Big Mike" for making me feel short. That rarely happens to me too. I got to use all of my favorite tall questions (how tall? basketball? rain earlier? meteor shower? etc). Thanks! ;)

I also wanted to thank everybody that came up to me and introduced themselves to me. I'm really glad I got to meet a good portion of the regular chiefdelphi.com users.

Andy Baker = The best. What is the big deal with that Andy Baker guy? ;)Andy is patient with a great sense of humor. He goes out of his way to help others, whether it be a student with an idea, a robot on the fritz, a mentor with a question. He is an overall good coach, referee, and role model for all. Thanks again for making it a great event.

234,45, 393... Thanks for helping making this off season competition rival season regionals.

Libby and Scott Ritchie were absolutely wonderful. Libby was always willing to help out with any problems,as big as holding the seams of the event together or as small as finding some duct tape. The competition had a certain *magic* about it. :) Thank you, you made it a rewarding experience for all.

Ashlee and Erin Always good for a good laugh, or hug

JVN The Human FIRST encyclopedia ;) always great for conversation

Everyone who came and introduced themselves to me. I met more than a handful of interesting people that I hope to keep in touch with.

I would like to thank everyone that helps to make IRI happen. this is my favorite compition of the year everyone realy makes you feel welcome. Thanks again Andy (the friends of team RUSH)

Andy Baker for giving me a chance to be a referee, and for making things great!

Libby, Scott, and David for doing such a great job and putting on an excellent event. This was, by far, the best competition I've ever been to!

Erin, Ashlee, Chell, Katie, Sara, and Mike for some wonderful singing in the sauna. You know what I'm talking about. You guys were so much fun all weekend! Meeting all of you made me very glad I made the trip down. Special thanks to Chell for taking about 50 of my 155 pictures, and eventually giving my camera back ;)

Paul Copioli and Dan Green for a great job as MC and Announcer, even if you did spend most of your time making fun of us referees. We gave you plenty of "belly checks" to talk about, that's for sure. And Dan, the Raul impression was simply priceless.

JVN for helping me out while I was learning to be a referee, and for some great conversation at 2 AM. Sorry we made you so tired you slept in ;)

Thanks also to all the other great people I met, and all the other people who helped make the IRI a success. I had a great time, and I can't wait to come back next year!

Lets not forget soap 108 and NASA and their awesome job with the webcast.

Webcasts are my friends.
(as I have no means of getting to almost everything)

Ah, Libby Ritchie. She was awesome! She helped me out so much this weekend, and also helped calm me down and keep me sane when I was having "computer issues." What a huge asset to Indiana FIRST!!!

My personal shoutout goes to Libby Ritchie..

She busted her butt the last few weeks before IRI to make everything happen behind the scenes and do the unappreciated work that nobody notices. My email box is flooded because of emails they sent out to the hosts, mostly started by her.

Thanks Libby!!

There are way too many people to thank so I imagine I'm going to miss some.


Cyber Blue Parent Crew They deserve a big thanks! They are responsible for setting up the Hog Roast dinner and working with all the IRI crews. They did a bunch of work and don't get recognized enough for what they do.


Clark and Kyle Gilbert Awesome music with lots of suggestions from me. If you thought the music was too loud blame me, Libby and Scott Ritchie, Paul Copioli, Dan Green and Andy Baker because we all said to turn it up louder!!


Dan Green and Paul Copioli You guys did a hell of a job! It made the competition much more exciting and hilarious when you guys were dogging all over Baker with the "Belly Check's" and just generally making fun of him :p. Nice work, we'd love you have you both back next year!

Judges We had a very prestigious panel of judges with rookies and with people that have been in FIRST for quite some time. Excellent job in selecting great teams for the awards.

Ashlee Snodgrass and Erin Rapacki Crowning DJ Fluck with the flower bouquet during alliance selections was a time to remember!! DJ was so surprised :D

Refs We had all veteran refs this year with exception to Jeff Waegelin, who did an excellent job in his first competition. All those belly checks would have worn me out in no time ;)

Andy Baker I don't know what else I can say, you're just Andy Baker :p.

Wildstang What and excellent idea of having a human player competition! You guys put on a heck of a show and something cool to watch during the dead time between qualification rounds and elimination rounds.

Lawrence North staff Thanks for providing the facility this year and for helping with the setup.

Kenny Ardizzone Kenny came all the way from Florida to represent SOAP at the IRI this year. Having digitized matches will be nice to have and to show people how we run the competition. It looked like for a while that we weren't going to be able to get the webcast going this year but Kenny was able to get it going. Kudos to you and NASA for providing the support. We are now the first out-of-season competiton to have a live webcasted event. We hope to see you back again next year.

Ken Leung It was great to finally meet you for real in person at the IRI and come all the way from Sacramento. With the unfortunate circumstances that came up, you certainly deserve a BIG hand for running the scoring system and setting up all the network and databases. You always try to downplay your what you did, but we certainly wouldn't have had such smooth running matches without you being there. You will always be welcome to come back whenever you would like.

and finally...

Scott and Libby Ritchie They certainly don't get enough credit for what they do for the IRI and IndianaFIRST. It's hard enough for you two to both live in the same house, have different teams, and still manage to be nice to each other. The IRI has grown to what it is today due to the dedication of the Ritchie's. Everything you guys do never goes unappreciated. Keep up the good work!!!


done :]

Like everyone before me, a HUGE thanks to all that helped organize, set up, and run the 2003 IRI. A FIRST class event yet again that will be hard to top.

Thanks to the judges for allowing me to be (I believe) the first person to ever win an award at a FIRST event without actually competing in it (and extra special thanks for the dramatic fashion it was done in...and to Erin for the hug when accepting the award).

Thanks to Paul and Dan for being a great announcing crew. Special thanks to Paul for bringing back the memories of the 2002 IRI finals...but at least you prevented a repeat :D Also special thanks to Dan for the Raul impression...that may very well be the standout moment in my mind.

While on the subject of Raul...and Wildstand...thanks to Team 111 for making me feel so welcome in and around your team. Keep me in mind when you do get tired of that spare robot...and Raul, let me know if you ever do want to throw me in as a human player!

Thanks to the Westside Boiler Invasion #461 for being the best friends a WildBeast could ask for. I really would have loved to drive the bot in competition...maybe another time.

To Team Hammond, for not hurting my father too badly by making him try to perform a cartwheel. Too bad you guys were doing so well in the qaulifying rounds...Sarah and I would have loved to come out of retirement.

To the Prank Monkeys #1020 for making my team look bad! J/K...glad to see your robot finally and see your hardwork pay off in the end.

And to Erin Rapacki, DJ, Jtosh, John, Amanda, Allen, Chris, Waldo, Fernando, and everyone else I have forgotten for making this one of the most memorable tournaments of all time - even without actually competing!

Kev

I have so many things to say about IRI, and so many thanks to give.... Only I don't think posting on this forum is going to be good enough. The friends I made at IRI deserve so much more. So instead, I am going to save the words and emotion up, write them in letters and represent them in the form that I feel will best express how I feel, and send them out.

But I will say this for now...

Thank you, IRI. You changed my life.

From all of us at Team 1022 we would like to thank the IRI crew for putting on a wonderful competition. We would also like to send out a big thank you to team 47 for taking us with them into the finals. It was a great time for our team. We wanted to also thank all the teams that lent us their blue light covers (101, and 1018, i know there is one more but I can't remember sorry). Thanks to the aliens for the lexan. Thanks to the rest of the teams for a great experience:)

Wow, IRI was a lot of fun! Thank you all for inviting me to judge, not laughing at Ashlee and I too much for dressing up as flower children, appreciating our hugs, and enabling me to have the most fun at a FIRST event that I've ever had.

I look forward to coming back next year!!!


ByE

erin

p.s. It was also great to have finally been given the chance to meet many of you in person!

I feel like I'm repeating everyone before me, but...

Andy Baker for letting me volunteer after driving 13 hours so that I could have free food and feel special, and for making me a name tag at the last minute. :)

Libby Ritchie for keeping me smiling and enjoying everything. And for the fantastic organization of IRI.

"Big Mike" for letting countless chiefdelphi users invade your room until ungodly hours of the night.

Team 25 (and especially Cokeley) for reminding me why I stalk you guys (just kidding). And for letting me keep my stuff in your pit and help out a little. And if Cory ever puts that stupid red stocking on his head again...don't even get me started.

The Chiefdelphi regulars: Erin, Jeff, Amanda, Aaron, Rob, "Big Mike," John, Sarah, etc. for making me feel like a part of a community and for the countless laughs and the late hours.

Jeff Waegelin for walking around the hotel and the parking lot with me and Sarah until 2 am whilst we were being extraordinarly goofy and for putting up with me.

All the other volunteers and whoever I forgot for making everything run so smoothly and efficiently so that I could actually watch some matches on Saturday.

Oh yea, I'd like to congratulate/thank Sam Harding for having really, really cool hair :)

I am not going to list everything here, i do not see it fit for all and many of you expect to receive a letter from me. But here is a short list of who i really want to say thanks to...

Libby and Steve Ritchie, David Kelly, Chris Foltz: Thanks for the great event, with out you this event couldn't have been pulled off. You truly are amazing people and in my book, and i hope to work again with you all some time.
Andy Baker: You are one of the best people i have ever met, a true role model. You really made me happy with what you had to say to me, and thanks for the constructive criticism while volunteering, i look forward to the next time our paths cross.

Ken Leung:Ken where do i start, you let me work with you and you put up with me for 3 days whether it was while setting up the system, or it was while you rested and i did the scoring. You are an amazing person and it was truly an honor to sit by your side and work with you as a score keeper, it was not only a learning experience from what you taught me about the system but also just what you didn't know what you taught me. I personally can not thank you enough for the time spent at the scoring table or trying to fix the two button boxes, you are awesome and are another role model. I wish to work again at an event with you, it would be my pleasure.

Team 222: For who did not know this team 222 made special arrangements to make room and take time out of their schedules to work it out for me to go, they took me and roomed me. This is an amazing team on and off the field, for the problems they have overcome and the amazing amount of outreach they have. They may be from the middle of no-wheres (lol) but they are an exemplified team. I thanked each of you before personally, and i would love to work again with you all, cliff the Xplorer is evil (take a look for all who may be confused in the iri photo album for the Ford Explorer from 222)! I had a blast with you all and i hope to go again to another event with you all (take this as my asking of travel next year with you) and also i hope that my team does run with you guys at an event, you guys will always be looked at me as a team I'm welcome on. Also Steve and Cliff thanks for taking your own time out to do the 11 hour drives and to work with your team to get them and me there.

The C.D. Regulars; Katie R., Jeff W., John V.N., Aaron L., Sarah R., Sara from 30, Big Mike, D.J. Fluck, Both Gilberts, Erin R., Alshlee S., Chell, Josh and all others i may have forgot: It was great meeting you all and i had a blast being crew with most of you, it was a great time seeing you and finally placing a face to many screen names and user names, you are true friends and thanks for all who introduced themselves to me...

Refs: Thank you to the not so many of you who took the times out of your schedules and the time away from your teams for being there and doing the belly checks and all the great calls, great job being a ref this past weekend, you all were great and it was a nice time.

Paul and Dan: Thank you for doing the announcing, you made this event a step above many others with great commentating and some impersonations (Dan doing Raul). It was cool seeing both of you again, and next year i just hope that we see both of you again somewheres doing your announcing as a team, your both one of a kind!

Hosting Teams and Cyber Blue Parents: Thank you for taking your time out to organize and make this event a happening. This would not have been what it was with out you all.

Kenny Ardizzone: Thank you for Representing Soap there and to make the web-cast possible. You are great and it was a nice thing for you to travel to IRI to do the web-casting and the archiving.

All other Volunteers and those who i forgot: Thank you for just saying hi or introducing yourself to me, it was also great of you to volunteer here and work to make this whole thing happen. You all deserve a thank you but i just cant go on and on here...

All the Teams: Thanks for coming, this could not have been the event and competition with out all the teams that were there. All the matches i enjoyed and found that you all are awesome people with great team work.

If any of you would like to contact me my aim screen name is Dezdezdez25 and my email address is Dezdezdez25@netscape.net

Yours Truly,
Michael Dessingue

I'd like to thak all six finalists for a really exciting end to a wonderful regional!!!

In Addition to thanking everybody who has all ready been mentioned I would like to thank

Clark Gilbert Without the music selections you made I dont think IRI would have been have the fun it was, great job filling time between the finals matches.

Who can forget the Smurfs' techno remix & the outburst of Spongebob in the middle of IRI?? All I'm complaining of is not having a voice to sing all the great songs played.

Or what about "Sweet Home Indiana"? I got a kick out of that.