Re: 2005 IRI Thank you's and Congrats
 

On behalf of Team 1114, I'd like to thank the IRI planning committee and all the teams who attended for providing such a warm reception for your friends from the north. Not for a single moment did we ever feel like outsiders.

To Team 71, we've wanted to work with you guys since Atlanta. I'm glad we finally had the opportunity. I can't wait until we try it again.

Team 25 & Honourary members -- Considering the small group that you brought, it was amazing how many obstacles you were able to overcome.

Team 1305 -- To me, your team is the epitome of class. That's for taking the plunge into the states with us. Let's do it again sometime. See you in Wonderland.

To everyone involved in the Radio Test -- Thanks for turning what should have been a monotonous task into an hour of pure hilarity.

Overall, IRI was just a fantastic time. To those who've never attended, you have to try it. There's just something about the atmosphere that is unparalleled. I can't really explain it, I think it needs to be experienced.

See all of you next year, eh? :)

Re: 2005 IRI Thank you's and Congrats
 

I had some serious fun in Indy (though I haven't gotten lost so much since I've been in Boston. A much easier city to get lost in).
It was great seeing all those FIRSTers and catching up with them particularly Arefin, Tytus and Jane. You guys were great. Also the guys on 25 and 56 (I hope the shaving cream incident blew over. Just remember in FIRST it's always fun til somebody gets billed ;) ).
Thanks to the vent organizers for the event and putting up with me I promise to be more attentive next year (if I don't end up driving all the way to Louisville :rolleyes: ).

Re: 2005 IRI Thank you's and Congrats
 

I would like to echo everything that's already been said about the IRI and the people who help make it one of the best experiences of my robotics year. This event is absolutely wonderful, and it is by far the best bang for your buck you can possibly obtain at a FIRST-related competition. In my experience, your organization, preparation, and execution of every minute detail is rivaled only by the Canadians at the Greater Toronto Regional. The level of volunteer support at these two competitions is just phenomenal, and it is no coincidence that these two events are my favorites.

A few specific thank you's:

FIRST of all, thank you so much to Paul, Scott, and Dan - the three Team 48 students who worked so hard before the trip to upgrade our robot and serve with me as the Delphi E.L.I.T.E. contingent at the event. This was really a "rogue" event for our group - we financed, prepared for, and traveled to the event on our own. Competing as part of a four-person crew instead of the usual 30 or so really was an eye-opening experience. These three kids did an outstanding job getting the robot ready and performing roles they weren't used to performing. Facing much stiffer competition, we eliminated many of our bot's most glaring design problems and greatly improved on our Atlanta performance. We played the game hard with a good mix of defense and improved offense - the Team 48 way, we had a lot of fun, and I can think of no better way for four old Team 48 vets to end the 2005 season together.

A huge thank you to Amanda Morrison and Karthik Kanagasabapathy for serving as 2/3's of Team 48's drive team during the mentors' only round. Amanda, you did an outstanding job - going above and beyond the call of duty to resupply those tetras at the human player station as co-pilot Karthik methodically dropped them over and over (and over and over and over and over) again. But hey, K-man gets an A+ for persistence - we finally did cap that right center goal, bud, and it secured the center row for the alliance. Huzzah! I only wish I could have envisioned this scenario sooner - it would have made for a great comedy act for the Talent Show!

Thank you to Andy Baker and the refs for once again setting the performance standard to which all other refereeing crews should be held. You constant efforts to keep teams in the loop and communicate to everyone in attendance was truly appreciated. You LISTENED to us just as much as you informed.

Thank you to Teams 1114 and 1305 for once again coming down to U.S. turf and showing everyone what Canadian FIRST teams are made of. If only more American teams would return the favor by coming up and competing at Greater Toronto and Waterloo. Ask Karthik or anyone on my team - it's really not that difficult to cross the border to go to these competitions. I think we need to try and balance the flow of teams to competitions in both our nations, because right now, the Canadians are whooping our butts in their efforts to attend events on "unfamiliar" turf.

Finally, my apologies to all of those people I recognized but failed to introduce myself to at the event - I get so caught up in the competition that I often neglect to socialize with people on other teams. In the future, please do not let my team-centric ways get in the way of our introduction - feel free to butt right in and say hi.

Re: 2005 IRI Thank you's and Congrats
 

Tytus and Arefin were very helpful with drying off our robot and WD-40ing the rusty parts, and it is team 116 that should be thanking them, not the other way around! But I don't know why Arefin is so afraid of the photos I took.

And I say ditto on the thanks going out to all of the people who made IRI possible! It was rather a nightmare trip for our team, what with everything that broke down (including Dave's mini-van on the way home which gave us an unwanted night in Ohio) but it's kind of hard to call it a nightmare when it was so much fun!

Heidi

Heidi

Re: 2005 IRI Thank you's and Congrats
 

That should be a smiley!

Re: 2005 IRI Thank you's and Congrats
 

Thanks to everyone for a fantastic event! The IRI is consistently the best event of the year for me and it looks like I'm not alone.

Thanks to all the teams for making life easy for the refs and playing good, clean, Triple Play!

Thanks to Andy Baker and the rest of the refs for making this IRI the most memorable for me yet!

Thanks to all the participants in the talent show for sharing your awesome abilities. I am so jealous!

Thanks to all the talent show judges for providing non-stop hilarity.

Thanks to Amanda for organizing the talent show! Can I book you for my next event??

Thanks to the planning committee for everything, from the competition, to VEX, to the talent show, to the auction, to the food, to the dinner, etc.!

Thanks to everyone involved with the field reset/repair, especially Jerry and Arron - you guys rock!

Thanks to Team 233, The Pink Team, for coming so that I could finally see your beautiful machine in action!

It was great to meet Jerry, Arron, and Ben (amongst many others) in person!

It was great to see countless old friends, especially Jtosh, Katie, and John W.

Thanks to Arron, DJ, and Katie for one of the best dinners on Thursday ever.

Thanks to Paul and Dan for great announcing, as always. Paul, I'm glad you have terrible aim when it comes to small candy!

Finally, congratulations to all scholarship winners, auction winners, and award winners on a job well done!

Kev

P.S. no more exclamation points, I promise!

Re: 2005 IRI Thank you's and Congrats
 

-yea i definately have to thank Greg Needel and Jeremy Roberts for helping our team of only 3 people. we learned some very valuable strategies and scoring methods. without these guys we wouldnt have gotten as far as we did. to think from one nite you guys stayed at our hotel and became awsome coaches for us the next day. so thanks again guys!

-also wanted to thank our partners and teammates from team 71 and 1114 for helping us out with our arm trouble and providing us with tools when needed. Most important of all thanks for picking team 25 as an alliance partner. thanks to karthik(1114) and mr. beatty(71) for stratigizing with us.

-special thanks to team 56 for bringing our robot along and for booking the hotels for us. it was a great competition and one that we are definataly comming back to.

-Jess Jank from 103 for helping us out in the pits and during the qualifying and elimination rounds.

-thanks to corey balint and his dad for generously bringing me and bharat down to Indiana and back.
-and thanks to everyone who competed with us and made our trip a very memorable one.

Re: 2005 IRI Thank you's and Congrats
 

On behalf of Innovation First, myself, and Tony Norman I'd like to congratulate everyone involved in putting on the IRI for a truly fantastic event. We had a great weekend, and really appreciate the hospitality we were shown.

Congratulations especially for the successful Vex competition. We were very impressed by the way it was run, and were excited to see it play out. Special kudos are due to Scott and Rufus from 447 for the hard work they put in on the game itself.

We'd also like to congratulate Lisa Perez, winner of the innaugural IFI-IRI Scholarship. Good Luck in the future Lisa! We were overwhelmed with the quality of the scholarship submissions, and impressed with the candidates. I only hope that next year we can continue to offer a scholarship, and hopefully receive many more applicants!

As some of you may know, Innovation First performed the first "competition conditions' test of a new radio system at the 2005 IRI. We were VERY pleased with the results, and certainly excited to see the system perform well enough that drivers stated "We can't even tell the difference". (This system is being evaluated for possible implementation in 2007.) Special thanks to the IRI organizers for allowing us to perform this test, and to the following teams:

Teams who helped with the morning test:
217, 234, 980, 47, 45, 461

Teams who helped with the evening test:
71, 65, 1114, 217, 269, 469

You've all done us a great service, and we appreciate it.
Hopefully you had a little fun in the process.

IRI continues to be one of the most exceptional FIRST events I've attended. I am excited that Innovation First can play even a small role in the event, and hope we can continue to do so in future years. Again, kudos to all involved.

Take Care,
John

Re: 2005 IRI Thank you's and Congrats
 

One word...WOW!

Each and every year the IRI gets better. 58 teams, a VEX tournament, a talent show, mentor matches, HP competition...what will you come up with for next year?? I can't wait to see!

I would like to personally thank a few people from this year’s IRI...

Andy Baker - thanks for inviting me back to be a ref. Apparently I didn't mess things up too bad last year and you found me worthy of a repeat performance. It is an honor to work with you.

Stu, Josh, Amy, Kevin, Dan, Ben, Jeff - what an awesome reffing crew! It was a privilege to work (WORK?? Okay, it was more like play!) with such a quality group. I hope I get the chance to “work” with all of you again in the future! Best seats in the house belong to us!

Joe, Jeff and Katie - you three are awesome alumni of team 93 and are the role models for others on our team. Many of our current members know you by name only since the stories I tell them about the history of our team usually involve at least one of you! Thanks for reflecting so well on our team - you will always be members of the N.E.W. Apple Corps.

Chris Fultz and Libby Ritchie - along with Andy, you two put toghet one heck of an event! Libby, I don't know how you did it considering all you have been through - you are wonder woman to be sure! Chris, you are the answer man and always right where I could find you. Thanks to all of you and your team of volunteers for a wonderful event.

Lisa Perez - for knowing who I was solely because of these forums. How wild is it that someone knows who you are only because of CD?? Thanks for introducing yourself!

Dan Green and Paul Copioliolioliolioil with backup from Collin Fultz and Ryan Dognaux – great talent on the mics. Ease up on the ref razzing or I’ll see to it that Baker has his own microphone next year so he can defend the herd of zebras on the field.  You guys were fantastic and kept the matches moving and the mood light. I enjoy the banter between all those around the field.

Thanks to all who were there. I may not have seen you or know who you are but I know IRI would not have been the same without you. It’s all about the people!

See you all in 2006!!

Sean