Pasted below is the latest letter from FIRST. It is self-explanatory.
------------------------------
Greetings Teams:
Many of you may have heard that FIRST will not be holding The Championship at Epcot in 2003. FIRST and Walt Disney World worked diligently to come up with a date that would allow us to return to Epcot but several factors simply worked against us.
We fully intended to announce the date and location of the 2003 Championship today and open registration on Friday, November 15, 2002. Although we have been working diligently to complete arrangements and obtain the very best possible pricing for teams, we have not yet finalized all the details.
We thank you for your continued patience as we complete this process. Our objective is to create an event that meets the high standards achieved in the past. We hope to have the arrangements finalized within two weeks and open registration for The Championship at that time. If it is necessary to extend the registration period for The Championship to give teams sufficient time to register, we will do so.
If you have questions, please e-mail
frcteams@usfirst.org.
Respectfully,
Robert Hammond
Director, Robotics Competition
--------------------------------------
My comments on this:
If teams must contact FIRST, I would suggest that people only contact FIRST through their team leadership at this time. They don't need to be inundated with 1000's of notes from all of us at the same time.
FIRST teams' travel arrangements can wait. I trust that FIRST has a darn good reason(s) for taking the time to make the Championships the best it can be.
So, keep your head... be patient, and let's let FIRST do what they can as we show our gracious professionalism.
Andy B.