[Al Skierkiewicz]

Back in 1995, my son had joined the TV club at school to follow in Dad's footsteps. I helped out and then in early 96, a robot team had started at my son's school. The team approached the club and told them they needed to do video documentation of the build. So he started shooting and then found out that he might have a shot at going to Disney for the Champs. I assisted with editing and some chaperone duties but never worked on the robot. The next year he abandoned video (thank you!) and started working on the mechanical team. So I took on more chaperone duties covering animation and editing and some shooting. Then the rookie Midwest Regional took place about twenty minutes away. My wife and I attended and somewhere in the middle of the weekend an electrical problem started on the robot. I was called into the pit and have been there ever since. When non-team volunteers were still inspecting, the Midwest Regional didn't have enough inspectors and they kept coming to me asking questions. I mentored the team on robot rules and meeting inspections at the time. Eventually, I was pulled in and then First allowed team volunteers to inspect. That first year I was lead at Midwest and assisted at other events. I was not inspecting officially (didn't arrive until Thursday afternoon) at 2003 Champs but was assigned to help teams that had problems or failed inspection. In 2004 I was asked to be a division lead inspector at champs and somewhere around 2007, First decided they needed someone to point a finger at for Champs and the other three LRIs pointed at me. A few years ago, Russ Beavis decided to step back from leading LRI training and inspection operations to concentrate on his DEKA work. First asked me to take over and gave me the title Chief Robot Inspector. Thanks to Russ for helping me along the way, I couldn't do this job if he hadn't prepared me. Thanks to Frank Merrick who keeps everything going for us at First and thanks to all the people who inspect all year long. They make this one of the most fun things you can do at competitions. I still mentor WildStang electrical students and visit schools who have yet to learn about First programs. I inspect for FTC and Vex tournaments and judge FLL when I can. In my younger (and crazier) days, I mentored as many as 7 FLL teams, WildStang and was an assistant Boy Scout leader all at the same time. I now know you need sometime for sleep and other things like CD where I visit daily.