[Pault]

Yes, this system may not be the greatest. And yes, it will be a race of who has the fastest mouse. And maybe there will be that one guy who just sees free stuff and takes a lot to collect dust on a shelf (but not enough for FIRST to have to question his order). And it would have been really helpful if FIRST could have at least disclosed the quantities that they are starting out with (live updates on quantity would be even better). But FIRST isn't trying to make a big deal out of this. They have some stuff that they don't need anymore. Rather than throw it away, they decided to give it out to teams for free. Appreciate that! They didn't want to go through the huge effort to put some system in place to make sure that everything was fair. They just want to do something nice for the community. And they are even going to be watching to make sure there aren't any extreme abusers (I'm sure they aren't going to stop many orders, only the ones where people are purchasing IR Transmitters and lazy susans by the dozen). So just remember that FIRST didn't have to give out any free stuff at all.

P.S. Most teams drop off of the face of the earth until September, so there shouldn't be as much competition as we think there will be.

P.S.S. This is probably the kind of thing where the lead mentor doesn't have there to do it. A mentor, a student, or even someone that's not on the team could order stuff, have it shipped to the normal place, and if necessary get reimbursed for shipping.