[ebarker]

A lot of great comments and concerns you have made.

As I said, this is a pilot year and I'm expect a bumpy ride regarding manufacturing. Hopefully soon we can nail down some answers. This came together late in the fall and we are still working things out.

Growing this system is going to be challenging for many reasons. We will have to add something the equivalent of a regional a year, ultimately converting to a district system to accommodate any kind of growth at all. Getting all the mentor/teacher/student support systems into place is a big challenge. The money is a big challenge. If all this was easy it would already be done.

We don't want to 'force' anything but respond to growth in a way that increases quality and sustainability.

Every student should have the opportunity to participate in FIRST. Building a system that gives students this opportunity, while increasing quality and sustainability is HUGE challenge.

10-4 on transparency. That will be coming but will take a while.

We are ALL EARS on the MAC. It would be nice to a a fully developed committee to help do this thing.

This effort is being driven out of Kennesaw State University, the 'New U' = KSU + SPSU. The FIRST threads are part of a much larger initiative. Stay tuned, we will get the info out there for public comments and criticisms as soon as we can, which will be a while. Gotta get these pesky holidays out of the way.

Ed