I recieved an email yesterday (6/22) and sent out this letter today:
The Beantown Blitz committee regrets to inform you that due to unforeseen complications concerning Northeastern University’s semester conversion, and recently discovered scheduling conflicts within the University and the venue; that the Beantown Blitz will be postponed until 2004.
I am certain that this is a shock and disappointment to you, as it is to myself. For many years NEU has been using the Quarter System for scheduling. The school will be changing to Semesters during ’03 – ’04 academic year, a task that requires a lot of manpower to handle all the issues that arise. Although we made very well to see beyond these issues and organize the Beantown Blitz… too much risk has evolved, and we feel it best to postpone the event to next year.
We apologize for any inconvenience and I, myself, am whole-heartily remorseful and frustrated because so many talented teams did get back to me to register for the Blitz. I ask you to please refrain from sending in your deposit check or furthering any travel arrangements. If you have already sent in your registration, your check will be returned to the team’s main contact immediately.
I hope your team will not be deterred from participating in the Beantown Blitz next year, and that interest will remain. We are dedicated to making this one of the best off-season competitions around, and this year we felt that there was too much of a chance to fall short of our promise.
If at all possible… I would like to know what time(s) of year would be good for your team to attend this off-season event in case we do not schedule it for mid-August again. Your feedback is important to us, as well as any other ideas that you may have.
Once again, we are very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. I hope you understand our viewpoint, and I look forward to meeting with you and your team at future FIRST events.
Sincerely,
Erin Rapacki
Beantown Blitz Coordinator
erapacki@coe.neu.edu
erin.rapacki@hs.utc.com