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Thank you Andy.
I have been sitting by for four days watching this tennis match waiting for something positive & FIRST-like to appear. I know from experience that your team and many other of the "grandfathered" teams will earn their way to the Championship Event. For the others that don't earn it, maybe you are just having an off year. If the grandfathers of FIRST haven't earned it in a while, it may be time to circle the wagons.
For those of you that are arguing against them attending, you may be on to something, but just relax, its only a couple of teams.
As for the 2 awards that do get you to the Championship, they are exactly what FIRST is promoting. Chairmans & Engineering Inspiration are great awards that can't just be given to anybody. This keeps teams from getting an award at a regional sponsored by thier team's sponsor just so they can go to the Championship. Nobody likes to see a team win an award they don't deserve just to qualify them.
As for the planning & travel prep, do it ahead of time. You may not be able to buy the tickets and hotel rooms ahead of time, but line them up. Raise the money ahead of time. Last year, we didn't. We won at J&J and I had to tell my team that we couldn't go because we hadn't done any planning for it. If we had planned for it & not won we would be that much farther ahead this year. BTW last year was the first year our team did not attend the Championship in our 4 years. We didn't blame FIRST, we blamed ourselves.
That's my 2 cents.
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