AmyBeth330
No offense to those of you on rookie teams, but you don't need to go to the nationals. Enjoy your regional. Get a feel for how the competition works. And if you manage to do well one year, then you'll get to compete against everyone else the next year.
Wooaa, I ABSOLUTELY disagree with that. We are in our fourth season and I still remember the very long nights and lack of success the first two years at the regionals. Had that been all we had to look forward to, then many on our team would have been discouraged and might not have continued (including some of the advisors [not me though]).
It was the first trip to the Nats. that opened our eyes so wide to the possibilities and the inspiration, that they still haven't completley closed. I've spoken to very many teams about their first experience at the Nats and, to a team, they ALL agree that that was a defining moment in their team's development, where they were inspired to do more work, better planning/design and felt that they had a better idea of the "big picture". You can get much of that at a regional, but like it's comparing a new Chevy Lumina to a new BMW, they're in two different leagues.
Denying rookies the right to go to the nats, or basing it on performance alone would KILL this program for many fledgling, underfunded teams. FIRST's National Competition would become a venue for corporate showmanship and we would lose many of the very people we seek to inspire.
!!!!!!PLEASE don't think that way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
