[Rich Kressly]

OK,

Just to clarify any misconceptions, what 71 and 93 did was exactly the same thing 103 and other veterans did in 2002-03. It was the first year of the Chesapeake Regional and we (103) were registered to go, looked at the NASA grant and saw it was primarily for rookies and second year teams. However, it was November of 2002 and we were at Ramp Riot and found out that the number of rookies/second year teams that applied was far less than the number of NASA grants available. With the grant underserved, FIRST was not going to be able to reap the full NASA benefit and we and other vets were encouraged to apply. It's also important to know that 103 applied again in 2004 along with other vets and none of those teams received second year NASA money because more rookies stepped up once the regional and the grants were more well known. My guess is that in 2006, in this new regional's second year, the grants will be fully exhausted by rookies and second year (this year's rookies) teams.

On the second point of why NASA money doesn't transfer between regionals, understand that it's not one "account" the money comes from. NASA Ames is separate from NASA Glenn is separate from NASA ... and so on. The grants are to support individual regionals from individual NASA offices.

Please, before anyone makes any assumptions, spend some time understanding the process. I've had the opportunity to have many conversations with Mike Wade personally about NASA grants and he's been very gracious. I'm sure those NASA officials making decisions elsewhere are doing just as good of a job. And if you still question NASA and its overall commitment, please go to white papers, download my testimonials and read Dave Lavery's detailed description of how their millions are spent on us.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention that if all of the grants at a regional aren't used in a given year, the possibility that NASA management takes that money away for the following year exists. These veterans are most likely ensuring money for 2006 rookies. I'm quite sure that none of us would envy the job of people like Lavery, Wade, and others. We have no clue what it takes for them to convince management for gobs of money in the face of an iffy economy, budget cutbacks, and shuttle trajedies.