[KathieK]

I enjoyed being part of the 2005 FIRST Conference, and really appreciated those of you who attended the sessions I was presenting at. However I will suggest to FIRST a different schedule to follow (PM me if you have any suggestions) since I missed Opening Ceremonies on Friday - including missing seeing the mascot I spent so much time making in the parade, missed the awards that were given, missed seeing the scholarship winners, the Regional CA winners and missed the National Anthem. I think Opening Ceremonies should be done at the beginning of Thursday since that is the true opening of the event. And we expected that some awards would be given out on Friday evening as they are at the Regionals. Consistency would help a lot.
The Closing ceremonies were tedious after a long, long day and we could not hear much of what was being said where we ended up sitting - in the far top corner of Curie - despite calling down to the floor to see if the sound guys could adjust the volume/clarity. Several times we turned to one another and had to ask, "What was that award for???" and "Who got it???" The teams who are competing in the Finals and the teams who are winning these awards deserve better!
If we have grown so much then we need to either add another division so that fewer teams are playing on each, and so they end the matches earlier; or expand the Event to start on Wednesday with pits opening Wed morning and practice rounds starting in the afternoon so that matches could start after lunch on Thursday, finish by Friday, have the finals on Saturday morning and the ceremonies and wrap party in the afternoon/evening. I know, the costs would be enormous to all teams if the Event were expanded. Or maybe SHRINK the Event by making it a true CHAMPIONSHIP where you have to qualify in order to attend. No easy solutions...

Please move the Hall of Fame out where it is more accessible to all - I never got a chance to view it because it took me so long to get from one venue to the other that I didn't have any "leisure" time - walking from Archimedes all over to the other building where the pits were and then the walk to Gate C and to go back took a long time. Or open the other Gates for those of us in the far corners of the Dome! Going to the pits, Vex, FLL, LogoLoc store, conference sessions or Hall of Fame was difficult for the people on our team who had difficulty walking to begin with!

Safety glasses were not being worn by many of the spectators visiting the Archimedes field. I was going to speak to someone about it when I realized there were so many glasses-less people that it was simply not being enforced. And why were so many people allowed down there in the first place?