[generalbrando]

I find it to be generally true that many things from FIRST are delayed the first week of build, sometimes more. I can only imagine the amount of work they're doing which is why I'm forgiving and I think you should be, too. You have a kit full of parts, over 1000 teams, 33 regionals and the national event. That takes a lot of time, money, and motivation.

Maybe we can speculate to what went wrong? Maybe it's not FIRST's fault. Maybe they owe us an explanation, but probably not because in the past when they have been able to set up a deal like this ahead of time, they've placed the information in the manual. So it's likely that it was out of their hands.

Regardless of the cause, I empathize with this problem and I know many people think "geeze, when are they going to get their act together?" The fact is that they do. It's the little problems that you notice more than the fact each year FIRST is better and better at avoiding these problems. Did everyone notice how quickly the manual went up? (I know, we're missing the competition field - I'm sure they're still modifying it). All this, despite their expansion. Can you imainge running an organization in which you expand so much on a yearly basis? More teams doesn't just mean more entries in thier database. It means more employees, more regionals, more committees, more sponsors, more volunteers, more phone calls, more e-mails, more engineers, etc, etc.

And I appologize: I don't mean to rant at you, but really the FIRST community. Don't let these little problems sour your love of the great work FIRST does. They've come a long way and if anything they need encouraging words to keep them from putting down their coffee and taking a much-needed nap.