[JaneYoung]

Talon,
It sounds like a trying day. This thread could actually be attached to your other thread. I wanted to offer some food for thought to you. This may be something you can come back to later and think about rather than now when you are still dealing with the frustrations.

Dean Kamen talks a lot about partnerships. FIRST is all about partnerships and you have begun to experience just that. Fed Ex's generosity has been an incredible boon to the FIRST teams, helping us keep down our costs and management of the shipping is not easy.

In your area, it is obvious that the Fed Ex locals have not had to contend with a robot in a crate for something called FIRST that has its own deadline. This is new to them, too. The first couple of times we did this, the Fed Ex truck had to come down an unmarked lane (which is really the entry to our school parking lot) and then continue down the lane past some portables and stop at what seemed a large unfriendly building with no windows and a set-in entryway. Not necessarily easy to navigate/find nor was it welcoming. Now Fed Ex can find us, they know about us, and the system is established. Not only is Fed Ex better at finding us but we are better at communicating where we are and how they are to reach us than we were a few years ago. We have developed our partnership.

Fed Ex has a partnership with FIRST. The partnership is made up of individuals, of people who learn to work together. The first time to do something is usually one of the hardest. Working together in partnership with team members, sponsors, other teams, the list goes on...is a good way to do things in FIRST. But you have to start somewhere. And that's what you guys did. You started. Sorry it was frustrating - it had to be frustrating for the Fed Ex guy, too. It was new to him as well.

Jane