[Paul Copioli]

This is the last straw for me. This is my last year in FIRST.

Yes. That is what I said. This is my last year in FIRST. It is clear to me that the individuals in FIRST that are making decisions clearly do not care about the teams. I am serious. I truly believe they do not care about the teams.

In St. Louis, Richard informed me that Bill Miller himself personally instructed Richard to contact me and put a halt to my illegal bandsaw. In true Richard fashion, he even stated a rule that prohibits teams from having private "machine shops". This is classic; we had our bandsaw in our trailer packed away. A team approached us and asked us if we had a bandsaw and we said yes. We unpacked the bandsaw for the team and cut their parts (all of about 5 minutes). This was around 8:30am. At 2:30pm we made an announcement to make it available to all teams. Our bandsaw was illegal because we didn't make it available to all teams at 8:30 when we pulled it out (for another team). Needless to say, no one was able to use our bandsaw.

Richard was doing his job and he did it with class and professionalism. I would not have been able to deliver the message in such a way.

In the last 4 years we have brought our mini mill, mini lathe, and bandsaw to every competition. We have machined parts for at least 100 teams over the past years at competitions. In St. Louis, our mini-lathe was busy on Thursday for 8 hours (at least). We only used our lathe for 1 of our parts.

The FIRST society is made up of good people. The lawmakers in FIRST (that is what they are) are not listening to the people. The people have no representation and that is the root cause of the problem.

This rule is ridiculous. This rule is an extreme reaction. This rule is typical of the new FIRST. I am out. I will find a new way to mentor students ....

-Paul