[billw]

I would be among those in favor of keepng this discussion alive. Anything that provides insight into the mysterious workings/decisions of the blackbox called FIRST can only be beneficial IMHO.

My sense is that because APs want to remain APs, they are unlikely to be forthcoming with the reasoning (if they even know) behind many of FIRST's decisions, nor are they likely to raise much objection to the policies as set forth.

Thus, we are left with threads such as this to try and piece the reasoning together ourselves.