I agree that making the penalties called in any given match announced to the public, and to the teams competing more specifically, is important. I remember back in 2005 at the Silicon Valley Regional when one of the dreaded 30 point penalties was called against an alliance going up against 254 and company in the finals. It was a close call for whatever reason (I can't remember the details, I'm pretty sure there is a thread somewhere on CD about it) but the crowd was very upset with call, even booing. Probably one of the biggest displays of negativity at a FIRST event could have been avoided if the penalty was clearly announced to the crowd and all controversiality regarding the call explained.
Also, as driver for my last 2 years on team 114, and human player the two years before that, we made a point of walking into the challenge square, or whatever its called, not to argue penalties, but just to find out what we did. I even remember waiting in line once or twice to talk to the head ref. Simply announcing the penalties would alleviate this problem and make for a smoother event.
In any case, thank you ref's, and all of the other volunteers, for making FIRST possible. I hope improvement can be made, just have they have been (penalty flags, yellow cards, etc.), since I will probably be refereeing next year
Mike C.