[Carolyn Duncan]

I just want to throw some thoughts into the mix. These are in no particular order.
It was mentioned that the people are what make FIRST G-P, that's not neccesarily true. Sure, the people who have been around for years will try to communicate the idea, newbies will get less and less every year until it gets phased out.
As for closing down Epcot for our team party. Disney kept the park open to it's regular guests for an hour after our party started, I believe. And if I'm not mistaken that's what time they normally close, so yes, tey did allow us access to the park "after hours" so to say, but we didn't chase away business. I am not infalible, this info may be wrong.
This idea of odd/even stuff is jsut that. It's wack. For the most part the same people will be competing against each other year after year after year after... get it? Kinda gets old doesn't it, doesn't it? though the random selection last year wasn't the greatest, there was still more chance to play with more teams. There will become groups of oddies and evens who work together and get a huge advantage, maybe like having conferences ie east and west.
If this is only a game we are playing then why does it matter who wins? In this case it matters if you want to go to the Championships. I guess if we're changing the name it should be the odd or even year Champs.
I think the A&E special on us affected the way the brains of FIRST turned. They tried to get people to say they were in it to win etc. Maybe it was a precursor, I don't know.
The bigest point I wanted to make was one that I stated awhile back and everyone ignored it. Why are we, in effect, being punished for completing our homework assignment from Dean? Remember that? He wanted more colleg teams in FIRST. Yeah, he can't say he didn't think he would get this kind of response. He is a celebrity to most FIRSTers, of course we would do whatever we could to complete the assignment.
Oh well, /rant & rave. That's enough for now.