[heather]

This is an interesting debate and one I hadn't considered before, this being my first year on the team.

At the NJ regionals we did not exactly save seats, since most of our team sat at a table with laptops which we had set up. However, we did have an area where we dumped all of our coats and such, and where our scouting members sat. On Saturday, some other people from other teams sat in "our" spot, however that was not really an issue, the three scouts who were still in Trenton simply relocated.

I agree with the idea that there should be some kind of coat check in the northern regionals, as on Thursday and Friday our coats likely took up more seats than our team members at any given time (I think on Saturday we just piled them up near our table.

I also have a question about banners... it sounds as if they are not allowed, yet many teams in Trenton had banners hanging up in the general vicinity(sp?) of where they were seated. Is it just the use of banners to exclucively block off seats that is against the rules?

I don't think we can blame teams from wanting to sit together. It is certainly impressive to see the larger teams in a huge mass all cheering.