[Madison]

As of this morning, we're attending the Long Island Regional and Nationals. We have a very ambitious faculty, and they'd like to attend one other regional as well. That will probably be NYC as it's nearby, but I'd like to go to UTC.

Like I was saying earlier, Brian, the Long Island regional is maturing, but it's nowhere near the level of the Great Lakes or Midwest regionals. Most of the Long Island teams were spawned in 2000 and are maturing together. There are a few exceptions, like 263, 271, and 514. . . and some others. The biggest competition has always been among visiting teams, though.

The venue is large, I think. . . the only other regional I've been to was J&J Mid-Atlantic in '99. Long Island's venue is much larger, and it's brand spankin' new. It couldn't ever accomodate more than about 40 teams in it's current configuration, though. If they moved some stuff around, we could fit lots of team. . .the pits would just wind up spilling out into the gym some.

On that note. . . Is pit arrangement something mandated by FIRST? Someone suggested that pits be 'mixed up' a bit to allow rookies to mingle with more experienced teams. If it's something FIRST would allow, I'll nag Christina until she pitches it to the lead organizer of the regional.