[Tom I]

First I wanna say that the word choice was very poor, as the term "leveraging" can very easily be conceived as "taking advantage of"

But honestly I do not think the intent was to plot and scheme in some dark back room on the many ways to undermine the FIRST goals and use and abuse FIRST students! It’s really just trying to capitalize on a business opportunity. If you think about it, everything in the kit of parts is in essence an advertisement. Every FIRST team member now recognizes AndyMark, Inc. as a reliable source for FIRST materials because of the useful items they put in the kit of parts. NI has now made a HUGE investment into the kit of parts and FIRST, they should be allowed to use this new advertisement.