[Amanda Morrison]

After a day or two to take a deep breath and think back to this weekend, Yes, I do believe there were many issues at the event. But knowing that I could have done something about these issues, and did not, is weighing heavily on my conscience.

Although simply chastising the event as 'poorly run', that generalization is not what I meant to convey. I was most upset by three different areas - volunteer training, arena staff, and the obvious field problems. All of these can be chalked up to issues we all know exist: people aren't perfect, and field issues, well, electronics and software aren't always perfect either. But to categorize the whole event as a disappointment because of isolated incidents... that is a bit of an overstatement.

I realize there were many times when I saw something that could have been fixed - including some of my examples from earlier - but did little to nothing to actually rectify the situation. Instead, I was perfectly happy to take the stance that "something wrong has happened, and so I will feel wronged" instead of "something wrong has happened, and I will fix it to ensure it doesn't happen again". Perhaps we as FIRST participants have taken this stance all too often; we watch the problem and then complain because the problem happened.

I'm now saddened to see the comments that were left after my post, especially regarding arena staff. If one of us had just let someone know about this issue, so much could have been prevented or at least handled accordingly. If we'd just spoken up, so many of us wouldn't have had that bad experience. But I, as much as anyone, am guilty of simply using ChiefDelphi (inappropriately) as a place to vent about these issues instead of actually DOING something about them. It wasn't the right course of action, and I realize now that I've hurt more than I could have ever helped.

Yes, perhaps I was reiterating that this regional was not the smoothest event that occurred last weekend, but venting on ChiefDelphi was not the place to have had this discussion. I have violated my own morals by being content with simply watching things happen instead of proactively assisting with correcting them. I don't plan on letting that happen again.