[Tom Line]

Things I liked about the regional:

The volunteers and staff there were personable, and very fun to work with. I asked for a trailer on the practice field and had one in 5 minutes. I can't say enough about the couple ladies running the field (I wish I knew their names).

The access to the field was great - both before and after each day's activities we were able to go out onto the field, get measurements, see how stuff worked. It was nice taking the non-drive guys out to see that, along with some of the mentors.

The Webcast was awesome (Code Red really outdid themselves at this regional!)

The cooperation between teams was great to see. It was also nice to have judges that were slightly more knowledgable about First Robots this year. We were able to have great conversations with them about the robots and even discuss what they'd done in past years. HUGE ++++. Having Joe Johnson come to our pits to discuss control systems was awesome too.

Things I did not like about the regional (and please forgive a bit of my emotion):

The seating needs to be improved. The people who could not find seats ended up standing in front of the people who had seats on the bleachers. Later, one of the (great) volunteers brought chairs over and MADE them sit down. It was nice to finally be able to see again.

The electrical situation was borderline ridiculous. This was the first district for many people. We arrived on time on Thursday, only to find out that the central sections of the pits did not have power. That situation continued for a full hour after the pits opened. After they finally got power up, the electrician came around and told us that we were not allowed to use any plug-in power tools, because extension cords were powering that portion of the pits (and this had evidently been the plan from the beginning of the event???). To top it off, the teams along the outside walls of the venue WERE allowed to use theirs. This was extremely frustrating.

The rules. I don't mean to sound sour-grapes-ish. -See later posts for clarification of what was here-

Other than that, I'd say the District went off very well. Good job done by all, and it was very fun to compete against all the other teams.