[ebarker]

They have people that are pretty good with security and there is a lot that goes on that isn't publicized or flaunted. I'm sure they can get it done smoothly if they do it at all.

FIRST is the sport of the mind and we would like the CMP to be the Olympics of this sport. Unfortunately the CMP doesn't have the prestige or cache of the Olympics and therefore we don't have that same level of security.

For those of you that lived through the Olympics in Atlanta there was miles of chain link fence with barbed wite and thousands of highly trained security personnel with very intimidating arms in a constant swirl around the Olympic Village the campus of Georgia Tech. As much as I'd like the CMP become as large as the Olympics I don't savor the concept of turning it into an armed camp.

For those of you that went to the CMP the spring after 9/11 and if you paid close attention there was a LOT more security blended into the background.

I don't know if the maximum impact comes from the Friday morning opening or Saturday afternoon closing. The press corp would like a Friday thing. The rest of us might like a Saturday thing. We have the stands maximized with attendees and it might make a better 'endcap' as we close the year and look forward to the future. So walking out of the CMP we collectively look toward a future filled with sugarplums and STEM happiness.

There are a lot of reasons for making the event secure as possible, POTUS or not.

There is an excellent long term strategic advantage to having POTUS making a brief appearance at the CMP opening or closing ceremony, or even in the pits. We need this to happen with regularity. Every POTUS should visit at least once in their term.

We just have to step up to the challenge and build into our thinking and planning things like security and bringing in VIPs such as POTUS and other political and corporate leaders. All of these folks are stakeholders in what we love to do and we are going to have to make it happen. I don't mind putting up with a little extra inconvenience.