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I feel that all members on a team should have the experiance to go to nationals once, if not twice during their high school years. Nationals isn't all about competing. FIRST isn't that.
It is hard to try to explain to first year or now even second year members the feelings associated with Nationals. The environment is awesome. Only one other team member other than myself has been lucky enough to attend 2 nationals, only six more got to attend the one in 2002 - this on a team of currently 39 students. Through nationals - if not the other regionals people get to connect. I met some of my closest FIRST friends thanks to nationals, and I hope my younger team members will get to experiance that too.
Not every team is going to be as good as the others. Not every team is going to have a good design, creativity, spirit and such. Some teams are lucky if they can get 5 students to be active. Should those 5 students be not allowed to experience Nationals even though that lack in the award areas?
Even if a team doesn't get to compete, maybe, allow for all teams that want to go to be able to at least come and watch the event, with special packages available from FIRST.
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