Late Qualifying

[K. Skontrianos]

Personally, I don't care where the nationals are held. In fact, I've been to Florida so many times, that I wouldn't mind seeing something new. What concerns me is how are teams that qualify for the nationals during the season are supposed to prepare for the trip. Besides the enormous money that would need to be gathered quickly, there's a ton of red tape to go through before such a trip could be approved. Just imagine finishing a regional on Saturday and having to fly out Wednesday morning. It comes down to having only 3 days to get ready if you qualified at one of the last regionals. I don't see how something like this is plausible, let alone fair to those teams. Its even worse if the students must pay for part or all of the trip, in which case they could be asked to come up with $500 - 1500 in a few days. Then, of course, shipping for the robot and parts must be arranged. With all these factors and the additional bureacracy that schools dish out, Nationals seem practically impossible. I hope FIRST finds a way around this issue, but judging from what I've seen so far I don't envision anything changing at all. Do any other teams have a plan for this scenario? I'd love to hear it.