Qualification for Disney in 2003

[Kris Verdeyen]

What is so terrible about the even / odd system that we have now?

Every high school student in America should be afforded the opportunity to participate in FIRST, therefore we don't want to stop forming new teams. There are too many teams now, so not all of them can go to nationals.

The number of teams that go to nationals has been, until this year, limited only by the cost of attending. This is no longer limiting enough.

So why don't we send the top seeds from each regional? Because that is not what FIRST is about. There are teams that, no matter how hard they work, are so limited in resources and support that they'll never rank high enough to qualify. The beauty of this system is that every team gets to go at least once every other year. If a team performs exceptionally, they can go in their off year, otherwise, they don't have to wait long until their next turn to go.

Any system where there is a chance that a team will never get a chance to go to nationals won't get my vote.

The only change I would suggest would be to allow all rookie teams to go. Many rookies wouldn't go anyway, because of financial issues, but the ones that do will be better for the experience.