**FIRST EMAIL**/Welcome to the 2005 FRC Season!

[SuperDave]

LAS VEGAS REGIONAL!
SWEET

[Michael Hill]

"We are excited to be returning to Atlanta and have made changes to significantly improve the event. For example, the planned Pit area will be over twice as large as last year and the spectator commute is much shorter."

That will mean a lot to a lot of people. Especially the spectator commute.

[Ali Ahmed]

Alright a Vegas Regional. Unfortunatly it clashes with the SoCal regional. Hmmm.... hard decision. Go to Vegas and pay for hotels, transportation, and stuff but probably have a good time. Or go the SoCal one and pay nothing for lodging and transportation and still have a good time. Very hard decision(im not being sarcastic). And why is there such a long wait between the last set of regionals and the Chamionship?

[Ashley Weed]

Originally Posted by ali_rockon22

And why is there such a long wait between the last set of regionals and the Chamionship?

Easter is normally in there.

Plus shipping time in from so many different locations.

[Jon K.]

Easter weekend is actually during week 4 of regionals this year, as easter falls on the 27th.

[Ashley Weed]

Originally Posted by Jon K.

Easter weekend is actually during week 4 of regionals this year, as easter falls on the 27th.

Wow, my bad, I wasn't expecting that at all. That's a first in FIRST I believe to have competitions through the Easter Holiday. I wonder how it will affect teams choices for Regionals?

[Dorienne]

Let's hope it won't be too much of a problem. *crosses fingers* Seems to me FIRST really had no choice. =(
--Dori

[Kevin Kolodziej]

There have been competitions on Easter weekend before. I think it was in 2002 that we had the Midwest Team Social on Good Friday.

I could be completely wrong though and just remembering the majority of them being during Lent and therefore not being able to eat meat at the socials.

Generally, the schedule looks good to me. I may or may not be able to make it to Nationals this year - it depends on when ASCE/Steel Bridge Regionals are. And if I end up going/volunteering at Midwest, St. Louis, Lafayette, and/or West Michigan...I'm going to miss a lot of Fridays in a row =(

Time will tell I guess!

Kev

[jpsaul7usa]

The qualifying criteria to attend are unchanged from 2004. Please remember the point system for qualifying is no longer in effect.

Wait... what happened to all that discussion over how the new system was going to change for 2005 earlier this summer? Wasn't the 2004 system based on points? ::

[Alex Cormier]

2005 Rochester, New York Finger Lakes Regional!!!! come see our awesome state and regional!

[Joe Matt]

I like the new safety award a lot.

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by JosephM

I like the new safety award a lot.

that does sound very interesting, can anyone explain what the Canadian Regional did that FIRST sought was amazing enough to add to every regional?

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by jpsaul7usa

Wait... what happened to all that discussion over how the new system was going to change for 2005 earlier this summer? Wasn't the 2004 system based on points? ::

No, the 2004 system was not based on points, although teams that earned enough points in 2003 were grandfathered in. The criteria was explicitly stated long before now.



Regionals were held Easter weekend in 2002, as RoboHottie remembers

[Swan217]

Originally Posted by ali_rockon22

And why is there such a long wait between the last set of regionals and the Chamionship?

I figure that the extra time is so that non-prequalifying teams that win regionals in the last week can have more than a week to get transportation/hotels for Nationals.

Originally Posted by robo hottie71

...just remembering the majority of them being during Lent and therefore not being able to eat meat at the socials.

My team always went out to dinner on Fridays during build/postbuild. After about the 10th Friday of Lent that I forgot about, having just finished having another steak dinner (or another nonLenten meal), I established "Robot-Lent" where I moved my non-meat eating to August, so I could not worry about it during Robot season.

[mtaman02]

Originally Posted by Dan Swando

My team always went out to dinner on Fridays during build/postbuild. After about the 10th Friday of Lent that I forgot about, having just finished having another steak dinner (or another nonLenten meal), I established "Robot-Lent" where I moved my non-meat eating to August, so I could not worry about it during Robot season.

He's my Ro-model =) I want to be just like dan. Its hard to not eat meat at a regional during a religious observation. And usually thats the only thing you can find around some not all regional venues. others you would be very lucky to find anything at all such as the J&J Regional venue where you had to walk some distance before finding something decent ------- This goes for when Lent either landed during build period or the start of the competition period