Delphi Bankruptcy

[Travis Hoffman]

I think it's a pretty safe bet that most of y'uns don't possess anywhere near the necessary amount of factual information you need to pursue cogent arguments regarding Delphi's financial losses over the past few years, so I propose you all calm down and not waste valuable time and energy needlessly and carelessly debating this topic.

<-- Means I am not upset. Just be cool!

Regarding the restructuring announced today, Koko Ed is right - it's wayyyy too early to speculate on the future of any of the Delphi teams or of any other support Delphi provides to FIRST. In fact, our new CEO (who I happen to respect a great deal) has explicitly asked us not to guess about anything that might happen as a result of this filing, especially in public media forums. I think that course of action is very wise, and I intend to follow it.

I can tell you for a fact that Team 48 will compete in 2006 no matter what. I'll leave it up to Andy Baker, Mike Aubry, and the other Delphi mentors to make any statements regarding their own teams' status for next season, but looking at the registered team lists for all the regional events, I see Delphi teams all over the place. We didn't go anywhere - we're all still here, and we're a resilient bunch. I'm also pretty dang certain ChiefDelphi won't be changing it's name any time soon.

While it would be very unfortunate if any of the Delphi FIRST teams were hurt by this Chapter 11 restructuring, if there was any cause for concern at all, I hope it would be primarily directed toward the well-being of the many Delphi mentors, their families, and their coworkers.

For now, I encourage everyone to use discretion when posting to this thread. Please don't speculate. Remain patient. I'm sure the Delphi mentors who are active on ChiefDelphi will update the community with relevant factual information as soon as it is permissible and prudent to do so. Just remember, Chapter 11 isn't a sign that a corporation is dead; on the contrary, it is a sign that the corporation is very much willing to do whatever it takes to transform itself and improve amid the most difficult of business conditions. Let's all just go about our business as usual and we'll revisit this a bit later down the road.