**FIRST EMAIL**/Poof-Slinky Information

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Stu Bloom

Thank You FIRST for making this arrangement ... But this should have been completed prior to kickoff and announced at the kickoff, or info included in the manual and/or kit of parts. Teams have already ordered thousands of these balls at much higher cost because we have learned in the past that if you don't act quickly on these types of things you may very well find yourself out in the cold when the global supply is exhausted.

Calm down. The simple reality is that due to many, many considerations some of these deals do not get made until the very last minute (anyone remember how the deal to allow all teams to get the latest version of the MicroChip C compiler last year did not happen until the night before kick-off?), and the information about them may lag a little bit.

FIRST is well aware that the timing of this announcement is problematic, and may put some teams at a financial disadvantage if they placed orders quickly after the kick off. That is why they have been working diligently with Poof-Slinky on behalf of all those teams to make a special arrangement. Teams that made inital 20-ball orders through the Poof-Slinky web site (at $9.00 per ball, for $180) are being contacted to see if they want to modify their orders to a 48-ball order (at $4.00 per ball, for $192). The fact that they were able to work this retroactively on existing orders is an indication of an incredible level of customer support from Poof-Slinky, and a great deal negotiated on our behalf by FIRST and IFI.

-dave