**FIRST EMAIL**/Invitation to Beta test the New Control System

[Paul Copioli]

Remember that the judges (I happen to be one of them) will be looking for teams that are willing to actually show (aka hands on) the hardware / software in live workshops much more than the minimum requires. The challenge will be getting to those areas that are far away from the selected sites.

Depending upon the number of controllers allocated, this will be a big challenge. If the teams that are selected have the good of the entire FIRST community in mind, then organizing these workshops in various locations will help eliminate some of this problem.

I envision step by step instructions on various parts of the system (including both hardware and software) that will even help teams that don't attend any workshops at all, because I believe that the attendance rate will be quite low as will the actual submission rate.