disaster in israel regional

[DCA Fan]

It saddens me to hear the frustrations of so many participants of the Israeli regional, and in particular reported cases of extremely un-GP behavior on the parts of students and adults alike. I hope that they will be able to re-evalulate their behavior and realize their wrongdoing; we need to remember that this competition is more about the learning experience in build season than it is beating opponents on the field (Kudos to the team who petitioned to keep another team from being disqualified).

That said, I am extremely disheartened by the comments being directed at the staff and crew. As a long time volunteer, I've been through events that have run an hour ahead of schedule to three or four hours behind schedule. All I can say is in both cases, the effort put forward by the field crew is always the same, they are undoubtedly the hardest working volunteers that you will find.

I ask that teams that have faced frustrations and challenges this season to take a breather, collect their thoughts, and send messages to FIRST via your regional committee/regional director. It is important that your say be included in the event analysis. If FIRST is anything like the organization I have come to know in the past nine years, they will work hard to correct it, and I like many others here hope that FIRST will consider hosting a "repeat" event.

I applaud the FIRST Israel staff and volunteers for continuing to push through despite so many set backs. My sympathies go out to the students and mentors who worked so hard for an event that just did not seem to go in anyone's favor.