Thank You Championship Inspection Team

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Inspection Team,
I want to thank you all very much for the supreme effort in making inspections finish on time in Atlanta. The other LRI's and I were not sure we could pull this off and make it possible for the teams to participate in the extended match schedule. Your help made it possible and I am very proud to have you as part of the team. I heard a lot of great reports on the quality and speed of the inspection process. I know you worked like crazy people on Wednesday and Thursday but I can assure you that the teams appreciated your efforts and had a great weekend.

I want to give special thanks to my fellow Leads, Ed Sparks, Jeff Pahl and Tristan Lall. Their help and guidance throughout the year makes this a great competition and assists in making the inspection process what it is today. Each one of them participates in multiple events during the season in addition to the Championship and all of us have teams we mentor.

I would also like to thank Tonya Scott and her team of Inspection Managers for the needed assistance in the inspection stations. Although Tonya and some of her people have performed this function in the past, she managed to formalize and perfect the process this year. Without your help we would not have been able to complete our task in time.

Thank you to everyone who wrote and asked if I needed help and thanks to all who responded 'yes' when I pleaded for more inspectors. I know that many of you changed travel plans and sometimes incurred costs above and beyond what you should have. I appreciate your sacrifice more than you know.

I would like to thank Chris Paulik who helped with the draft of the shortened Inspection Checklist and whose folder/paperwork idea we adopted this year. I think it worked very well and I will continue to use it next year at the events I work.

Thanks to Russ Beavis and Frank Merrick for their support of the inspection process. Their help at FIRST is essential in getting info and training to our inspection teams and taking our ideas back to FIRST and the GDC. Thanks for the freedom to get the job done and all the great support we had leading up to the Championship. Thanks to Athena Lemire for filtering through all the email and paperwork and her assistance with training inspectors throughout the season.

Thanks to Kathleen Simpson, Championship Volunteer Coordinator, for the supreme effort of getting the needed inspectors and

Somehow "Thank You" just doesn't seem to cover what I am feeling this morning. You all made my job easier, you got the job done and the teams had a much better weekend because you cared enough to work hard in the background.

To all the teams, thanks for your assistance in making our jobs a little easier. I hope you enjoyed the ability to have additional matches on Thursday.

Thanks,
Al

[jspatz1]

Al, The extra match time made possible by your team's efforts was a quantum leap improvement in the Championships and we thank you and your team for all the effort. It is a simple reality that more matches are a good thing. Not only because they allow the teams to rise or fall in the rankings to their proper level and improve the tournament results, but also because we all built these robot to play, and playing more is great for everyone. I'm proud that my team was able to contribute an inspector to your efforts that helped make this wonderful improvement to the Championships possible.

[Tonya Scott 476]

Believe it or not....today was the first time I read this post...I have been so busy since last April, that I haven't been on Chief Delphi much. Al, it is always awesome to work with the LRI's and everyone that steps up to help. We had an incredible team this year, and somehow succeeded in an almost impossible feat. My Thursday afternoon nap in the inspection station, after the last robot was inspected, was awesome! LOL

What a dream team we have with all of our dedicated volunteers that worked so incredibly hard without many breaks or creature comforts. I can't wait to do it again!

See you all in St. Louis!