NO team social or A/V Board This Year

[MattK]

From FIRTS'S WEBSITE

Dear Teams:

As many of you are aware, challenging economic conditions exist for many companies this year. In fact, some of you have experienced this challenge first-hand with your own team's sponsorship. Unfortunately these same issues have affected many of our sponsors and partners at the event level, which in turn has adversely impacted our ability to raise funds used to cover the cost of several items at some of our regional events.

If these conditions continue, the financial backing required to hold a standard FIRST Robotics Competition will be unavailable. Rather than eliminate these events, FIRST has devised a plan that will allow them to be held while cutting back on two items fully funded by the regional sponsors. These items include the Friday night Team Social and the Audio/Video wall with live action cameras.

Please note this change will not affect registration fees or any other aspects of the competition experience. We are committed to providing you with the same level of competition excellence for which FIRST is known, and which you deserve.

These potentially impacted regionals will be identified shortly and designated as "Streamlined" on the Event List. We assure you that we are working diligently to obtain additional funding for these events; however, it is important you know of this developing situation. We will continue to update you on the status of these events as more information becomes available.

We thank you for your support and understanding during this trying economic period. The good news is the above changes will allow us to continue expanding and reaching additional schools this year, while sparing teams significant travel costs due to cancelled events.

Sincerely,

Bob Hammond
Director, FIRST Robotics Competition