**FIRST EMAIL**/2008 Thank You Letter

[Mark McLeod]

Greetings Teams:

Wow - what a season! We hope you all had as much fun as we did. We were so glad to see returning teams and meet new team leaders, students, volunteers and others. Thank you all for making the Regionals and Championship such stellar events.

As most of you know, one of the challenges FIRST faced this season was dealing with the damages from the tornado that struck Atlanta just one month before the Championship. In true FIRST FRC fashion, however, we successfully tackled the resulting 'real world' conditions. We want to extend our thanks to the GWCC and Georgia Dome staff, the city of Atlanta, and especially to Show Ready Events, who put in many extra hours to ensure the Championship was a success. We also thank Show Ready Events for their expert event management in helping us bring you 41 great Regionals!


We want to also share with you that our highest recognition, the 2008 Chairman’s Award, was awarded to Team 842, Carl Hayden Falcons from Phoenix, AZ. Congratulations "Falcon Robotics! Finally, "kudos" to our fellow FTC and FLL Championship teams who joined us to create a great, global celebration of science and technology. For those of you who did not come to Atlanta or missed the live webcast, you may access portions of the event at http://robotics.nasa.gov/events/2008_frcwebcasts.php

So, we are back at 200 Bedford Street and planning for FRC 2009. We really wish we could give you some hints about next season's game like..... oh, come on now, you know we can't! However, we will be in touch with you over the summer months with updates and important news for '09, so please make sure you can access your email over the summer (i.e., if you have a school account set up as your primary email in TIMS, you may want to change it one you can access over the summer months.) Remember too, you can always check our email archive page located at http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc...t.aspx?id=6616 for updated postings.

Please also check for additional information regarding the New FRC Control System - NI CompactRIO (cRIO)controller which will be posted at http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc...t.aspx?id=8976 <http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=8976>

Finally, Team Forums will be held by Regional Directors in select areas. If your Regional Director is not holding a Team Forum and you would like to submit season feedback, please contact us at frcteams@usfirst.org.

On behalf of FIRST and the FRC staff, we wish you a wonderful summer. We thank you all again for a terrific 2008 season and look forward to having you with us in 2009.

Bill Miller
Director of FRC


Go Teams!