**FIRST EMAIL**/Game Pieces Available

[Mark McLeod]

Greetings Teams:

Game pieces for the 2009 FRC Game were chosen with the expectation/understanding that they would be readily available to teams from WalMart. Unfortunately, we recently learned that WalMart decided to discontinue this item. Remaining Orbit Balls are only available through WalMart stores in the US and are not available online.

FIRST will make our surplus of Orbit Balls available for sale to teams through www.logoloc.com/first/ starting noon Eastern Time on Friday, January 9th, 2009.

Orbit Balls will be sold as a set of 3 for $27.00 per set plus shipping and handling. Each team may purchase only one set. (We have limited quantities available. FIRST may allow teams to purchase additional sets in the future, depending on inventory levels. We will notify teams if additional sets become available.) The only color available is orange/purple (moon rocks).

Order soon, when they’re gone, they’re gone.

Go Teams!

[Kims Robot]

:*(

So any chance there are 40 teams that want to come to the Rochester Rally (our Preship Scrimmage)??? (assuming each team brings 3 balls...)

[Kyle]

Its great they are selling the balls now, but only 3?! I don't thing that anyone can properly build and design with only 3 of any game piece. But its better then nothing..

[NorviewsVeteran]

Originally Posted by Kyle

Its great they are selling the balls now, but only 3?! I don't thing that anyone can properly build and design with only 3 of any game piece. But its better then nothing..

4, one came in the kit

[ggoldman]

Instead of worrying about the lack of resources, try looking at it from a different perspective.

When a NASA roboticist designs a gripper to grab onto moon rocks, they do not have many moon rocks available to actually use to test their design. Instead, they know the design specifications of what they will work with. From that they model their situation and perform multiple simulations.

They only have "one round" when they ship off to the moon. We are VERY lucky in the sense that we have access to AT LEAST 3 of the objects we will manipulate.

Take this on as a challenge and don't worry, because in the end everyone will be knowledgeable and inspired after the build season..and that is one of the goals of the competition!

[Akash Rastogi]

[sarcasm]SWEET! 4 WHOLE BALLS! YES![/sarcasm]

Well, remember this isn't FIRST's fault entirely. They did not know of Wal Mart's intentions.

[smurfgirl]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

[sarcasm]SWEET! 4 WHOLE BALLS! YES![/sarcasm]

Are you kidding? It's like... 4 times the fun!

[cabbagekid2]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

[sarcasm]SWEET! 4 WHOLE BALLS! YES![/sarcasm]

Well, remember this isn't FIRST's fault entirely. They did not know of Wal Mart's intentions.

They didn't know of Walmrt's intentions, but you'd think that...FIRST SHOULD BE THE ONE TO LET Walmart know of THEIR intentions to use a ball which is distributed soley by Walmart. Or even check with the manufactuer to see the status of the product.

*sigh* sorry, had to rant

[kgzak]

We found 5 of them at our walmart. Now we have 2 of each ball.

[likeapolygraph]

I think that more than likely you will be dealing with broken orbit balls on the field anyways so you might as well try working with your robot with broken ones as well as unbroken ones...otherwise if you don't want them breaking then just try not to break them. Many of the ones that our team acquired were already broken anyways but we bought as many as we could because we decided not to wait until they were completely unavailable. We decided to deal with broken ones as they come.

[Tom Line]

Originally Posted by cabbagekid2

They didn't know of Walmrt's intentions, but you'd think that...FIRST SHOULD BE THE ONE TO LET Walmart know of THEIR intentions to use a ball which is distributed soley by Walmart. Or even check with the manufactuer to see the status of the product.

*sigh* sorry, had to rant

Can you please show us proof that they did not?

The economy has been changing a bit the last couple months.

[Richard Wallace]

Years ago I probably would have been disturbed all this whining about the shortage of game pieces available for purchase.

Several years of working with inspirational FIRSTers have given me an insight that precludes being disturbed by the whiners. The insight? I KNOW that for every person whining about gamepieces on CD, there are several others out there in the workshops, building GUS Balls, right now.

There are many thousands of FIRSTers who rise to challenges by finding ways to move forward. You can be one of them, or you can whine and make excuses. The choice is yours.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Richard

I KNOW that for every person whining about gamepieces on CD, there are several others out there in the workshops, building GUS Balls, right now.

There are many shining moments that stand out for me during my time as a FIRSTer. The GUS Ball development and white paper that happened so quickly is right there at the top, shining like a star.

[907eyci]

this could be a good fund raising chance here... by the balls and resell them... i no some one is going to do it just when

[Coach Norm]

Originally Posted by Richard

There are many thousands of FIRSTers who rise to challenges by finding ways to move forward. You can be one of them, or you can whine and make excuses. The choice is yours.

Richard,
Thank you for posting and providing the gentle nudge some need to get back focused on what FIRST is about. Do engineers set around complaining about what they do not have? I think not.

In my previous career at my school, I coached athletics for 17 years and heard many times people complain about what the other teams had. It is not hard to look around and identify situations that seem unfair. New teams are at a disadvantage since they do not have the knowledge and experience of veteran teams. Some veteran teams do not have the resources other teams have. Teams are losing sponsorships due to economic times as well as losing mentors due lose of jobs.

Let's focus on what we have and what we can do with what we have.

Never in my coaching career or college athletic career have I experienced what I have in the past year. Generosity, encouragement, help and outright transparency in what makes other teams successful. Where else can you find that?

I reminded by FIRST Mission Statement:

Our mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.

Does complaining about not having Orbit Balls fit with FIRST's Mission statement?

(I know step off my soapbox.)