I’d like to thank the students and mentors from the 19 teams who attended ConnVex yesterday at the University of Hartford, and the 50+ volunteers who helped staff it - you were all so awesome! I had a good time and hope you all did, too (thanks Steve for playing the Cha Cha Slide just for me!)… Tom Bottiglieri did a great job as emcee and probably has no voice left today :yikes: … A big thanks to our planning committee - Mike Betts, Technical Field Advisor; Paige Rasid, Media/VIP/PR Manager; Kori Kentfield, Volunteer Coordinator; Art Dutra III, Scorekeeper; Art Dutra IV, Webmaster; Joe Mazzone and Greg Caswell from New England FIRST; Ann Lankford from Univ. of Hartford and Brad Lauer, Regional Director. Thanks go out to Dave Goric, Head Referee and his crew; and to Bill Pease, Judge Advisor, and his crew. A special thanks to Mike Sperber for keeping me sane yesterday and reminding me to take the time to enjoy the moment. Thanks to all the FRC teams who stepped up to help at the last minute - 173, 177, 228 and 839. Among the mentors and volunteers at ConnVex we had a Regional Director, two FIRST Senior Mentors, five FIRST AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteers, and faculty, staff and students representing over 10 colleges and universities, all giving up their precious time on a very busy Saturday in December!
T H A N K Y O U ! ! !
You put on a great show. Thank YOU!!!
I want to add my 2 cents worth…
First off, the event was run very well. Kudos to Kathy Kentfield and her crew. Fine job.
Second, as a Judge, I was exposed to all of the teams and their notebooks, interviews etc…Teams–YOU were great!! We had some spirited discussion in the Judges room trying to decide the winners.
A fine job was done by all. 
I want to say thank you to Art and Art especially. But also to Mike, Kathie, and everyone else who had to put up with me running around and asking for fifty things every five seconds. I had a great time!
Hmm… Who wants to see that video of Kathie dancing the Cha-Cha Slide btw?? 
<hides>
Actually she does have something of mine that I left there so I don’t think I can safely release the vid & get it back in one piece! :ahh: 
Just kidding.
Anyways, I had a great time at the first annual ConnVEX and want to congratulate everyone who participated in it from the teams to the volunteers to the staff.
There were many hiccups along the way, but I think the overall crew helped keep Kathie and everyone else sane along the day by helping wherever they could (from last minute room shifts, to room setup, to just chilling during lunch and taking in the event and the greatness as a whole.)
Everyone did there jobs, but also never forgot to have some fun along the way either.
To the ConnVEX planning crew: Give yourselves a big pat on the back.
It was an awesome event!!!
Congratulations!
Here’s to ConnVEX '07!
There’s VIDEO of that??? :eek: Oh well, everyone in FIRST has to do the cha cha slide at least once per season to get it out of their system. Now I can go back to doing it in the privacy of my own car (if you see a red Jeep in CT swerving back and forth don’t worry, it’s just me doing the slide…)!
LOL
What else would you expect me to do with my relatively new camera than take random pics and vid of lots of people showing true FIRST competition spirit by acting crazy and having a good time!!! 
This could lead to a really helpful instructional video – Dancing With NEMO!
Can I try to do the slide with my truck?
Only if you are not transporting our competition fields in it! I forgot to say thank you to Bob for helping us on Friday afternoon/night bring the fields down to Connecticut!