I hope your FLL season preparations are moving along nicely! It's definitely a busy time of year! This week's Team Blast is pretty short.
- Team Registration is closing! Make sure you have purchased your FSK and Robot (if you haven't already)
- Tournament Registration Opens soon
- Training is ongoing
- Mats are creased
- Reminders (team size and RDES)
- FLL HQ anticipates Team Registration (at gofll.usfirst.org) will close by Sunday. The US is already closed early. You have already registered your team, but did you also purchase all of your materials at that time? Your team needs a Team Registration, a Robot, AND a Field Setup Kit (FSK) which is the mat and pieces that your robot will interact with on the table.
- If you do NOT have all 3 of those items you
need to go back into the registration system and proceed to the Purchase
Materials area to buy the rest of your products. Once registration
closes on Sunday (or earlier) you will NOT be able to buy these items.
Tournament Registration Opens soon
- Your volunteer Tournament Directors met with me a couple weekends ago and we went through training and discussions.
- Tournament Registration will take place in the coming week or so - it will be communicated in my next team blast and will be posted here on our website under the "Tournament Registration" link.
- Costs, dates, and other specifics vary slightly from tournament to tournament. Make sure you register early to guarantee a spot in your tournament.
- We just had a very successful Kick-Off and Training event with over
300 participants and coaches attending (check out all the presentations
and resources here)
- We have another training event planned for Saturday, October
27th at St. Mildred's Lightbourne School in Oakville. Coaches wishing
to make a presentation should contact me immediately. Training will
include sessions from Basic Coach Orientation for those who are unsure
what's going on, to advanced line following with the robot (and
everything in between). If there's something you want to learn, let me
know and we'll try to make that happen. Registration for the event is
via RSVP email. Information can be found here: http://www.
firstroboticscanada.org/main/? p=4886 - We will also be firing up our Online Coach Training Webinars soon -
keep an eye out for that in your next team blast. They typically take
place in the evenings from 7:30-9:00 on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays and
you participate through your internet connected computer (speakers and
microphone are necessary)
- FLL HQ has ongoing training calls as well and you can find them here: http://firstlegoleague.org/
challenge/teamresources
- the mats come folded in a square box this year (instead of the usual rolled mat)
- they are creased but if you roll it up and put it somewhere warm for a few days (like your car) they tend to smooth out...hair dryers often help as well
- Just a reminder that your team size cannot exceed 10 members, teams larger than that will not be able to receive awards at events, nor qualify for Championship
- Ontario is using the RDES at events this year (Robot Design Executive Summary)...it's a way for your team to communicate with the judges at an event with a formal presentation - more information on the RDES can be found here.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Dave
