Workshop Request and Quiet Room Deadline is THIS FRIDAY!

I know many teams enjoy hosting workshops at events.  As of right now, only 2 teams have signed up to host a workshop.  The deadline for submitting a workshop request is this Friday, February 7th. So if your team is interested in hosting a workshop, make sure to sign up and submit your slide prior to the deadline! Complete the form via the button below:

Quiet Room

The Quiet Room has been a popular and welcome addition to our events.  We are hoping to continue offering quiet rooms at our events but need help from all of you.  We need to change how our quiet rooms are staff to ensure that the volunteers have gone through youth protection screening so they will now need to sign up as a quiet room volunteer through their dashboard.  The Volunteer Coordinator for the event(s) your team signs up to host, will communicate with your point person to share contact information for the people that volunteer for that role (they should be the people your team is recruiting).  As of right now, we have only had one team sign up to be a quiet room host. Especially with the additional layer of coordination, we will be unable to allow quiet room hosts to sign up at the last minute so please be sure to sign up before the deadline if you are interested in hosting/coordinating the quiet room at one of our events. Complete the form via the button below:

Both forms will close Friday, February 7th and we will not accept submissions after the deadline. 

Event Accommodation Form

This is likely the last time I will send this out in a blog.  Just a reminder, if you have participants on your team that need accommodations, please submit your request via the button below.

We are a small staff. The later you make the accommodation request, the more difficult it is for us to meet your participants needs.  It is important to us that all participants get the best experience possible, but we cannot help your team if we are unaware of accommodation needs! It is extremely difficult to make venue changes when an event has already started, so help us help you! 

Examples of Accommodations: 

• Mobility differences – Maybe your have a mentor that uses a wheelchair or crutches, and you want to confirm the best way for them to navigate the venue.
• Hearing differences – Maybe you have a students who utilize cochlear implants, or students that utilizes an interpreter, and you’d like to discuss how we can better support them! 

We cannot always provide the exact solutions requested, but we will have a better chance of providing support if we know ahead of time!

*The examples above are broad generalizations.

We try to use person-first language, and make general examples so coaches and mentors are more likely to identify that they need to complete this form. We understand that everyone’s abilities are personal and will vary. It is always our intent to refer to individuals as they identify. We thank you for your understanding and hope this form helps us make events more inclusive for all! 

District Event Briefing 2-13 at 7:00 PM

Our District Event Briefing is scheduled for next Thursday, Feb 13 at 7:00 pm.  We will be going over the general details for all of our district events so it is important that you have one adult attend.  

We will be working to ensure the links on the calendar match the links that we are sending out so we don’t have the confusion that we had on our last meeting.

Important Dates

Coaches Chat Recording is Live

You can watch the recording or read the slides from the January Coaches Chat here:

Workshop Request and Quiet Room Deadline is Fast Approaching!

I know many teams enjoy hosting workshops at events.  As of right now, only 1 team has signed up to host a workshop.  The deadline for submitting a workshop request is next Friday so if your team is interested in hosting a workshop, make sure to sign up and submit your slide prior to the deadline! Complete the form via the button below:

Quiet Room

The Quiet Room has been a popular and welcome addition to our events.  We are hoping to continue offering quiet rooms at our events but need help from all of you.  We need to change how our quiet rooms are staff to ensure that the volunteers have gone through youth protection screening so they will now need to sign up as a quiet room volunteer through their dashboard.  The Volunteer Coordinator for the event(s) your team signs up to host, will communicate with your point person to share contact information for the people that volunteer for that role (they should be the people your team is recruiting).  As of right now, we have only had one team sign up to be a quiet room host. Especially with the additional layer of coordination, we will be unable to allow quiet room hosts to sign up at the last minute so please be sure to sign up before the deadline if you are interested in hosting/coordinating the quiet room at one of our events. Complete the form via the button below:

Both forms will close Friday, February 7th and we will not accept submissions after the deadline. 

Event Accommodation Form

This is likely the last time I will send this out in a blog.  Just a reminder, if you have participants on your team that need accommodations, please submit your request via the button below.

We are a small staff. The later you make the accommodation request, the more difficult it is for us to meet your participants needs.  It is important to us that all participants get the best experience possible, but we cannot help your team if we are unaware of accommodation needs! It is extremely difficult to make venue changes when an event has already started, so help us help you! 

Examples of Accommodations: 

• Mobility differences – Maybe your have a mentor that uses a wheelchair or crutches, and you want to confirm the best way for them to navigate the venue.
• Hearing differences – Maybe you have a students who utilize cochlear implants, or students that utilizes an interpreter, and you’d like to discuss how we can better support them! 

We cannot always provide the exact solutions requested, but we will have a better chance of providing support if we know ahead of time!

*The examples above are broad generalizations.

We try to use person-first language, and make general examples so coaches and mentors are more likely to identify that they need to complete this form. We understand that everyone’s abilities are personal and will vary. It is always our intent to refer to individuals as they identify. We thank you for your understanding and hope this form helps us make events more inclusive for all! 

Important Dates

Join the Coaches Chat Tonight at 7:00 pm

The coaches chat is tonight Thursday, January 16th  at 7:00 pm.  Coaches Chats are an opportunity for us to share important information with all of you as well as help you connect with other coaches.  We recommend each team have one coach attend.

During this meeting we will be checking in to see how the build season is going as well as talking about workshops/accommodations/quiet room at events.  This is not the district event briefing, that is in February.

Menstrual Equity

What is Menstrual Equity? 
Menstrual Equity refers to the idea that everyone should be provided access to affordable menstrual hygiene products. M.E. FIRST aims to provide everybody with free pads and tampons at FRC competitions to remove financial barriers related to menstruation.  
 
How to Help? 
Your team can help with this project by signing up as an M.E. FIRST Ambassador to assist in providing menstrual products at your events this season. This includes placing menstrual products in the bathrooms and making care packages for teams to keep with them throughout the event.  

2980 M.E. Ambassador Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdoIRaq-9bk 
If you’re interested please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/NiHepUUbpJP1niZi8 
If you have any questions, please reach out to 2980m.e@gmail.com. 

FIRST Force Scrimmage

Get Your Game On!

The FIRST Force Scrimmage is returning to Corvallis High School in Corvallis, Oregon on Sunday, February 16.  This is a great event to meet teams and their new robots before week 1.  Your team will also have a chance to practice a match as a part of an alliance, test and tune your robot, try out your scouting system, and have a lot of fun.

The cost for the scrimmage is $100.00 per team with fee waivers for 2024 and 2025 rookie teams.  Teams from Oregon and Washington are welcome.  See the links below for registration and details.  The member teams of FIRST Force hope to see you there!

• Registration
• Scrimmage Details

Important Dates

REMINDER: the coaches chat for next Thursday (Dec 19) has been cancelled 

Since our November Coaches meeting got pushed into December, we are cancelling this coaches chat. 

You can view the recording and slides from the 12-5 coaches chat here 

Make sure you are ready for kickoff 

Make sure your PNW FRC Registration is secured before next Friday if you have not yet secured it.  You will not be able to pick up your kickoff kit if your registration is not secured 

1. Print your team roster to take to your kickoff event 
   • All students and mentors in attendance should be listed on the roster and have their online consent forms signed 
   • If someone has not signed their consent form online, you need to bring a paper copy 
   • If someone is not listed on your roster, you will need to handwrite them on the roster and include a paper consent form 
2. Who is allowed to pick up your kickoff kit? 
   • Lead 1 or 2 mentor for the team with photo ID  
   • Any mentor on the team over 18 (you may log in to your FIRST Dashboard as proof) with photo ID  
   • The person over 18 that is listed on the Surrogate Kit Pick-up Letter with photo ID 
3. Surrogate Kit Pick-Up
   • If a team is unable to pick up its Kickoff Kit at the local kickoff selected, an alternate team may be designated to do so. The team unable to attend must be registered to pick up their Kickoff Kit at the local kickoff AND provide FIRST with an authorized surrogate kit pick-up letter, submitted/signed by the lead coach/mentor 1 or 2 or team administrator: 1) Your team number 2) the Kickoff location 3) the name and team number (if applicable) of the surrogate picking up the Kickoff Kit. All surrogate kit pickup letters must be received at FIRST by December 31, 2024. 

Team 360’s 9th Annual Community Strategy Session

Join The Revolution on Sunday, January 6, 2025, at Bellarmine Preparatory School for a day of collaboration and strategic planning. This year, we’ll be strategizing with local FRC teams over the much-anticipated release of the 2025 FIRST Robotics Competition game, Reefscape!

Get ready for a productive session focused on developing strategies and solutions for an exciting season ahead. 

The session will be led by 360 alumni and mentor Jake Dusek, who will guide us through the process and bring invaluable insight to the discussion. 

Time: 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM 
Location: Bellarmine Preparatory School 

Don’t Miss Out: 

✅ RSVP Now! Email business@frc360.com to let us know how many people you’re bringing. 
✅ Be Prepared: Review the rules, bring your iPad or laptop, and be ready to take notes and share ideas. 
✅ Bring a Snack: Share a snack with the group and help keep the energy flowing! 

We look forward to working together and making the 2025 season a success! 

Thank YOU for supporting your fellow FIRST Programs!

Thank you to all the FRC teams, students, coaches, mentors and parents who volunteered to support FLL Challenge and FTC competitions this season. Whether you were a Judge, a Referee, a Field Resetter… or maybe a coffee runner for a busy Site Host, attepmting to solve a power outage (yes, this did happen at multiple events!) – Your time and care was an integeral piece to making a memorable experience for our students. 

We could not support all these new teams without YOU! We had 55 FLL Challenge and FTC competitions in Between October – December… And we’ve got 10 more Semifinals and Championship events in the new year.

As we continue to see team growth in FLL and FTC, we try to grow our event volunteer base alongside so all these awesome new teams can have an amazing experience when they get to competitions.

If your team is looking for community outreach initatives, its not too late! Consider signing up to support an FLL Challenge or FTC event near you!

You can always reach out to us if you want more guidence about how to help out. Email Mara Kealey at marak@firstwa.org.

Volunteer Roles Needed: (both programs)

• Referees
• Judges
• Queuers
• Field Resetters
• Scorekeepers

Important Dates

Invoices Went Out Last Week!

Just want to make sure everyone is aware that invoices were emailed to the contact designated on the PNW FRC Registration form on November 26.  The invoices come from our accounting software Aplos and often end up in people’s spam folder.  

If you did not receive an invoice, please…

1. Check your spam folder 
2. Send me an email (acollins@firstwa.org) with your team number and I can confirm who the invoice was supposed to be sent to and if needed, help you get a copy re-sent. 

Fundraising for your team

Many of you have booster accounts with us and either have fundraising links set up (through give lively, benevity, etc…).

It is imperative that you make sure your team number gets put on any and all donations we receive whether by check or electronically.  We support over 1000 teams and many of them have booster accounts.  We have NO WAY of knowing a donation from James Smith should go to your team unless they tell us your team number (not your team name or school name or coach name or mentor name or student name or parent name – hopefully you are getting the point). 

We are a VERY small staff to support all teams in the PNW and Washington… and when we have to take time to chase down donations, it prevents us from doing the work necessary to support all of you!

If your team number is not listed on your donation, you are at risk of those funds not being deposited into your booster account. We just have no way of knowing how to contact the donor or who the funds are for… and it is not our responsibility. 

Please make sure your instructions to your sponsors are clear when it comes to making donations to your FIRST Washington booster account.

FIRST Washington is not responsible for donations not getting deposited due to lack of documentation from donors. That is YOUR responsibility to correct.

Help US help YOU! 🙂

The November Coaches Chat will take place on Thursday, December  5th at 7:00 pm

The November Coaches Chat was rescheduled due to much of Washington state losing power in November. It is scheduled for Thursday, December 5th at 7:00 pm.  Coaches chats are an opportunity for use to share important information with all of you as well as help you connect with other coaches.  We recommend each team have one coach attend.

We Want YOUR Feedback! 

FIRST Washington strives to support coaches in building sustainable and supported teams. We’d love to hear from you how we’re doing.

Please take time to fill out the survey below to let us know how prepared you feel for the upcoming season and how you feel about your team’s sustainability.

The survey is anonymous and will not collect your name/email or team number. All questions are optional, and any that you complete will help. Thank you for supporting an improved experience for all teams! 

Volunteer with FTC or FLL!

We have 27 FTC and FLL Challenge events in December alone, and we need over 1,400 volunteers to run them! Please organize your team to register today! Volunteering at FLL and FTC events is NUMBER ONE way your team can support FIRST growth in your community, and you’ll have a blast doing it! 

For coaches and mentors, Judging or Refereeing is a great local team netoworking opportunity. And for FRC Students, volunteering in any role is a great way to work towards any service hour requirements for graduation.

If there is an FLL or FTC event in your school district and your team isn’t already supporting it, please consider mobilizing your team to help out! We understand this time of year is busy, but many of our FLL and FTC hosts depend on FRC teams to help fulfill volunteer roles. 

You can always reach out to us if you want more guidence about how to help out. Email Mara Kealey at marak@firstwa.org.

Volunteer Roles Needed: (both programs)

• Referees
• Judges
• Queuers
• Field Resetters
• Scorekeepers

Important Dates