End of year OSPI Reports are due March 31

It is time to login and complete your mandatory year-end report for your FTC OSPI grant award! 

The person with access to the report will be the one who created the login and submitted the grant application(s). If you are not the primary applicant, please coordinate with the person who does need to submit the report through the grant portal.  

You can log in here: https://webportalapp.com/sp/firstwa_ftc 

This report will be due Mar 31, 2024, for all FTC schools. 

As a reminder, completion of this report is a requirement for eligibility to receive this grant funding in the 2024-25 school year.  

Thank you for your support and for your honest feedback while completing the report. 

 If you have any questions, need help, or feel like you are not able to meet the due date due to extenuating circumstances please contact grants@firstwa.org. 

Every team is invited to submit for the Promote and Compass award

Every team is invited to submit for the Promote and Compass award.

For many of you, the official robot play has ended for the season.  There are two awards that are judged at state, however, that all teams are eligible to submit for, the Promote and Compass Awards.
You can find more information on these awards in the Game Manual Part 1  If your team is interested in submitting for either of these awards, you will need to fill out the submission form by 5 pm Wednesday, January 31st.  You can access the submission form here. You must submit a separate entry for each award.
 
Please note, you do not need to be present to win the award but all teams are welcome to attend our State Championship event at Amazon.  If your team did not qualify and is interested in attending, please contact me. 

Submit a video thank you to the Washington State Legislature

FIRST Washington is hosting a Legislative Day on February 20th at the capitol building, where board members and staff will be advocating for STEAM funding on behalf of FIRST Washington teams. But we need your help! 

Interested in helping out? We need teams from all over the state to submit impactful videos showing the legislature why FIRST Washington programs are important to you! 

Your video does not have to be fancy, and we encourage everyone to get creative! 

But it should include the details below –

1. Your team saying “Thank you to our State Legislators ______ and Governor Inslee for supporting FIRST Washington!”
2. We are FIRST Washington team NAME, NUMBER, from SCHOOL in CITY.
3. What does FIRST Washington mean to us? 
4. Show what your team has been doing this season and how support from the legislature has helped your team. 

The video should be no longer than 5 minutes. Please send a shareable link with the video file to Outreach Manager Adrianna Miller adriannam@firstwa.org by February 14th at 5:00pm.

The email should contain your – Program, team number, team name, school, city. 

It helps if you post your video on your team’s YouTube page and share the link with us, or have it online somewhere. This will be easier for us to show the videos to your legislators. 

Every team is invited to submit for the Promote and Compass award

For Many of you, the official robot play has ended for the season.  There are two awards that are judged at state, however, that all teams are eligible to submit for, the Promote and Compass Awards.  You can find more information on these awards in the Game Manual Part 1  If your team is interested in submitting for either of these awards, you will need to fill out the submission form by 5 pm Wednesday, January 31st.  You can access the submission form here  You must submit a separate entry for each award. 

 Please note, you do not need to be present to win the award but all teams are welcome to attend our State Championship event at Amazon.  If your team did not qualify and is interested in attending, please contact me  

FTC Washington State Championship

We are two weeks away from the FTC Washington State Championship, which will take place at the Amazon Meeting Center in Seattle.

Almost all volunteer positions are filled for this event, but we do have room for a few more Judges! If you’re interested in joining, follow the steps below to sign up. 

Remember, if your team is competing that event, you cannot Judge. If your team did not advance to the Championship, we highly reccomend Judging, as it’s a great way to learn how our highest caliber teams operate. There are only a few spots left, so sign up today!

Judge Role Description:

The primary role of a Judge is to interview teams, and to decide which teams deserve an award based on team interviews, the robot, match play, and the engineering portfolio.  Judges are paired in groups of 2 – 3 to interview a set number of teams before the competition begins as well as interviews in the pit area.

Prerequisite: FIRST experience. BlueVolt training courses. Minimum Age Requirement: 18+ and post high school or equivalent allowed to serve in this role with HQ approval, 21 preferred.

How to  Register as an Event Volunteer:

1. Log in to your FIRST dashboard.

2. Once you’ve logged in, select Volunteer Registration on your Dashboard.

3. Then select Event Volunteering. On Event Filters, pick the program you wish to volunteer with (FTC).

4. Select the event you wish to volunteer at (Washington State Championship – FTC).

5. Under Volunteer Roles, select the role you wish to fill (Judge).

6. For the Dates Available field select all dates. (this is a one day event)

7. Lastly, select the Begin Youth Protection Screening button and follow the prompts to submit your free-of-charge background check. If you’re a coach or registered mentor, you’ve likely already completed this step. 

Advancement from this weekends’ Interleague Events are LIVE!

Congratulations to all teams that competed this weekend, this was a tough challenge and you all rose to the occasion and did a fantastic job! 

32 teams will move on to your State Championship event on February 3rd at the Amazon Meeting Center. Because Watt was postponed, we have advancement for 26 of the 32 teams after this weekend.  

To see which teams advanced, click the button below. 

The Championship event at Amazon is a public event but we do have to do a bit of work ahead of time to make things easier for teams to enter quickly upon arrival. For those teams advancing, watch for an email from me next week with more info. For teams that want to attend just to watch, reach out to me and I can include you in the info I send to our advancing teams. 

FTC Watt Interleague Reschedule

The FTC Watt Interleague was originally supposed to take place last weekend, but was rescheduled due to inclement weather. The event was rescheduled and will take place on Sunday, January 21st at Capitol High School.

If you’re interested in volunteering, please email Marak@firstwa.org.

Scrimmage Opportunity:

Inclement Weather Policy: 

We have been watching the weather and know there is some snow predicted. Please read our Inclement Weather Policy below. It will let you know how we handle inclement weather and where to go to get information on your event. 

Below is our policy (This is also posted at the top of the landing page of firstwa.org) 

Inclement Weather Policy  

The safety of teams and volunteers is extremely important to FIRST Washington. Because we live in such a geographically diverse area and weather can vary greatly, we trust our event hosts to decide whether it is safe to hold an event as well as do what is best in compliance with their respective school district’s policy.  For the same reasons, coaches need to look at the conditions in their area, consider the safety of their participants as well as their school district policy (if affiliated with a school) when deciding if they should attend their scheduled event.  

We do not guarantee that a make-up event will be scheduled if an event is cancelled (though we can certainly look into rescheduling if it is feasible) and if a team chooses not to attend a scheduled event, no additional event will be offered. 

Here is what we have done to make communication as easy as possible. 

• We have put an inclement weather banner at the top of the front page of firstwa.org where you can check the status of your event  
•  IF there is a change to your event, we intend to post it no later than 6:15 am the morning of your event. (Understand, conditions can always change so we will do our best to give as much notice as possible) 

If your event is happening, but your team chooses not to attend, please notify us right away so we can pass the info on to our hosts. 

If you are a coach email Adrienne Collins at acollins@firstwa.org Include your event and team number in the subject line of the email 

If you are a volunteer email Mara Kealey at marak@firstwa.org  Include your event in the subject line of your email.

Make Sure You’re Prepared for Your Event This Weekend!

I hope your team is excited for the event this weekend! Here is what you need to bring to your event: 

• Roster and paper consent forms for anyone not listed on the roster (these need to be brought and turned in at every event you attend 
• Extension cord and power strip for your pits 
• Your engineering portfolio to turn in to the judges  
• Come prepared to be sent to judging right away! 
• Your gracious professionalism and energy!! 

For those of you who are new, Interleague events are a step up from league events. There will be twice as many teams their (2 leagues) AND you will have judging. Come prepared to meet new people, cheer for your team and have a great time! 

Onshape with Kevin

A new series of tutorials are being posted on YouTube about working with Onshape. Starting at the very basics. The following link is to a YouTube Playlist. Videos are being added constantly so be sure to subscribe.

Useful for both FTC and FRC, get a jump start in using CAD for you teams.

FTC Coaches Chat is Tonight at 7:00pm 

On this coaches chat, we will be focusing on Interleague Championship information.  Here are some of the things we will cover: 

• High Level Interleague Schedule (Schedule will vary slightly by event) 
• What the day will look like 
• Judging 
• Interleague Rankings 

Dean’s List Nominations are due Friday, December 15th 

We will once again be having a remote Dean’s List event in January.  Submissions are due December 15th.   

Each team may nominate 2 students for the Dean’s List awards on their dashboard.  For more information on requirements for the Dean’s List Award or how to nominate your students, click here. 

Interleague Event Dates 

We have gone over this in Coaches Chats and posted it in blogs and on our website but I received several questions recently about the Interleauge Events. You can find the dates, locations and which leagues are attending each Interleague on our website here. 

Later this week, teams will receive an email from me with some high level information about their event.  More details will come after the first of the year.