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FLL UNEARTHED Blog: Volume 9

by | Oct 21, 2025 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore, Newsletter

In this weeks Blog-

Invoices need to be secured!

Event Assignments- Are you Ready?

Event Update

 

Make sure you read the entire blog!

Season Info

FLL Challenge Teams– FIRST Washington Invoices need to be secured this week! 

To participate in FIRST Washington Qualifier events:  

  • You must be registered with FIRST HQ (firstinspires)   
  • You can secure your FIRST Washington invoice with at check, credit card or PO from your school (if you are a school affiliated team)

Teams are only assigned to events once this invoice is secured! 

I will need to cancel some events if teams are not paid or secured by the end of the week (10/24)

Event Assignments!

FLL Challenge– I am unable to assign teams that are not fully registered and paid or secured with both FIRST Inspires and FIRST Washington! If teams are not fully registered and secured by the end of the week I may be forced to cancel more events due to lack of teams. Once cancelled, I am unable to add them back, and late registrations will not be accepted due to lack of available space. Please get your team secured by the end of this week!

Are you ready?

Check the links below to verify your teams registrations and payments! 

FLL Challenge?

↓↓↓↓↓↓

Click Here to Check!

FLL Explore?

↓↓↓↓↓↓

Click Here to Check!

Event Update!

I still have a few locations I am waiting on confirmation. The schedule as it stands right now-

FLL Challenge-

1st weekend:

Chimacum (Saturday) Chimacum SD– Cancelled

Issaquah (Saturday & Sunday) Beaver Lake MS

Spokane (Saturday & Sunday) Freeman

Wapato (Saturday & Sunday) Wapato HS

Tacoma 1 (Sunday) Bellarmine Prep

2nd Weekend:

Federal Way (Saturday & Sunday)

Snohomish (Saturday & Sunday)

Issaquah (Sunday) Issaquah HS

Oak Harbor (Sunday) Oak Harbor HS

Olympia (Sunday) Jefferson MS

Tacoma 2 (Sunday) Bellarmine Prep

Still in progress: 

2-3 venues (Shoreline, Seattle and Everett)

FLL Explore-

Snohomish

Oak Harbor

Spokane

I hope to have the rest finalized by the end of this week. Fingers crossed! This is taking longer than usual!

Important Dates & Deadlines

  • Open Now – FIRST Washington Registration
  • December 6/7 – First weekend of Qualifiers
  • December 13/14 – Second weekend of Qualifiers
  • January 24/25 – Semifinals
  • February  1st – Western WA State

More From FLL

FTC DECODE Blog: Volume 10

by | Oct 21, 2025 | FTC, Newsletter

FIRST Washington Invoices need to be secured this week 

To participate in your League events:  

  • You must be registered with FIRST HQ (firstinspires)  – I’m happy to report that all teams are registered with FIRST HQ 
  • You must be registered with FIRST Washington – I’m also happy to report that all teams are registered with FIRST Washington 
  • Your FIRST Washington Invoice must be secured – As of this morning 92 teams still need to secure their invoice. 
  • You can secure your FIRST Washington invoice with at check, credit card or PO from your school (if you are a school affiliated team)’ 

You can check your invoice and payment status here:  https://firstwa.org/ftc-registration/ *** Please not, payment status is updated manually once a day.   

 

 

Coaches Chat last week  

 If you missed the coaches chat last week, you can find the slide decks here:  https://firstwa.org/webinars/     

Unfortunately, we had technical difficulties so we don’t have a recording of last week’s coaches chat. 

 

Important Dates & Deadlines

  • 11-23:  League Events End 
  • 11-20:  FTC Coaches Chat 
  • 12-6 & 12-7:  Feynman & Pasteur League Tournaments 
  • 12-13 & 12-14:  Curie, Wu, Hawking & Tesla League Tournaments 
  • 12-20:  Watt League Tournament 

FRC REBUILT Blog: Volume 10

by | Oct 21, 2025 | FRC, Newsletter

Boeing Grant is open! 

    The grant is open October 20 through November 14th or until all funds are exhausted. If you have a Boeing Mentor, I encourage you all to apply early for 2 reasons: 

    1. To ensure you are allocated funding before it runs out (this happened to many of our FRC teams a few years ago)

       

    2. With the grant opening so late, to ensure your funding has been allocated prior to event registration closing.  When we do invoices, we have to apply grant funding based on how FIRST has applied those funds.  If your Boeing funds don’t show as applied on FIRST’s end when we invoice, they will not show on your FIRST Washington invoice.  You will have to wait until FIRST opens their regrant window and will have to request a regrant to access those funds. 

    Your Boeing Mentor should have access to the grant through an internal system. 

      Next FRC Coaches Chat, 7 PM Thursday, October 23 

      Our next coaches chat is scheduled for this Thursday, October 23 at 7:00 pm.  Please make sure to have one coach attend if possible. 

      We are trying something new this season and will have a guest presenter  October, November and December coaches chats.   

      For this chat, we have asked Emil from 2928 to do a presentation talking about how to become a 501c3 

      I will still be going over critical information during this meeting as well so again, plese make sure to have one adult attend. 

      Click here for the meeting link. 

      Second round of preferencing closes at 9 am Thursday 

      To preference for your second event, both coaches must have passed youth protection screening and signed consents so if you were able to preference during the first round (which all of you were!) Do not change coaches unless your new coach is through screening.   

      A few things to note about your second round of preferencing: 

      • Teams are no longer guaranteed their home event.  If you did not pick your home event during the first round of preferencing, you are no longer guaranteed space at that event. 
      • Just like the first round of preferencing, the window will close next Thursday at 9 am.  You can pick your preferences any time during that window.  I recommend that you make sure you have entered your preferences by Wednesday evening. 

      According to an email from FIRST this morning, most of you have not submitted your preferences for your second event yet.  Don’t wait until the last minute, make sure they are submitted today! 

      Important Dates

      FRC REBUILT Blog: Volume 9

      by | Oct 14, 2025 | FRC, Newsletter

      Second round of preferencing opens at 9 am Thursday 

        To preference for your second event, both coaches must have passed youth protection screening and signed consents so if you were able to preference during the first round (which all of you were!) Do not change coaches unless your new coach is through screening.   

        A few things to note about your second round of preferencing: 

        • Teams are no longer guaranteed their home event.  If you did not pick your home event during the first round of preferencing, you are no longer guaranteed space at that event. 
        • Just like the first round of preferencing, the window will close next Thursday at 9 am.  You can pick your preferences any time during that window.  I recommend that you make sure you have entered your preferences by Wednesday evening. 

          Next FRC Coaches Chat, 7 PM Thursday, October 23 

          Our next coaches chat is scheduled next Thursday, October 24 at 7:00 pm.  Please make sure to have one coach attend if possible. 

          Click here for the meeting link. 

          Important Dates

          FTC DECODE Blog: Volume 9

          by | Oct 13, 2025 | FTC, Newsletter

          Coaches Chat this Thursday (10-16) at 7:00 pm 

          We will be having our next coaches chat this Thursday at 7:00 pm.  On this chat we will be going over how to make sure you are prepared for your first league event.  

          Additionally, our Development team will be giving a fundraising presentation. 

          Please make sure to have at least one adult attend the coaches chat!  Click here for the meeting link. 

           

          Final FTC Leagues have been posted 

          Just in case you missed last Friday’s communication, Final league assignments have been posted here:  https://firstwa.org/ftc-competition-info/  There is a list by team # as well as by league (you will need to scroll to see the entire list) 

          Many of you may have heard from your League Coordinators last Friday.  If you haven’t, you should be hearing from them early this week.  Feel free to email me on Friday if you have not heard from your league coordinator and I will connect you with them. 

          Invoicing and payment  

          Your team must be registered with both FIRST and FIRST Washington to participate in competitions and your FIRST Washington invoice must be secured.  

          We have sent invoices for all of the FTC teams registered with FIRST and FIRST Washington last week.  We will be sending another round of invoices mid-week this week (hopefully our last round)   

          You can check your invoice and payment status here:  https://firstwa.org/ftc-registration/  

          Important Dates & Deadlines

          • 11-23:  League Events End 
          • 11-20:  FTC Coaches Chat 
          • 12-6 & 12-7:  Feynman & Pasteur League Tournaments 
          • 12-13 & 12-14:  Curie, Wu, Hawking & Tesla League Tournaments 
          • 12-20:  Watt League Tournament 

          FLL UNEARTHED Blog: Volume 7

          by | Oct 7, 2025 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore, Newsletter

          In this weeks Blog-

          Registration info!

          Invoices

          Are you Registered?

          Reminder From Finance

          Make sure you read the entire blog!

          Season Info

          Registration Info!

          Reminder- Registration in Washington is a 2 step process! 

          1. Register your team with FIRST Inspires (Team registration fee, Challenge set, Robot- if needed)

          Right now we only have 584 Challenge teams registered and paid with FIRST Inspires.

          2. Register your team with FIRST Washington (Event participation fee- $350)

          Right now we only have 479 Challenge teams registered with FIRST Washington.

          458 Challenge teams have completed both registrations! You guys are doing great! 

          Both of these registrations are required to participate in Washington for both Explore and Challenge. If you plan to participate in FLL Challenge events this season, please make sure both of these registrations are completed asap! 

          Registration and information-

          Challenge– https://firstwa.org/challenge-registration/

          Explore– https://firstwa.org/explore-registration/

           

          Are you registered?

          Check the links below to verify your teams registrations and payments! 

          FLL Challenge?

          ↓↓↓↓↓↓

          Click Here to Check!

          FLL Explore?

          ↓↓↓↓↓↓

          Click Here to Check!

          Invoices

          Invoices for the FIRST Washington FLL Challenge ($350) and FLL Explore ($50) have started to go out.

          The first round of FLL Challenge invoices went out on Friday, the first round of FLL Explore invoices should go out this week.

          They will be emailed out to the person you listed on your FIRST Washington registration under “person who should receive FIRST Washington invoice”

          Invoices are sent out once a week, and payments are updated daily. Check the link above to see your teams status. We have also included the date your invoices were sent- if you are unable to find it and you have a date it was sent, please check any spam or junk folders for an email from ‘accounting@firstwa.org’

          Thanks for your patience!

          A Reminder From the Finance Department :

          Please make sure your team number is clearly included on ALL donations sent on behalf of your team. This includes checks, volunteer matches, and ACH deposits.

          If for any reason a team number cannot be included, it’s essential that you communicate directly with the Finance Department to ensure proper allocation.(accounting@firstwa.org)

          ⚠️ Without a team number, we cannot guarantee that funds will be credited to your team’s booster account.

          Thank you for helping us keep everything organized and accurate!

          Important Dates & Deadlines

          • Open Now – FIRST Washington Registration
          • 10/3 – Invoices begin go out
          • December 6/7 – First weekend of Qualifiers
          • December 13/14 – Second weekend of Qualifiers
          • January 24/25 – Semifinals
          • February  1st – Western WA State

          More From FLL