Freight Frenzy Coach Email Volume 4: 9/7/21 – General event Schedule for the season.
Greetings Coaches & Mentors!
If you are new to this email this is the place where you will find all of the Washington specific FIRST Tech Challenge information. Coaches in the FIRST system for the FREIGHT FRENZY season will be added weekly. Every email from me will be numbered and that number lets you know which update it is, if you miss an update you can find it on our website.
Here are the updates I have for you today.
- FTC Kickoff – Saturday, Sept 18! Please let us know if you plan to attend
- FTC Virtual Pits/Social night Sept 15
- FIRST Washington Registration is open
- General FTC Schedule for the season
- Schedule for FTC Tuesday’s with Kevin
FTC Kickoff – Saturday, Sept 18! In person and remote options available
In Person Kickoff
As of today, no one has registered for the in person kickoff. So we can plan, could those planning to attend register with preliminary numbers this week? We will give you an opportunity to adjust your numbers the week of.
We are so excited to be able to start hosting in person events again! Our FIRST in-person event (since March of 2020) will be our FTC Kickoff event at Auburn High School!!!
Once again, flexibility will be key this year but we want you all to know that our highest goal for all our programs this year will be to hold in-person events and at this time, that is the direction we are moving. We will still have remote options available, however so we can include anyone (volunteer or team) that would like to participate.
Our in person kickoff will be at:
Auburn High School
702 4th St NE
Auburn, WA 98002
Here is the agenda for the day:
8:15 am – Doors open for 1 coach/mentor to enter and check in teams
8:45ish am – Teams enter building
9:00 am – Kickoff presentation
9:30 am – Q&A at the field
10:00 am – Workshop sessions begin
We may have a second set of workshops at 11, it will depend on event attendance
Because safety is our highest concern, we will have some additional requirements for kickoff at Auburn HS:
- All teams attending will need to fill out the registration form (Link below) by Sept 13
- Attendance will be limited to participants only. Each team may have 1 coach/mentor for every for students attending
- For contact tracing, All members attending must be registered. Please fill out the registration form (link below) no later than Monday, Sept 13 so we can communicate with attending teams directly as to how to finalize registration prior to Sept 18.
- Masks will be required for all participants
- Vaccines will not be required for adults but it is preferred that adults are vaccinated
Remote Kickoff
You will be able to watch the kickoff presentation remotely at 9:00 am pst by going to the FTC Program page of firstinspires.org
From 2:00 – 4:30 pm Saturday afternoon, we will be holding a remote event on zoom that will include a Q&A session as well as workshop sessions. Even if you attend the in person event, feel free to join us remotely as well. Click here to join on Zoom.
Please fill out this registration form whether you plan to attend the in person or remote event. If attending in person, have it filled out no later than Monday, Sept 13.
FTC Virtual Pits and social night, 7:00 pm Sept 15
We are so excited for the season to start and want to see all of you so we have planned a fun social night (with maybe just a bit of pit surfing!) to say hi to all of our FTC friends and help you reconnect and get excited for the season. Click here to join the fun!
FIRST Washington Registration is Open!!
We have shifted gears a bit and changed our FIRST Washington Grant form to a FIRST Washington Registration form. We will still offer grants and there is a spot on the form where you can choose to be considered for a grant. It is important to capture certain demographic for all of our teams so we can continue to raise funds to support our teams as well as our programs which means we need everyone to fill out the registration form. This form will not close but we will be placing teams into leagues the beginning of October, so those who register later in the season will be placed in the closest league with availability (which may not be the closest league to them) Click here to access the FW Registration form.
General FTC Event Schedule for the 2021/22 Season
Teams will get more info after they are placed into leagues mid October but for planning purposes, I want to give you the event weekends now.
1st set of league events: Nov 12-14
2nd set of league events: Dec 10-12
Interleague Championships: Jan 15 & 16
State: TBD
For new teams, you will compete in 2 league events (each event is a single day, your League Coordinator will let you know which day your events are each weekend) & 1 Interleague Championship event. Those that qualify will move on to the State Championship event the end of Jan/beginning of Feb.
FTC Tuesday’s With Kevin
This year Kevin is plans to organize various topics for his Tuesday afternoon workshops and we plan to post those topics and descriptions at the end of our regular team blast. Here is the information for the next two Tuesday’s with Kevin!
9-14: Come listen to Mike Magruder who will talk about source code control. Come learn how your team can use git & github to make your programming efforts more efficient & safe.
Who should attend: Your Programming team or students who want to learn about programming. No experience needed!
9-21: Kevin will be talking about how your team can use onshape CAD to design your robot. Onshape works very well with groups of students sharing CAD files. Come find out how it can work for you.
Who should attend: Your design & CAD team or anyone who wants to learn how to use Onsape to CAD. No experience needed!
Have a great week everyone!
Kevin Emery
FTC Program Delivery Partner
FIRST Washington
Adrienne Rime
Director of Programs
FIRST Washington