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FIRST Washington ▸ News ▸ SUPERPOWERED Coach Email Volume 3: 9/6/22 Grants, Dates and More!
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    • SUPERPOWERED Coach Email Volume 3: 9/6/22 Grants, Dates and More!

    Greetings Coaches!

    If you are new to this email this is the place where you will find all of the Washington specific FIRST LEGO League information. Coaches and team administrators in the FIRST system for the SUPERPOWERED 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. 

    I have 6 items for you today:

    1. Boeing Grant Now Open
    2. OSPI grant open
    3. FIRST Washington registration open
    4. Event Dates
    5. First FLL Coaches Chat
    6. New Volunteer Coach Advisor

     

     

    Boeing Grant is Open

    Any team with a Boeing Mentor-

    The Boeing grant opened earlier this month. In order to receive a Boeing sponsorship, a team must have a Boeing employee or retiree who commits to volunteering for the team at least 25 hours over the course of the season. Your Boeing Mentor will be able to go in and submit the grant for your team. The information we have is that the grant should remain open until September 30th which is much later than in prior years.

    OSPI Grant Open!

    Washington public school teams only

    The OSPI grant is open and will close on October 3rd. If you are a Washington public school, be sure to coordinate with the Administrator in your school who is responsible for filling out (or approving) the grant. We learned from OSPI that there were some schools who did not fully fill out the grant in the past few years and therefore were unable to be considered for funding. Be sure to answer all questions completely. Remember FIRST Washington grants show up on your invoice so you will not know what those grants are before the deadline but every team that registers with FIRST Washington by the grant deadline who is interested in a grant will receive funding from FIRST Washington Donors.

     

    FIRST Washington Registration Open

    Our registration form (formerly the FIRST Washington Grant form) is open. Any team planning to compete with FIRST Washington needs to fill out our registration form. If you are interested in receiving a grant, you will need to complete the form prior to September 30. Here is the link to the registration form. https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/03a60a42b743445cbc5cef6c5a74a114

    Event Dates

    FLL Qualifier events will take place the first two weekends in December. I am working on finalizing the event schedule now and hope to have it posted with the event sign up in the next few weeks.

    First Coaches Chat!

    Our first coaches chat of the season will be on September 20th at 7pm!

    Link to follow in next weeks Coaches Blast!

    Introducing our Volunteer Coach Advisor!

    This season I will be helped out by the wonderful Heather Bioren as a Coach Advisor! You are welcome to email her about all things coaching! Here is what Heather has to say about herself on the coach Facebook group! If you have not joined the group yet, here is the link to join-  https://www.facebook.com/groups/FIRST.Washington.FLL 

    Hello! My name is Heather, and I’m volunteering with FirstWA this year as the Coach Advisor, which means I’m available to answer any coaching-related questions from fostering teamwork to preparing for a tournament, and everything in-between. I can be reached through this FB page or email at heatherb@firstwa.org (Please continue to direct any registration, logistics, and participation questions to Jacque at jacqueg@firstwa.org and robot game questions to Kevin at fllheadreferee@firstwa.org ).

    A little about myself: I coached FLL for ten years and like many of you, I started out not knowing anything about FIRST, robots, or programming. Truthfully, technology was not my thing, but I had a nine-year-old son who loved everything robots, so I decided to start a team. Wow was I overwhelmed at first, but I learned a lot along the way and my teams were selected to compete in several international tournaments, including the 2020 and 2022 World Championships in Houston, and I was honored to receive one of the 2022 Coach/Mentor of the Year Awards in Houston. I was counseled by many wise coaches throughout my FLL journey and I’m hoping to be able to do the same for you, so please reach out with any questions.

    In the meantime, I plan to periodically post information on this page that I think will be helpful. The information will be geared towards new coaches, but some of the more experienced coaches might find it helpful too (and, experienced coaches, please feel free to add helpful tips & tricks to the comments below). This first post is a broad overview of FLL Challenge. Other topics will be: The Importance of Core Values & How to Incorporate Them; How to Approach the Innovation Project; How to Approach Robot Design & the Robot Game; How to Prepare for a Tournament. Please let me know if there are other topics that you’d like me to cover.

    High fives to all of you for coaching!

    Please welcome Heather to our team!

     

    Useful Contacts:

    Useful Links:

    * This email is being sent to registered and non registered teams. When team registration closes in late September, I will drop teams that have not registered from this email list

    Jacqueline Grimm

    Program Manager

    FIRST Washington