FRC REBUILT Blog: Volume 15

Urgent!!  Volunteers needed for events the next two weekends! 

    We are still in need of volunteers for our FLL Qualifiers happening in December! We are especially in need of adults to fill judging rolesIf you are a coach or mentor, judging at an event other than where your students are competing is an amazing way to learn about the process and how to coach your students on exactly what they need to do in their presentation to judges.  

     

    We also need students in various roles – referee, scorekeeper, queuer, and field reset. This is a great way for students to meet their volunteer hour requirement! Here are the events with the greatest need: 

     

    December 6: Beaver Lake, Everett, Seattle, Spokane, and Wapato 

    December 7: Everett, Seattle, Spokane, and Wapato 

    December 13: Federal Way and Shoreline 

    December 14: Federal Way, Shoreline, Tacoma, Oak Harbor, and Olympia 

     

    If you are able to help, click here to find an event near you: Search Event 

    Invoices have been sent 

    Invoices were sent to the contact listed on the FIRST Washington registration form on Friday, 11-21.  If you did not receive an invoice, please reach out to our finance department at accounting@firstwa.org. 

    Reminder, the deadline to secure your registration is Friday, December 12.  You can secure your registration with a PO or by paying with a check or credit card. 

     

    Slides and recording from the November 18 coaches chat have been posted 

    If you missed the coaches chat (which most of you did because it was VERY lightly attended 😊 ) be sure to check out the slides and recording here:  https://firstwa.org/webinars/  Remember, you are responsible to know this information. 

    Workshops/Quiet Room at events 

    Workshops 

    Workshops are great at events but take extra work.  If you are interested in hosting a workshop, please fill out this form The deadline to submit for a workshop is February 6. 

    Quiet Room 

    We had lots of people asking us about quiet rooms last year.  FIRST Washington is unable to manage quiet room sign ups at events.  Volunteers do need to sign up for the role through their firstinspires dashboard to make sure they have passed youth protection screening.  Many adults enjoy taking a shift in the quiet room to give them a break from the noise and craziness of the event! 

    Please consider hosting the quiet room, we are happy to work with you and give you contact info for the folks to sign up.  Fill out this form if you’re willing to be a quiet room host for an event. 

    Accommodations at events (accessibility not hotel accommodations) 

    In the PNW, we work VERY hard to make sure everyone has a great experience at our events. 

    We are aware of the needs at some of our events, but if you don’t tell us, we may not be aware of your team’s need. Please fill out this form to let us know if your team needs any accommodations. The earlier you fill out the form, the more likely we will be able to accommodate your request. Understand, we may not be able to accommodate everyone’s needs. We are a small organization and venues vary. Please be gracious and kind if we can’t exactly meet your need the way you would like. The earlier you make us aware of a need, the greater chance we may be able to make an accommodation. 

    Important Dates

    FTC DECODE Blog: Volume 15

    Urgent!!  Volunteers needed for events the next two weekends! 

    We are still in need of volunteers for our FLL Qualifiers happening in December! We are especially in need of adults to fill judging rolesIf you are a coach or mentor, judging at an event other than where your students are competing is an amazing way to learn about the process and how to coach your students on exactly what they need to do in their presentation to judges.  

     

    We also need students in various roles – referee, scorekeeper, queuer, and field reset. This is a great way for students to meet their volunteer hour requirement! Here are the events with the greatest need: 

     

    December 6: Beaver Lake, Everett, Seattle, Spokane, and Wapato 

    December 7: Everett, Seattle, Spokane, and Wapato 

    December 13: Federal Way and Shoreline 

    December 14: Federal Way, Shoreline, Tacoma, Oak Harbor, and Olympia 

     

    If you are able to help, click here to find an event near you: Search Event 

    Recording and slides from Nov 20 Coaches Chat posted 

    We went over a lot of information about the upcoming events during our November Blog.  As coaches, you are responsible to know this information.  Make sure you look through the slide deck and recording posted on firstwa.org so you don’t miss important information and deadlines!  You can find the slide deck and recording here:  https://firstwa.org/webinars/  

     

     

    Dean’s List Nomination Deadline, Monday Dec 15 at 11:59 pm EST 

    Each team can nominate up to 2 students in the 10th or 11th grade as a Den’s List Semi-Finalist.  The deadline to submit this season is December 15th at 11:59 pm EST.  Late nominations are not accepted (the portal is thorugh FIRST HQ so Kevin & I don’t have the power to accept late nominations) so don’t wait until the last minute.   

    You can find more information on the process here:  https://www.firstinspires.org/resources/library/ftc/deans-list  

    Remote interviews will be held between 1-12 and 1-25.  For more information on that process, please look at the slide deck from our November 20th coaches chat and/or the recording 

    Compass Award Submissions 

    Each team may submit a mentor for the Compass Award.  For more information on the Compass Award, please see page 48 of the game manual here:  https://ftc-resources.firstinspires.org/ftc/game/manual  

    To submit a mentor for the Compass award, please fill out this form by 5:00 pm January 24th.  the winner will be announced at the FTC State Championship competition January 31. 

    All teams are eligible to submit a mentor for the Compass Award, you do not need to be qualified for the State Championship to be considered. 

    Upcoming off season FTC events/scrimmages 

    East Side Scrimmage 

    Hosted by FTC 4054 and FRC 2557 

    Saturday, December 6th, 2025 

    Venue: East Side Community Center 

    1721 E 56th St, Tacoma, WA 98404 

    Team Sign Up Form: https://forms.gle/Jm6CZjqS2cCzKgke7 

    Description 

    The East Side Scrimmage is a one day Demo event for the Tacoma community to learn about FIRST and FIRST Tech Challenge, hosted at the East Side community center. The scrimmage is being hosted with the Teched Out Kids Summit, the event is to allow teams the opportunity to get in drive practice prior to League tournaments the next weekend and display First Tech Challenge to the south Sound community. The event is being coordinated by FTC team 4054 The Gradle Demons and being staffed by FRC team 2557. The event will have Live scoring and will be streamed on the SOTAbots Youtube page 

    Contact: sotabots@gmail.com 

    Washington Tech Invitational 

    Hosted by FTC 14343 and FRC 1899 

    Sunday, January 4th, 2026 

    Venue: Interlake High School 

    Sign up form: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=OUFKmQZ8HkmAmHkAbVdd4NHXAAFxsaVIg0ilxGUobv9UQ1V… 

    FTC teams, we invite you to join our Washington Tech Invitational scrimmage with your robot to compete, build teamwork, and prepare for upcoming competition season!  For more info email us at wtiinfo25@gmail.com  

    High Definition Invitational 

    Hosted by FTC 18225 

    Sunday, January 11th, 2026 

    Venue: Interlake High School 

      

    Contact Information 

    Name: EJ Choi 

    Email: ftc18225@gmail.com 

     

    Important Dates & Deadlines

    • 1-8:  January Coaches Chat 
    • 1-12 to 1-25:  Remote Dean’s List Interview Window – Coaches will be emailed in early January re: Dean’s List Interviews 
    • 1-17 & 1-18:  Super Qualifying Tournaments 
    • 1-31:  State Championship 

    FLL Unearthed Blog: Volume 14

    In this weeks Blog

    Volunteers Needed!

     

    Make sure you read the entire blog!

    FLL Challenge Events Need Volunteers!

    We ask that all teams supply at least 1 volunteer for an event your team is not attending. If you are a coach, consider volunteering at an event as a judge your team is not attending! You will learn how the judging process works, and it will help you guide your team through the judging process in the future! 

    As we dig into the excitement of this year’s FLL Challenge competitions, your support is essential. To ensure all students can participate in a local competition, we will host 27 events around the state of Washington! But these events don’t materialize out of thin air. They require the commitment of over 900 passionate volunteers! 

    These events cannot happen without your help!

    We need help in various roles, but judging is our biggest volunteer need! ALL events needs judges right now, so please sign up to help! 

    Volunteer needs 

    • Judges (minimum 18 y.o.) 

         Click here to see a list of events: FLL CALENDAR 

        Click here to Register for events: REGISTER 

        Thank you for your support in making this program sucessful for your team and others as well! We could not do it without you! 

        Important Dates & Deadlines

        • 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

        FLL UNEARTHED Blog: Volume 13

        In this weeks Blog-

        Event Assignments for FLL Challenge finalized!

        Coaches Chat tonight 11/18!

        FLL Explore Event Registration, Locations, and Assignments

        Team Name Updates! 

        Volunteers Needed!

         

        Make sure you read the entire blog!

        Event Assignments for FLL Challenge!

        Event assignments are finalized for teams that are fully registered and paid. 

        I will be accepting no more updates or changes at this time. All events except Oak Harbor and Olympia are completely full. 

         

        FLL Challenge Events-

        1st weekend:

        Chimacum (Saturday) Chimacum SDCancelled

        Beaver Lake (Saturday & Sunday) Beaver Lake MS

        Spokane (Saturday & Sunday) Freeman

        Wapato (Saturday & Sunday) Wapato HS

        Tacoma 1 (Sunday) Bellarmine Prep

        Seattle (Saturday & Sunday) Robert Eagle Staff MS

        Everett (Saturday & Sunday) Heatherwood MS

        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

        Shoreline CC (Saturday & Sunday)

        FLL Coaches Chat

        Join us for the November Coaches Chat! We will be talking about the upcoming December Qualifier and Festival events! 

        13
        January
        Date: January 13, 2026Time: 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

        More Info

        Registration for FLL Explore!

        The FLL Explore event registration form is posted on the FIRST Washington website. Teams are only confirmed in an event once they are fully registered and paid with both FIRST Inspires and FIRST Washington.

        If you have not already done so, and are planning to participate in December, please complete all necessary steps asap! There is still plenty of space in all December events! 

        Teams that are fully registered will have assignments posted by the end of this week 11/21

        December Explore Events:

        Snohomish –
        Glacier Peak High School
        December 13th: 12pm- 3pm

        Spokane-
        Freeman Middle School
        December 6th: 12pm-2pm

        Bellevue-
        BSD  Steamnasium
        December 6th: 9am-11am New!

        Yelm-
        YARD (Youth Athletics Recreation Development)
        December 13th: 1pm New!

        Oak Harbor-
        Oak Harbor High School
        December 14th: 9am

        March Explore Events:

        Snohomish –
        Glacier Peak High School
        March 14th: 12pm- 3pm

        Sammamish-
        Sammamish High School
        March 21st or 22nd- date not decided yet.

        Bonney Lake-
        Bonney Lake High School
        March 7th: 12:45pm-3pm

        Cheney-
        Eastern Washington University
        April 11th

        Team Name Updates

        Please make sure your team names are correct on your FIRST Inspires dashboard. I will be pulling all team name information from the dashboard info this season.  

        I will not be accepting last minute team name updates in email. 

        FLL Challenge Events Need Volunteers!

         We hope you’ll sign up to volunteer and help make this season a success! FLL Qualifiers are scheduled for December 6, 7, 13, and 14. 

        We ask that all teams supply at least 1 volunteer for an event your team is not attending. If you are a coach, consider volunteering at an event as a judge your team is not attending! You will learn how the judging process works, and it will help you guide your team through the judging process in the future! 

        As we dig into the excitement of this year’s FLL Challenge competitions, your support is essential. To ensure all students can participate in a local competition, we will host 27 events around the state of Washington! But these events don’t materialize out of thin air. They require the commitment of over 900 passionate volunteers! 

        So don’t hesitate to join the fun! We need help in various roles, from refereeing, judging, scorekeeping, and more. 

        Volunteer needs 

        • Judges (minimum 18 y.o.) 
        • Referees 
        • Scorekeepers 
        • Field Resetters 
        • Queuers

         Click here to see a list of events: FLL CALENDAR 

        Click here to Register for events: REGISTER 

        Important Dates & Deadlines

        • November 18th- Coaches Chat
        • 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 14

        Next FTC Coaches Chat November 20 at 7:00 pm 

        On this meeting, we will be covering several items: 

        • How to prepare for your December League Tournaments 
        • Judging overview for League Tournaments as well as judging changes for 2025-26 
        • Dean’s list submission deadline and interview window. 

        Click here to join the meeting  Please make sure to have one adult from your team attend! 

        Important Dates & Deadlines

        • 1-8:  January Coaches Chat 
        • 1-12 to 1-25:  Remote Dean’s List Interview Window – Coaches will be emailed in early January re: Dean’s List Interviews 
        • 1-17 & 1-18:  Super Qualifying Tournaments 
        • 1-31:  State Championship