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FRC REBUILT Blog: Volume 18

by | Dec 22, 2025 | FRC, Newsletter

Slide deck and recording from the Dec 16 coaches chat are posted 

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

    FIRST Washington offices will be close at noon 12-23 and be closed through the new year 

    We will not be checking mail, processing payments or responding to email during that time.   

    We will return emails and process payments starting January 5th.   

    Have a wonderful holiday and new year!   

    Important Dates

    FLL UNEARTHED Blog: Volume 17

    by | Dec 16, 2025 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore

    In this weeks Blog

    Volunteers Needed for Seminfinals and State!

    Congratulations to those that attended the Challenge Qualifiers!

    Coaches Chat 12/17- Cancelled

    Semifinal Assignments, Awards and Advancement info!

    Reminder from FIRSTWA

    Make sure you read the entire blog!

    Season Info

    Challenge Qualifiers Done!

    Congratulations to all teams that attended an FLL Challenge Qualifier!

    We had 550 teams compete in 22 events over the last 2 weekends!

    All teams that participted should be proud of what they learned and accomplished this season! 

    Reminder

    FIRST Washington’s office is closed for the holidays from 12/24/2025 – 1/2/2026.  If you need any reimbursements from accounting, please get them submitted before 12/24. We will not be responding to emails or processing any reimbursements during this time.

    Coaches Chat 12/17 Cancelled

    Our scheduled Coaches Chat for tomorrow 12/17 is cancelled. Our next Coaches Chat will be 1/13/26, just before the first Semifinal weekend! See you then!

    There are no upcoming events at this time.

    Semifinal Assignments, Awards and Advancement Numbers

    Numbers of advancing teams from all events are posted here

    Awards and advancement info from the events will be posted here. 

    Teams advancing to the Semifinals will have their assignment posted by the end of the day Friday 12/19. I will also post a form like the Qualifiers for teams to request changes. 

    With the event sizes not being flexible like the Qualifiers, in order to move a team to a new event a team from the requested event must have asked to switch out. 

    This is a longer process, and I am able to accomidate less requests. 

     

    Volunteers needed for Semifinal and State Events!

    We ask that all teams supply at least 1 volunteer for an event your team is not attending.

    We are still in need of volunteers for our FLL Semifinals and State Championships! We are especially in need of adults to fill judging roles. If 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: 

     January 17-18- please note these dates are different than Seattle!

    Covington Semifinals- Cedar Heights Middle School, Covington

    January 24-25

    Seattle Semifinals- Lincoln High School, Seattle

    January 24th

    Eastern Washington State Championship- St. Georges School, Spokane

    February 1st

    Western Washington State Championship- Amazon Meeting Center, Seattle

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

    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

    • January 13 – Coaches Chat
    • January 24/25 – Semifinals
    • January 24- Eastern WA State
    • February  1st – Western WA State

    More From FLL

    FTC DECODE Blog: Volume 17

    by | Dec 16, 2025 | FTC, Newsletter

    CTSO Survey – Public High School School Teams Only

    FIRST Washington is seeking the community’s opinion on whether to pursue approval as a Career-Technical Student Organization (CTSO) with the State of Washington and OSPI. If your school and/or team could be affected by this decision, we invite you to spend a few minutes letting us know how you might be impacted. For any questions, please reach out to Alida (alidam@firstwa.org). 

     

    https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/7a5a1196d00c45819fdfa2f068014eaa 

    Reminder

    FIRST Washington’s office is closed for the holidays from 12/24/2025 – 1/2/2026.  If you need any reimbursements from accounting, please get them submitted before 12/24. We will not be responding to emails or processing any reimbursements during this time.

    FIRST Washington AI Innovation Video Challenge 

     Did your team explore AI this season? Share your story in a 15–60 second video for the FIRST WA AI Innovation Video Challenge. Top videos will be highlighted across our events and channels. Submit by January 9.  

    More info here: https://firstwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/AI-Video-Challenge.pdf 

    Important Dates & Deadlines

    • 1-31:  State Championship 

    FRC REBUILT Blog: Volume 17

    by | Dec 16, 2025 | FRC, Newsletter

    Next Coaches Chat will be Tuesday, December 16 at 7:00 pm 

      We are trying a new format for our Coaches Chat this year.  For our December coaches chat, we will have a round table with several coaches (And Stokely) talk about what their team does for kickoff and why it is such an important day (other than for the obvious reason)   

      To attend this meeting, click here  Feel free to forward this link to any adults on your team that you feel need to attend. 

      CTSO Survey – Washington Teams Only

      WASHINGTON TEAMS ONLY 

       FIRST Washington is seeking the community’s opinion on whether to pursue approval as a Career-Technical Student Organization (CTSO) with the State of Washington and OSPI. If your school and/or team could be affected by this decision, we invite you to spend a few minutes letting us know how you might be impacted. For any questions, please reach out to Alida (alidam@firstwa.org). 

       https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/7a5a1196d00c45819fdfa2f068014eaa 

       

      FIRST Washington AI Innovation Video Challenge

      Did your team explore AI this season? Share your story in a 15–60 second video for the FIRST WA AI Innovation Video Challenge. Top videos will be highlighted across our events and channels. Submit by January 9.  

      More info here: https://firstwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/AI-Video-Challenge.pdf 

      Reminder

      FIRST Washington’s office is closed for the holidays from 12/24/2025 – 1/2/2026.  If you need any reimbursements from accounting, please get them submitted before 12/24. We will not be responding to emails or processing any reimbursements during this time.

      Important Dates

      FLL UNEARTHED Blog: Volume 16

      by | Dec 11, 2025 | FLL, FLL Challenge, FLL Explore

      In this weeks Blog

      Volunteers Needed for Seminfinals and State!

      Second Weekend of Qualifiers!

      Event Reminders

      Coaches Chat 12/17 7pm

      Award and Advancement info!

      Make sure you read the entire blog!

      Season Info

      Please talk with your students about Gracious Professionalism and appropriate behavior at events

      Coaches we need your help.  We had instances at both FLL and FTC events this past weekend where students were very disrespectful toward the venue, hosts and volunteers.

       In an effort to be more proactive, we would appreciate it if you all have a conversation with your students prior to their event where you go over what it means to be Gracious and Professional and how to behave when you are a guest in someone else’s space.   

       Most of our participants are outstanding and are not problematic at all but after the incidents this weekend, we thought a reminder would be helpful. 

       

      Volunteers needed for Semifinal and State Events!

      We ask that all teams supply at least 1 volunteer for an event your team is not attending.

      We are still in need of volunteers for our FLL Semifinals and State Championships! We are especially in need of adults to fill judging roles. If 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: 

       

      January 17-18

      Covington Semifinals- Cedar Heights Middle School, Covington

      January 24-25

      Seattle Semifinals- Lincoln High School, Seattle

      January 24th

      Eastern Washington State Championship- St. Georges School, Spokane

      February 1st

      Western Washington State Championship- Amazon Meeting Center, Seattle

       

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

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

      Second Qualifier Weekend!

      This weekend is our second set of Qualifiers! I hope everyone is excited! The first weekend went great!

      A few things to keep in mind-

      Please make sure you bring your teams printed roster. Many teams forgot this was a requirement! This is printed from your teams FIRST Inspires dashboard. You can find instructions on how in last months coaches chat slides here- https://firstwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/November-18-25-coaches-chat.pdf

      Please remember that everyone at your event is a volunteer! They are donating their time to help with your teams event! If you have any issues at your event, please email me- jacqueg@firstwa.org

      This is about the kids! This is their time to shine and to celebrate all they have learned and acomplished!

      Kids do the work! That means NO coaches or parents should be working on or programing the robot.

      The most important thing to keep in mind- Have Fun!!

      There are no upcoming events at this time.

      Awards and Advancement Numbers Posted

      Numbers of advancing teams from all events are posted here

      Awards and advancement info from the events will be posted here after this weekend

      Important Dates & Deadlines

      • December 13/14 – Second weekend of Qualifiers
      • January 24/25 – Semifinals
      • February  1st – Western WA State

      More From FLL