ULTIMATE GOAL Coach Email Volume 5 10/16/20 Registration, Grants & Resources!

Greetings Coaches!

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 ULTIMATE GOAL 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 is what I have for you today:

Registration fees
Resources we have for your team
Grants available
FIRST Fair
Coaches Chat Tuesday, Oct 27 at 7:00 pm

Registration fees for the 2020/21 season

We currently have 64 teams registered for the 2020/21 season which is outstanding but it is still less than 1/2 of our normal team count. With remote events as an option, I hope that encourages many of you to return this season and stay connected with the rest of your FIRSTWA FTC family!

I know we talked about fees on our last coaches chat but didn’t have solid numbers to give you at that time. Because our fees are to deliver the entire program, not just the competitions, we will still be charging a fee this season. Because we are not currently able to deliver the same type of experience for the 20/21 season, we have discounted our fee and will be charging $450 to participate this year. We are opening the firstwa grant (details below) any many of you who are affiliated with public schools have access to the iGrant (also info below) so there are grants available that can cover some or all of that fee.

We want all of you to register not only because we do feel like we have a great program that we can deliver this season but also because we need your support to keep FIRST and FIRST Washington healthy and able to continue doing the work that we do.

We don’t want ANY team to not participate this season solely because of finances so please let us know if your team is in that situation. Additionally, if your team is financially healthy and willing/able to donate to cover the cost of a team in need please email me at arime@firstwa.org We have already had some teams reach out which just warms my heart.

I look forward to virtually “seeing” and working with all of you this season!

Resources for your team

We have added a new resources section to our website to help our PNW teams stay connected to each other and build skills even though they can’t meet. To get to this page, go to firstwa.org, click on FRC under programs and you are there! (here is the link for your convenience: https://firstwa.org/first-tech-challenge/ Here is what we currently have on this page:

ORTOP (in Oregon) has set up a fantastic video library where teams have created skill building videos. You can access there library from this page. You will find FTC and FRC videos on this page
Links to Any Webinars or coaches chats
Video recordings from above

Coming soon!

A document sharing space – Teams are welcome to email me with any safety plans or other documentation they feel other teams can benefit from and I will place it in a folder for others to access
FTC Mini Challenges – More info to come soon!

We have just started populating this page so check back periodically to see what new things we have added!

Grants

FIRST Washington grant is open. It is more important than ever this year to register and fill this grant out as soon as possible if you want to participate this season. The grant will close Dec 31 but don’t wait, fill it out today! Click here to access the grant

iGrant is open. If you are a public school in Washington, it is important you apply for this grant and register this season. There are lots of things you can use those funds for even if you don’t build a robot. Our Legislators will be voting in 2021 on the budget for the next two years and it is important for them to see all of these funds get used!

FIRST Fair Oct 24 10:00 – 11:30 am – Save the date!

ORTOP is continuing their FIRST Faire offerings with some round table discussions on Saturday, October 24 from 10:00 – 11:30 am. ORTOP has hosted FIRST Fair for years, one advantage to having it move to an online format is that it allows more teams to participate and they would love to see teams from all over Washington and Oregon tune in! Additionally, they would love some suggestions as to topics, if you have any thoughts

as to topics they may want to cover, email Debbie Kerr at debbie-kerr@ortop.org by noon on Monday with your suggestions. To find out more about FIRST Fair, click here

Coaches Chat Tuesday, October 27, 7:00 pm

Please join us for our October coaches chat on Tuesday, October 27 at 7:00 pm. We want this to be a conversation where you share your ideas and work together as a group. To keep it productive, we would love for you to fill out this form with a topic you would like to focus on. We will pick two or 3 (based on popularity) each time we meet to start off the conversation. This is a great way for you to connect with your fellow coaches and mentors.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82898240755

Meeting ID: 828 9824 0755

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