NE FIRST Things FIRST - Week of February 16, 2015

Out to New England FRC teams...

NE FIRST Things FIRST

Week of February 16, 2015

Bag & Tag Snow Delays

Teams that physically can't get to their robot to bag it up by midnight tonight just need to bag it up immediately the next time they have access. They should then make a note on the lock-up form that they were not able to get to their robot to bag it up on the required day. However, teams must not do work on the robot after midnight Tuesday, whether they were able to get to their robot beforehand or not. In other words, teams cannot take the opportunity to make up lost days. Inspectors are being informed they are to allow this with no consequences since many teams might run into this problem.

Judged Awards at District Events and District Championship

At the New England District Championship this year, the FRC Judges will decide the most prestigious awards that will earn a team a spot at World Championships in St. Louis. There will be 6 Dean's List Finalists, 4 Chairman's Award Teams (CA), 2 Engineering Inspiration Award teams (EI) and 2 Rookie All-Star Award teams (RAS) that will qualify for the FIRST Championship.

The Dean's List Semifinalistswill have been selected by their teams and interviewed at a District Event, following which the Judges will make the final selection of 6 Dean's List Finalists, to be announced at the District Championship at WPI.

The team awards (CA, EI and RAS) will be selected from those teams receiving the awards at their District Events. Once a team has won one of the three awards, they will not be eligible for that particular award at another District Event, but can receive one of the others.

Only teams being awarded Chairman's at a District Event will be automatically eligible to register their team to compete with their robot at the District Championship. To be able to register their robot to compete at the District Championships, Engineering Inspiration awardees and Rookie All-Stars will need to qualify for a spot based on their point total.

All interviews for these 3 awards will be held at WPI. For a team to be eligible for the award, they must be interviewed. If a team has either not qualified for a spot at District Championship or has chosen to not to have their robot compete, those teams will still need to be interviewed at WPI.

A point of clarification: each Chairman's Award interview is allotted a 10 minute slot. The team has up to 7 minutes for their presentation. Remaining time will be left for Q&A with the judges. In addition to the 3 students, a team may have a mentor present who must be silent. No recording of the interview will be permitted.

Teams submitting for the Entrepreneurship Award should bring a hard copy to their competitions.

If your team has any questions, please contact the Senior Judge Advisor at seniorjaforne@gmail.com.

Start Planning FIRST Championship Transportation!

With Week 1 of the 2015 competition season less than two weeks away, FIRST Championship in St. Louis will be here before you know it. Teams that participated last year will remember the challenges we had in finding buses and flights at the last minute. For this reason, we emphasize that teams need to start organizing transportation now. NE FIRST cannot provide transportation, but we will be reaching out to bus companies and also looking into alternative transportation methods, such as trains, to assist teams. Ultimately, teams will be responsible for booking their own travel to St. Louis. Stay tuned for more information!

2015 2nd Annual FIRST National Advocacy Conference

The 2015 2^nd Annual FIRST National Advocacy Conference, presented by FRC 27 Team RUSH, will give teams the opportunity to make a difference in our future! The event will take place June 14-16 in Washington DC, and teams from all states are invited to participate.

The conference will give teams the ability to communicate with legislators about their experiences in FIRST and with STEM in general. Students and mentors will be trained on the issues and sent out to storm Capitol Hill to meet with their Senators and Members of Congress to tell them about FIRST and let them know how they should be prioritizing the expansion of FIRST and STEM in upcoming legislation. Teams will have a chance to network and collaborate as they prepare for Advocacy, students will come out as globally minded confident experts, and Congress will know why the voices of these students are important.

Registration is $200/person before Sunday, March 15 and $225/person before Thursday, May 7. Roster forms are due by Friday, May 1. Both forms should be sent to nac@teamrush27.net.

Full details about the event can be found on the Team RUSH website.

Judge's Information Reminder

The deadline to submit information to judges through TIMS for the Team Yearbook is this Thursday, Feb. 19, two days after Stop Build Day. Information is added by editing the "Judge's Info" section on the Team Summary page.

NE FIRST Consent and Release Form Reminder

All teams competing at an NE FIRST event must fill out a NE FIRST consent and release form in addition to the one that was filled out with FIRST when registering in TIMS for mentors or STIMS for students. These forms should be completed and signed by parents/authorized adults and brought with the team and turned at the beginning of the team's first event. The form will cover the team for additional plays in New England during the season. The form can be found on the Consent and Release Form section of the FIRST site under "New England."

Volunteer for the NE District Events!

Several NE District Events still need volunteers for key roles. Interested volunteers should sign up through VIMS. Descriptions of event volunteer positions can be found in the Volunteer section of the FIRST website.

Upcoming Important Dates

Award Deadlines

Dean's List Award - Thursday, Feb. 19, noon
Chairman's Award Deadline - Thursday, Feb. 19, noon
Media & Technology Innovation Award - Saturday, Feb. 28

Award requirements and instructions for submission can be found in the FRC Administrative Manual. All awards except for Dean's List should be submitted through the Youth Team Member Registration System. Dean's List applications should be submitted through TIMS.

Upcoming Events

PODS Loading

Saturday, Feb. 21

NE FIRST

400 Woodland Ave, Bloomfield, CT

Contact Scott Heaton at sheaton@nefirst.org for more information.

Contact Us

NE FIRST Executive Director

Bruce Linton (blinton@nefirst.org)

NE FIRST Advisor

Jessica Boucher (jboucher@ingenuityne.org)

NE FIRST Regional Directors

Connecticut - Carol Scully (cscully@nefirst.org)

Maine - Jamee Luce (jluce@nefirst.org)

Massachusetts/Rhode Island - Steve Cremer (scremer@nefirst.org)

New Hampshire/Vermont - Scott Heaton (sheaton@nefirst.org)

NE FIRST Senior Mentors

Connecticut - Kathie Kentfield (kkentfield@usfirst.org)

Massachusetts - Dana Henry (dhenry@usfirst.org)

Archives of NE FIRST Things FIRST are available on the NE FIRST site under "News." Submissions can be sent to ljefferson@usfirst.org.