2016-2017 Email Blast #7

Louisiana FIRST Tech Challenge Coaches,

Deadlines – Reminders – Notes

1. Qualifier Registrations *** DEADLINE ***
2. Volunteers needed
3. STIMS registration
4. Notes from the NOLA Qualifier

1. Qualifier Registrations *** DEADLINE ***

We have 13 teams registered for the Baton Rouge Area Qualifier on February 11 at Woodlawn High School in Baton Rouge. Six of the 13 teams have already qualified for the state tournament, and we will advance 10 more teams from this event. There are still eight teams that have not signed up for a tournament, so I will follow up with those coaches.

Here is the link to the Google form to register your teams for the second Qualifier. Please respond by the new deadline of Monday so we can plan for space and schedule and volunteers.

LA FTC Qualifier 2 registration (please register by Monday January 30): https://goo.gl/forms/xJwmIsrkVNaN3wqy1

I will check the tournament fee payments with FIRST LA-MS and let you know if .you’re not all set there, but please register for the tournament even if you haven’t paid.


2. Volunteers needed (!!)

Here is a call for volunteers for our events. Please broadcast this, especially if you have friendly contacts at local industrial, engineering, or technical firms:

There is a STEM outreach volunteer opportunity for the FIRST Tech Challenge high school robotics competition in Louisiana. These are one-day competitions on these Saturdays:

Feb 11 Woodlawn High School Baton Rouge, LA
Mar 4 University of New Orleans New Orleans, LA

The events run approximately 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM, but some positions can be filled for part of the day, or the day before the event. Some positions also require 1-2 hours of online training and certification in advance. We can use both technical and non-technical volunteers.

A list of position descriptions and other info is available at www.ftclouisiana.org/wordpress/volunteers.

Please contact Clark Rowley if you have any questions (c_rowley@bellsouth.net; 228-688-5809 (o); 985-285-8455 (c)).


3. STIMS registration

You need to bring a full team roster with completed consent/release forms for your students and adult mentor/coaches to *each* event. Online registration through STIMS is the easiest way to manage this. See the FIRST website for more information on how to add students to your team:

http://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/youth-team-member-consent-and-release-form


4. Notes from the NOLA Qualifier:

Our New Orleans Qualifier Head Ref asked me to remind you that at the Regional Champs level and beyond, FTAs and Refs will not delay matches to wait for you to correct connection issues – especially ones that you can address while you’re queued. Our Qualifiers will allow some extra time to correct problems, but we will enforce the time limits at the state championship. Please have your drive teams practice using the pre-match queueing time to check the phone pairing and the USB connections with your controllers and control system and restart your phones if needed.
You may see someone affiliated with a team as a mentor, alumnus/a, parent, or sponsor volunteering at events as a Judge, Referee, Inspector, Scorekeeper, etc. These volunteers have signed Conflict Disclosure forms to notify the other volunteers of their affiliations, and do not take part in decisions or deliberations that impact their teams. Please help us grow our volunteer base, so we won’t have to ask teams for volunteers!
We will try to have the schedule for the next tournament out earlier, but the judging schedule may still only be available a day or two before the tournament. Please be prepared for your team’s judging session to be soon after pits open. This is in part due to not having enough Judges to spread the work, so reach out to your contact for volunteers! Please remember that match schedules are never made until all teams are through inspection and/or we’ve cut off the inspection period.
Results from the NOLA Qualifier including match scores, awards, and advancement are posted at the ftclouisiana.org website.

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