What a busy summer! Lots of important information to share, so please read through all of the items. (There are a lot of links, so please save this note so you can refer to the links in the future.)
1. Exciting news for FTC-Iowa
2. Upcoming Events -- Mark Your Calendar
a) Kick-Off Celebration
b) Call to host a 2012-2013 FTC Event
c) 2012-2013 Qualifier Tournaments
3. Changes for 2012-2013
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1 Exciting news for FTC-IowaOn Monday, July 16, the FTC program was selected as one of the State of Iowa Scale-Up Programs! This is HUGE! (Thank you to all of you who wrote letters of endorsement/support for the Scale-Up application.)
What does being a scale-up mean? To put it simply, ALL students of Iowa will have access to FTC. ALL Regions of Iowa, (regardless of location, population density, district size, etc.) will be promoting FTC, and there will be financial assistance to help with the expansion of FTC. (More details to come soon!)
The hard work of getting to be recognized is over. Now, we NEED YOUR HELP as we recruit more rookie teams. Please promote FTC in your neighboring communities and school districts. Spread the word of FTC - Recruit more teams, volunteers, mentors, etc. We need to get 100 teams by Sept. 8th.
Resources for teams to get started:
- Rockwell Collins grants are still open. New teams, or teams who were rookies last season, can still apply. Complete the Rockwell Collins grant application.
- FTC Team Resources
- FTC-Iowa Affiliate Partner (ftc.iowa@gmail.com) -- Please if you know of anyone who is interested, encourage them to email us.
- YOU! Current teams, volunteers and supporters are THE BEST way to promote and support FTC.
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2. Upcoming Events -- Mark Your Calendar!!
The plans for the 2012-2013 FTC Season are well-under way. We have several events already scheduled on the books.
a) Kick-Off Celebration
The 2012-2013 FTC Season will be Kicked-Off on Saturday, Sept. 8th at Vinton-Shellsburg High School (210 W. 21st Street, Vinton, Iowa). Similar to previous years, we will be having workshops in the morning (10am-12noon), Lunch (12noon-1pm), and then the Game Reveal. We do ask that all interested attendees to please register.
b) Call to host 2012-2013 FTC Events
We are currently seeking venues who are willing to host events (scrimmages, workshops) for the 2012-2013 FTC Season. Thank you to those who have already applied to host an event! If you are interested in hosting an event, please complete the 2012-2013 FTC Host Event form.
The form will ask for up to five potential dates, desired time, capacity, a lunch plan, and local volunteers.
c) 2012-2013 Qualifier Tournaments
Qualifier Tournament for the 2012-2013 Season are set! You can find a list of the Qualifiers on the FIRST Website -- click on "What FIRST Teams & Events are In My Area" -- narrow the search to "FTC", "Events", and "Iowa".
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3. Changes for 2012-2013A few changes for the 2012-2013 FTC Season:a) Many events will be on the same day. This includes workshops, scrimmages and qualifiers. The idea behind this is so we can have many events throughout the state to serve as many teams.
b) Remote Mentoring.
To help support and grow teams in all areas of Iowa, we have decided to implement on the concept of remote mentoring. Teams will be able to get help via the new technology of Google+ Hangouts. (Attached is a pdf to learn more about how to get started with Google Hangouts.) Please keep in mind, Google+ Hangouts is a new technology, so there may be some glitches. If you are interested or in need of remote mentoring, please fill out the Remote Mentor form.
c) Videos for Judges.
In order for the judges to learn more about the teams, we are encouraging teams to submit a 2 minute video one week prior to the qualifiers they plan to attend. Although this is not required (highly encouraged) for teams at the qualifiers, it will be required for any team who advances to the FTC-Iowa Championship. Benefits: Judges will learn more about the teams prior to the event; Teams will have the opportunity to put anything they want to in the video; Reduces the "gosh, I wish we would have said/done this..."; Allows teams to show their creativity, their outreach, etc. Yes, we understand teams are usually stressed and worried about the function of the robot in the days/weeks before the competition, but the video will be a tremendous help at the competitions.
The process is still being finalized, but more than likely teams will be asked to upload videos to YouTube. Teams will have the opportunity to make the video private or public.
Thank you all and have a fantastic summer!
Until Kick-Off,
The FTC-Iowa team
