Off-Season Competitions
It’s that time of year! Off-season competitions are here.
IndyRAGE (Raising Awareness for Girls in Engineering) will be held on Saturday, October 21st, at Perry Meridian High School.
Set up will be Friday, October 20, and teams will be able to load in on Friday evening or Saturday morning.
The event includes a robotic competition with all-girl drive teams, activities with Girl Scouts, and discussion/information sessions during lunch.
We will play the 2023 FRC Game “Charged Up!” with potential changes to the tournament structure based on the number of teams and time allowances.
Registration and Entry Fees are being finalized. If you are interested in competing, please send an email to first@cyberblue234.com
FROST (Fort Wayne Robotics Off-Season Tournament)
Where: Fort Wayne North Side High School
When: September 29th (Showcase) – 30th (Tournament)
How Much: $250
Sign Up – https://firstindianarobotics.crowdchange.co/33643
B3 – PFP
When: October 13th (Load In) 14th- Tournament
Where: Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds
How Much: $250
Sign Up – https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfZ58Bdio0Zc7kGT4mbH8ocSkBhqs8riMII9F_ev5FtQh9kTQ/viewform
Please get in touch with PFP with questions.
New FRC teams as of 8/2/2023
Please help join me in welcoming the new teams to the FRC FINFAM!
Mount Vernon (Posey County) High School
Silver Creek High School (Sellersburg)
Fort Wayne Snider
Hatchet Robotics Sibling Team
If you are interested in helping mentor a new FRC team this season, contact me – cosborne@firstindianarobotics.org, and we can make introductions.
We have some more that we will be welcoming in the coming weeks. In the meantime, how can you help more communities provide this opportunity for their youth? Can you reach out to nearby schools or community groups and encourage them to start teams? Introduce us to teachers, principals, community leaders, and more to help grow FIRST in Indiana.
FRC Coaches Calls
Rookie teams and veterans alike. FIN will be hosting a series of calls this fall for teams on a variety of topics ranging from event preferencing, student and mentor recruiting, gracious professionalism and competition culture, FIRST Choice by AndyMark, and more.
Our calls will be led this year by members of our student board of directors, veteran mentors, and others.
Join us on these dates on Zoom at 7 PM Eastern Time on the following dates:
Tuesday, September 5th – Student and Mentor Recruiting
Tuesday, September 12th – Event Preferencing and Home Event
Tuesday, October 3rd –How to help your students with scholarships, college applications, and career search.
Wednesday, November 1st – https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcsdu2przspHNebSope_L2FjII0BU3vhpyf
FRC Volunteering
In an effort to grow our volunteer base and provide the best possible experiences for everyone, FIN will be asking every FRC team to provide at least one volunteer at every FRC event during the CRESCENDO season.
Anyone associated with the team is eligible. It could be a parent, friend of team, grandparent, coach etc. The volunteer roles filled could be any of the available volunteer positions. From queuing, field reset, volunteer check in, and more.
More information will be released on this via coach blast, social media, etc.
Home Event Preference
Starting this season, FIN will be providing teams with the option of a “home event” during the event preference process. A team’s “home event” is the closest event to their team location zip code.
You will be given the opportunity to preference your “home event” in round 1 ONLY of the event preference process. Selecting your “home event” in round 1 will give your team priority for that event. Again: “home event’ is only relevant during round 1 preferencing.
This is entirely optional, and teams may choose not to preference their “home event” in round 1, and there is no requirement that a team attend their home event at all. We wanted to provide this opportunity for teams to secure at least one event location they can possibly drive back and forth to. We understand the home event may not be during an advantageous timeframe for your team.
Grants
Hey teams…are you looking for grants to support your program?
FIRST has a Grant Database – https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/team-grants
BAE Systems Grants – 70 Miles from Fort Wayne – Application closes September 22nd – https://www.baesystems.com/en-us/our-company/about-us/bae-systems-inc/community-investment/first-grants
Statewide Department of Education Competitive Robotics Grants – More to come soon!
Harbor Freight Tools for Schools – https://hftforschools.org/
Team Tip from FIRST – Delegate and Designate: Share this email blast with your FIRST Robotics Competition team! We know mentors are busy, it can be helpful to designate a team member or parent to read the weekly team blast on Thursdays and report important information out to the team.
That way, you won’t miss out on any upcoming deadlines or season specifics. If your designated team blast reader is over the age of 18, all they need to do is sign up to receive the email on our Team Blast Archive. All blasts are also posted on the archive within 24 hours of sending.