November Team Blast
This email is a little early this month, since our first Saturday of events is just days away!  I look forward to seeing teams at IndySouth (Center Grove) where I’ll be with my daughter’s Explore team, Crane, the Purdue Fort Wayne Semi-State and of course, the State Championship.  Other members of our FIN Staff will be at other events, please come up and say hello, we love to meet you in person!
I hope you will join me for our next Coaches Corner Zoom Call TONIGHT Tuesday, November 7 at 7:00 pm Eastern, with special guest, FIRST Senior Mentor and Judge Advisor Lori Langley.  We will talk about what to expect on competition day, especially in the judging room.  We will be happy to answer any of your questions!
If you have any questions or need assistance, please reach out to me anytime.  I can be reached via email at tthompson@firstindianarobotics.org or you can schedule a call with me using this link.

All the best,

Trisha
Open Invitations

The FIRST LEGO League Challenge MASTERPIECE season doesn’t end with the Indiana State Championship!  We have some opportunities for teams to participate in some great Opens and Invitationals in the post season.  These opportunities are allocated based on performance at State, but we wanted to share this information now, so that hopeful teams can start thinking about fundraising!  Indiana currently has invitations to the following events:

World Festival, Houston, Texas (1)
April 17-20, 2024
FLL International Open Brazil, powered by SESI (1)
August 1-4, 2024
Florida Sunshine Invitational (1)
June 19-23, 2024
FLL Worchester Polytechnic Institute Open Invitational (1)
Worcester, MA
June 7-9, 2024

As the season continues, we may receive other invitations, and certainly more information about existing invitations.  Registration costs for these events can vary, but is typically in the $1500 range.  This amount does not include transportation, food, or lodging.

For those who haven’t heard, last summer was the final Razorback Invitational.  It was a wonderful event for teams who were lucky enough to attend, but sadly those organizers have moved on to other things.  There are many groups who are planning new and exciting events that hope to be as popular as Razorback, and we look forward to those events!

FLL November Coaches Corner

Our next Coaches Corner is TONIGHT at 7:00 PM ET/6:00 PM CT.

Lori Langley, Judge Advisor and FIRST Senior Mentor will be joining us to talk about judging and what to expect on competition day.  We hope you can be there!

If you have topics you would like to learn about or materials you want us to cover, please let us know!  Email Trisha at tthompson@firstindianarobotics.org with suggestions or questions.

FIRST Indiana Robotics is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: FLL Challenge November Coaches Corner
Time: Nov 7, 2023 07:00 PM Indiana (East)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87462753101?pwd=TGpHTFBMNEYxM3dNTG5KbTBER3VjQT09

Meeting ID: 874 6275 3101
Passcode: 112605

Missed a meeting? Click here to access the archives in the FIN Playbook.

Inspire the Future Recognition Program
Nominate an Educator or School
At FIRST®, recognition is not only part of our name, it’s core to our ethos, and we strive to celebrate those educators and schools with exceptional commitments to their learning communities.
In this spirit, we are proud to launch our third year of the Inspire the Future: FIRST Educators Recognition Program. NEW this year, you may nominate outstanding schools as part of the first annual Inspire the Future: FIRST School Recognition Program.

Help us celebrate the FIRST educators and schools who inspire their students and advance the mission of FIRST by submitting a nomination.

You can learn more and submit a nomination here.

Qualifying Tournaments
A few notes about Qualifying Tournaments…
If you still need to pay your $75 registration fee, you can pay by credit card or generate an invoice at https://pay.firstindianarobotics.org/

1) Select “FLL Challenge Qualifying Tournament Registration”
2) Type in your team number
3) Click “Add to Cart” (If you have multiple teams, you can change the team number and add multiple registrations to your cart.)
4) From here you can checkout via credit card, or select “Print an Invoice” (You can also download a copy of our W-9 from this screen) You can print a paper copy of your invoice, or print to pdf to email a copy.
Before your event, make sure your team has coach 1 and coach 2 cleared through YPP, no exceptions.  You also will need to get all of your students registered in the FIRST dashboard (www.firstinspires.org).  Please print your roster from your dashboard and bring it to the Qualifying Tournament.  You will need it to check in.  You can find detailed instructions on team member registration here:  https://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/youth-registration-system
Internet access at Qualifying Tournaments varies and is not guaranteed.  We recommend teams download the SPIKE app, rather than working from the web version.
For those using school-issued devices:  If you have internet access, you may have trouble connecting.  It is recommended that you backup all of your programs, or print hard copies.  You can find more information here:  https://primelessons.org/en/ProgrammingLessons/BackingUpFiles.pdf

Semi-State Tournaments
New this year!   Almost 2/3 of our teams will advance to one of two 48-team Semi-State Tournaments which will be held at Purdue Fort Wayne and the University of Southern Indiana.  We are excited to be bringing these large events back to our University Partners!  Registration for the Semi-States will be $75, and assignments will be made based on geography and announced November 20.

State Championship
Exciting news!  Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, there will be no registration fee for teams who advance to the Indiana FIRST LEGO League State Championship!  The State Championship will be held Saturday, January 20 at Westfield High School.

Missed a Team Blast?

All of our emails are posted on our blog at: firstindianarobotics.org/blog/

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We encourage coaches, parents, team members and fans to follow us on social media to keep up with all the latest information!