MAY 27, 2016

May 27, 2016

Grant and Team Support Award Opportunities
Complete information for Oregon teams located here.

Deadlines:
Diamler: Education in Motion - May 31st ODE - June 17th NOW!!!! -  FIRST is offering their annual FIRST Tech Challenge  Registration Grant for Rookies and Veterans. Easy one page application.
Again a clarification on the Daimler Team Support Award. Schools can apply for only one team; either rookie or veteran, but not both. You must choose.

PORTLAND STAGS ULTIMATE FRISBEE GAME - Science & Technology Night - JUNE 4th
Our FIRST in Oregon families are invited to the Portland Stags game on June 4th at 3:00 pm at Milwaukie HS .  Hot Wired was invited to demo their robot and will be sharing the spotlight with other FIRST Teams. FREE GEEK will be there collecting unwanted electronic stuff and there will be a DRONE OBSTACLE COURSE Show at halftime.  PLUS you can watch the PORTLAND STAGS take on the the Vancouver Nighthawks.  This is  fun family event for everyone. Tickets are 20% off when you use the discount code ROBOT.  CLICK HERE FOR FLYER

MAKE FIRST LOUD EVENTS
We had an absolute blast at the Wy’East Lodge at Timberline on Saturday, May 21st. 12 Oregon FTC Teams made their way up the mountain to compete at our first MAKE FIRST LOUD off-season event. We ran a mini tournament plus we made time for guests to drive the robots, learn about FIRST and we shared our MAKE FIRST LOUD ideas with each other! Look for a video to be release in the near future. Our thanks to our Oregon FTC Volunteers for helping make the event possible and to Tammy Villali at Timberline Lodge for being a gracious and welcoming host.

ADDITIONAL SUMMER MAKE FIRST LOUD OPPORTUNITIES - If your team volunteers for a MAKE FIRST LOUD event - We’ll give your team an awesome  MAKE FIRST LOUD Award Ribbon.
Oregon International Air Show - Aug 6 & 7 - Help run the 3D BOT RACES!!! Run the LEGO Table of Awesome, demo FTC Robots.  SIGN UP!
Oregon State Fair - Wednesday, August 31st - Hopefully we’ll have 12 teams to run another tournament live at the State Fair. Want to win a prize winning Blue Ribbon at the State Fair for FIRST Tech Challenge? Sign up!

MODERN ROBOTICS FIRMWARE UPDATE
Dale Jordan, our Championship Field Technical Advisor, strongly advises teams to send your Modern Robotics electronic units back to Modern Robotics for the firmware update.  You will be happy you did it. Complete information at this link    http://modernroboticsinc.com/firmware-update

STIMS NOT YET AVAILABLE
For those of you who have already registered for the 2016-2017 season, we have been informed the STIMS function in not available yet. See national FTC Team Blast email dated 5/26.

FIRST Tech Challenge Oregon - May 17, 2016

MAY 17, 2016
Dear FIRST Tech Challenge Oregon Community!
It is the start of a new FIRST Tech Challenge season!

1) National FTC Registration opens TOMORROW - May 18th! There are changes to the registration system. Most notably,  coaches should be able to order Tetrix/Matrix kits and Electronics in the FIRST Storefront on an as needed basis rather than needing to pay for everything all at once.  

2) It's FIRST Tech Challenge Team Support Award and Grant Application Season! Time to think about paying for stuff for next season. There are several opportunities available depending on your affiliation. Detailed Information is on the ORTOP Team Support Award page.  The following financial support opportunities exist (at this time):

• Daimler: Education in Motion - DEADLINE TO APPLY is May 31st.
  
• We only have 2 applications submitted so far. 10 Veteran and 5 Rookie Awards will be awarded.
• Oregon Department of Education - DEADLINE TO APPLY is June 17th.
  
• $250K available for FLL, FTC and FRC veteran and rookie teams. 
  
• ORTOP Team Support Awards - several varieties - see link for details.
  
• This may be the year your school/organization expands to being an "FTC Tribe" by adding additional NEW teams to your existing program. Instant Scrimmage!
  

3) MAKING FIRST LOUD!! 

• On the FTC Oregon web home in the middle column we have a "THINKING OF STARTING A FIRST ®Tech Challenge (FTC) Team  at your school or organization site?" orange box.  Please direct potential new teams to this source for information.
  
• Can't find something on our antiquated website? On the FTC Oregon web home in the middle column we have a VETERAN FTC Team box with information of interest to Veteran teams. I'll be putting the hottest and most important links in this box.
  
• Below this is a tentative FTC Oregon TIMELINE for the 2016-2017 Season. 
  
• Thoughts for the upcoming season..
  
• Survey will be going out in a few days. PLEASE ANSWER IT. This will help me make projections and start organizing for the fall. I VALUE your opinion on how we run FTC in Oregon for the things we can control. And we know and will need to accept there are a ton of things we have no control over.
  
• For Teams in Leagues: A nomenclature change. League Championships will now be known as League Tournaments. Championship is now reserved for the highest level of event in a State or Region,the four multi-state regional events (Super-Regional Championship) and the World Championship.
  
• ORTOP is looking for new site for the FTC Oregon Championship on Feb 25/26. Benson HS has been a wonderful host but I feel we need more room to host 48 teams and 75 volunteers. Would like to keep it within 50 miles of Beaverton, but I'm open to suggestions. If you have a suggestion, please email me. Think outside of the box, we could be at a high school, community college or other inventive event space. 

Submitted by: Cathy Swider, FIRST Tech Challenge Oregon, Affiliate Partner