FTC Oregon Update: Dean's List Submission Issues - FIRST IT issues

12/13/17 - UPDATES/CHANGES AS WE LEARN ABOUT THEM: 
As more mentors try to submit for Dean's List we are learning about new issues. Rather than send an email each time, I will post new information here to help you.

1. Only the Primary Coach and Asst. Coach can upload FTC Dean's List submissions from their FIRST Dashboards. If a submission is written by a different registered mentor, it must be uploaded by either the registered Primary Coach or registered the Asst. Coach. The author's name should appear at the bottom of the essay. 
2. If you have an issue and you call FIRST, 800-871-8326 during 8 am - 5 pm EastCoastTime, ask for Erin Fadden. She is the staff person in charge of FTC Dean's List 
3. Deadline for submitting to FIRST and the back-up copy to Cathy Swider is  12/15 -11:59 Eastern Standard Time. That's 8:59 Pacific Time 
4. Character count issue  -  a new line character was being counted as two characters instead of one and even though the word count was 4000 or less, it would end up going over. Erin Fadden at FIRST is working the issue but is not sure if it will be fixed in time. If people were to eliminate new lines/ para breaks while submitting or keep the character count low, (so there are at least 1 or 2 characters left), they should be good to go.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIRST Tech Challenge Mentors and Coaches:

 Deadline to submit for the FIRST Tech Challenge Dean's List is Friday, December 15th at 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time. 

 I am receiving reports of issues with the submission process through the Mentor's FIRST Dashboard.  As a precaution, I would like to initiate a double submission process so all submissions are received and if they aren't I have something to show to FIRST saying that they were submitted by the deadline of December 15th. 

The process will work like this. 

• #1) Make every attempt to submit online according to the FIRST procedures outlined in the FIRST Dean's List Submission Guidelines.  
• If you have issues call 800-871-8326 during 8 am - 5 pm EastCoastTime, and let them know you are having issues so it can be recorded. Ask for Erin Fadden 

• #2} Please have the mentor who is submitting for the team member to send a copy of the submission to cathy-swider@ortop.org  as a Word document or pdf or Google Doc. All submissions to me must be received by December 15th at 8:59 PM Pacific Time. 

• EMAIL SUBJECT LINE: DEAN'S LIST SUBMISSION - Name of Team Member - Team #.  Using that subject line will allow me to find and collect them. 
• Each submission to me should include: 
•  Nominee Name
• Nominee Grade
• Nominee GPA
• Qualifying Event for the Dean’s List Interview to take place
• Nomination essay of no more than 4,000 characters (spaces and punctuation are included in this limit)
• Student Address/Email  (if the student is not registered in the Student Registration System)
• Coaches can use the address of the school/Organization

Regards, 

Cathy Swider
FIRST Tech Challenge, Affiliate Partner, Oregon

cathy-swider@ortop.org