Team leaders, you’ve completed a couple of weeks of build, prototypes should be nearing completion, and your team will soon be moving to robot-ready mechanisms.  If you are experiencing troubles, please ask for help (https://mnfirst.org/first-community-resources/online-assistance/ )

Believe it or not, it’s time to start thinking about some additional activities.

Volunteers needed

The MN volunteer coordinator, Laurie Shimizu (lfshimizu@gmail.com ), is recruiting volunteers for all our upper Midwest regional competitions.  Robot inspectors and scorekeepers are particularly short.  There are opportunities for many other roles, too.   Please contact Laurie if you or some of your mentors can help (your team won’t miss a couple of mentors at the competition).

MN Robot Coaches Association

Due to the slower than anticipated registration for the Minnesota Robotics Coaches Association, the deadline will be extended to Friday, February 1.  This also means that the due date for awards submissions will be moved to February 15, 2019 (12:00PM CST).

You can find the information at www.mshsca.org/robotics.  If you have any questions, please email Alex Jurek at ajurek@isd726.org.

MURA Field

For teams in the metro area, the MURA field (actually full field with half the field elements) is complete and ready for teams.  There is also a nicely equipped shop for onsite repairs and modifications. The hours are Monday (5pm-9pm), Thursday (5pm-9pm) and Saturday (9am-3pm).  Details and sign up for practice time can be found by following the link on this page.

https://mnfirst.org/first-community-resources/mura-practice-field/#signups

Junkyard Robots – Duluth Regionals

If your team is going to one of the Duluth Regionals, the Junkyard Robot competition is back again.  For years, this “robot” build has attracted some of the most creative talent from competing teams.  This year’s rules and sign up can be found on this page:

https://mnfirst.org/duluth-regionals/duluth-junkyard-robots/

Railcars

If your team is going to the Great Northern Regional, your team has a chance to celebrate the history of the Great Northern Railway by building your very own railcar.  Find the details on this page:

https://mnfirst.org/the-great-northern-regional/great-northern-railcar-competition/

Regards, Mark Lawrence
Chairman, MN FIRST Regional Planning Committee