Team Leaders,

FEI FI FO FUM Grants – Jan 26th deadline

The FIRST Equity & Inclusion Financing Initiative for FIRST in Upper Midwest (FEI FI FO FUM) Grant will provide FUM FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) teams with funds to implement a project that will make changes to culture and increase the participation and success of underserved, underrepresented and/or vulnerable populations (https://www.firstinspires.org/about/diversityinclusion) in FIRST Robotics in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.  Grants will be available between $100 and $1000.  Further information is available at https://firstuppermidwest.org/first-in-upper-midwest/diversity-and-inclusion/fum-equity-and-inclusion-grant-december-2020/ and teams can apply at http://bit.ly/fumdeigrant.  The application deadline is January 26, 2021

Infinite Recharge challenge roundtables

FIRST in Upper Midwest will be coordinating a series of virtual “roundtable” events for teams participating in the Game Design Challenge, Innovation Challenge, and Chairman’s Award. These events are designed to give teams an opportunity to share their presentation and/or supporting materials with other teams to get feedback prior to making their final submission to FIRST.

The Infinite Recharge challenge roundtable events will be held approximately one week prior to the submission deadlines, during the week of February 28th (deadline is March 4th). We will work with the interested teams to finalize the timing. The Chairman’s Award roundtables will likely be split into separate sessions for the written submission and one for the presentation and interview with judges.

Please have one mentor per team fill out this form (https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=hWwwhdlu1UKZX91IMVhHqrU_fbU3oCpGpXLNWnN3dxRUNEhTRlBDVjNRTlU1VEg4MFdVUkwyODNVQy4u ) if you are interested in attending.

National Mentor Month  –  #MakeItLoud for your Mentors!

Teams, help #makeitloud about National Mentoring Month and thank your team’s mentors! Short videos, selfies of team members with mentors, showcase them on your social media! And, you may get picked by FIRST to be part of the show devoted to mentors on January 29 at noon Eastern on FIRSTtv. Please use the hashtags #CHAMPIONTHEGAME and #MentoringMonth.  Please remember to nominate one of your mentors for the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award.

Mentor Mailing List

To increase the span of regional communications, FUM is building an email list of teams’ mentors.  Currently, the only people receiving regular emails are the Main and Alternate contacts as listed in the FIRST TIMS registration system.  The FUM list will only be used for relevant FRC activities and is strictly Opt-in with unsubscribe capabilities.  Please pass this link to your mentors (not students) so they can sign up:

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=hWwwhdlu1UKZX91IMVhHqrvs5o3PGv1LvOcGDKa6KftUNzA4NzVKU0paREg3M0QyMVBRUVo1WldOOC4u

Regards, Mark Lawrence
Chairman, MN FIRST Regional Planning Committee