Team Leaders, I hope everyone is enjoying our short summer season.   Our planning for late August and Fall is in full swing.  Here’s what we know so far:

MN State Fair (August 26 – September 6)

The MN State Fair has traditionally been our best marketing event of the year.  We still need more teams to demonstrate their robot. A full complement is three teams each day demonstrating their robot at 3 different times during the day.   If teams would like, they can also march with the robot in the afternoon parade (a cart for the robot is recommended).  In addition, entered teams compete for Blue Ribbons.   Here’s the spreadsheet with the available days (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1c137HIxRkTUlXA-zr6iCL9fsFMNRt-RfA7KKpM770LI/edit#gid=0 ).  Please contact Jay Nix (jay.nix006@gmail.com) or call 612-968-0802 if your team is interested.  Teams must also register with the Fair (https://competition.mnstatefair.org ).

JumpStart Training Seminars

These are the dates as an FYI.  More details will be following as the agendas firm up.  Watch these websites for updates (https://www.jumpstartrobotics.org ) and (https://firstuppermidwest.org/training/ )

October 2nd JUMPSTART for Mentors (Delta Modtech, Ramsey).
October 30th JUMPSTART (Medtronic, Fridley)
November 20th JUMPSTART, mini version held at the Minne Mini (Prior Lake) in the morning.
December 4th JUMPSTART (St. Cloud State).

Off-Season competitions

The dates for off-season competitions are:

EMCC (Woodbury) – September 18th
MRI (Roseville) – October 15th and 16th
NMRC (Upsala) – October 29th (NMRC championship) and 30th (open to all teams)
Minni-Mini (Prior Lake) – November 20th and 21st
ICC scrimmage (Grand Rapids) – November 20th

The FUM website (https://firstuppermidwest.org/off-season-events/off-season/ ) will post details as they become available.

Regards, Mark Lawrence
Chair, MN FIRST Regional Planning Committee