Team Leaders, It’s prime-time to re-start FRC teams and introduce new members to the fun and excitement that is FIRST Robotics! For your schedules, the following opportunities are available to you.
EMCC “Open House” Off- Season Event
Hey Teams! Many of you are struggling with reconstituting a team with minimal mentors or students or robot functionality. EMCC is adjusting its format for this season to enable all teams to attend with a low time commitment and zero cost entry. On Saturday Sept 18th from 8am through 4pm in Woodbury MN, EMCC will run as an open house. There is zero cost for any team to ‘just show up and play’. The format will be loose – we may run some 3 on 3 matches, but 1 on 1 matches or even zero-on-one can be run for pure ‘driving practice’ – it all depends on how many folks show up and what you’d like to do. All will be in practice match format, and we won’t have any scoring or referees. We seek to provide as much exposure as possible to any team member to drive a robot or participate as a drive team member – or just walk-the-field up close! All we ask is for you to show up. It would be nice to know in advance if you do plan to attend even for a short time – this is not obligatory, but it does help us plan. Just send a quick note to emailemcc@gmail.com and https://www.em-cc.org/
Minnesota Robotics Invitational
Hosted by FRC 2846-Firebears. Sign-ups are underway. Pick your day, either Saturday October 16 or Sunday October 17. Questions? Email Tom Lageson, tlageson@comcast.net.
https://firstuppermidwest.org/
Turtle Trials Challenge 2021
Looking for an alternative to the off-season scrimmages? There are still openings available for the Turtle Trials Challenge 2021 event! We’re at 10 of the 12-16 team slots available for Turtle Trials this fall! As mentioned in prior messaging, this is an opportunity for teams to experience a practice design/build/compete format before the regular season. The 2019 Turtle Trials animation can be seen at https://team3100.com/.
The Turtle Trials game officially releases on September 25th, but teams do not have to use that as their official start date for their program. Any resources associated with the release will be made easily available for teams who have signed up. Teams will have until the competition on December 3-4 to work on their robots at their own pace.
Registration for Turtle Trials is open until Saturday, October 23rd. This gives teams an opportunity to join Turtle Trials after the game animation and resources have been released to determine whether or not the program/game fits with their fall schedule.
Anyone interested in joining or wants more information about the program can email Charles Nepomuceno (cgtn729@gmail.com).
Have you signed up for the FRC Blog?
Team mentors, a lot of season pertinent information is released via the FRC Blog. We strongly recommend that you subscribe to these weekly updates! Here’s the link to the main landing page: https://www.firstinspires.org/
Lots of Resources, Newly Updated!
There are valuable resources now available to FRC Team mentors, conveniently listed on a new landing page. Please see all of the information and help available on this page: https://www.firstinspires.org/
This link will take you directly to the FRC Calendar: https://www.firstinspires.org/
This link will take you to the updated FRC Mentor Guide, an overview of what it means to be a FRC mentor. Check it out! https://www.firstinspires.org/
Introductions, Please!
Team Mentors, we are in active recruitment mode for individuals interested in helping mentor and lead FIRST Robotics Competition teams! Openings are available throughout Minnesota. Please send all queries and inquiries to Ken Rosen, Minnesota’s Regional Director (krosen@umn.edu).
Regards, Mark Lawrence
Chairman, MN FIRST Regional Planning Committee