your first website can be a frustrating process, even for the most tech-savvy.
Google Apps has enabled
These are ready for the website - I have the titles at the top of each write up and I have Categories: in red I created some new ones
Can we put them, categories and the write ups, in this order on the website?
I also copied the ones from the website, they are in blue
We have a total of 18 new CowTips so far
We already added to the website Once you qualify for Championships
Linking - can we link the blue highlighted ones? I haven’t done the original ones
yet
Competitions
Getting To and From Competition
Getting to and from a robotics competition can be a daunting task, especially when you start looking at the number of team member that will be traveling and getting your tools and equipment as well as your robot to the event. Breaking each task down helps make it a lot easier. When we go to our local regional we encourage all of the member of our team to attend, they have worked hard to get our team, robot and award submissions done and they should all get to enjoy at least one regional event.
Regional Competition
Hopefully, your local regional is close enough to make sure your entire team is there for each day of the competition. For our local regional our team is dropped off and picked up each day at the venue. Each student on our team is assigned a regional job the week before so once we get to our event everyone knows what they will be doing and where they should be.
If you are having to travel to a regional hours away it is helpful to first consider how many student will be traveling with your team and if it is during a school vacation or will they need to miss school to attend. We have a priority list for events with our team if space is limited for competition travel. That list goes:
1Drive team
2Pit crew
3Chairman’s presenters
4Pit speakers
5Scouts
6Seniors
7Juniors
8Sophomore
9Freshman
Once you know how many team members and mentors will be traveling then you should consider what will be the best way to get your team and robot to your competition. If you will need to charter a coach bus get quotes from several companies in the area, sometimes there can be hundreds of dollars difference. The cargo bay under the bus can usually hold your robot, and all totes and luggage. Remember you will be required to pay for the bus driver’s hotel room, sometimes the hotels will comp you a room for the busdriver. Do not be afraid to ask. Also, look for a team close to you to share the bus with your team, not only does this help split the cost of the bus but it is a great way to get to spend some fun time with another team.
Flights
If you are flying with a group of ten or more contact the Group Reservations at the airlines. The prices are a little bit more than what you can get online but you have the convenience of being able to change passenger names up to 48 hours prior to the flight and you all fly and arrive together.
Take baggage fees into the total price of tickets, $25.00 per bag each way adds up when you have to check in totes.
Be careful packing your totes, airlines are really strict about the 50 pound weight limit. We zip tie our totes and tape 2 extra zip ties to the top of the totes so after they are inspected by the airline, most of the time they will re-zip tie them. Be sure to pack your batteries in your crate since they are not allowed to be checking onto the airplane.
It helps to have team members carry-on their bags and only check team supplies. Remember if your students have utility knives please be sure they are put into the totes.
Shipping your Robot to Regional or Championships
Regional Competition
FedEX no longer pays for shipping of robot crates to regional or district events so take this into consideration when choosing a regional event, shop around for pricing or see if you can find a sponsor who will pay for the crate shipping.
Remember that you need to crate and ship your robot the Tuesday after your last Regional event. You should receive your FedEx papers at your qualifying regional, if not contact your Regional Director.
Be sure that your crate does not weigh over 400 pounds! For all FIRST information about shipping your crate go to
Hotels
Contact Steel Meetings for rooms, they usually have deals in the area of the venue. Generally quad rooms are available at hotels, these can sleep 4 and help to bring down the cost of rooms.
Try to find a place that includes breakfast, it will save a meal cost and time in the morning.
Steele Meetings, Inc.
6346-65 Lantana Rd
Suite 117
Lake Worth, FL 33463
888-5STEELE (578-3353)
561-292-3314 (P)
561-649-5396 (F)
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Competition Jobs
At competitions, every job is critical to the success of the team. Here are some ideas of jobs you could assign students during a competition, listed in order of importance:
Drive Team (1 Driver, 1 Operator, 1 Human Player)
This is the group of students responsible for driving the robot.
Pit Crew (1 Pit Crew Manager, 3-4 Students)
This is the group of students responsible for maintaining the robot during the course of a competition. Make sure that they have knowledge of your team’s robot; these students will be responsible for explaining the technical aspects of your robot to the judges!
Chairman’s Presenters (3 Students, 1 Student for Backup)
Once you are no longer a rookie team, your team can qualify for the prestigious Chairman’s Award (see Chairman’s CowTip for more details)! These students will present your Chairman’s presentation at any competition where you are competing for the Chairman’s Award.
Pit Speakers (2-4 Students)
This is the group of students that are responsible for talking to judges and VIPs that come to your pit. Pit Speakers should be selected based on their knowledge of FIRST, your team, and your robot.
Scouts (8-12 Students)
These students are responsible for scouting other teams at competition. They will be watching matches and recording information on team's performance. Scouts provide valuable information for alliance selections, regardless of a team’s seeding position.
Safety Captain (1 person)
This person is in charge of safety glasses, cleanliness of pit, keeping aisles clear, keeping only needed personnel in pit and knowledge of where first aid is.
Video (1-2 Students)
This group of students are responsible for recording ALL matches at a competition. This includes capturing the jumbotron as well as recording the 'full field view' video to be used for scouting and documentation.
Photography (1-2 Students)
These students are responsible for taking pictures of every robot in their pit and on the field. These photos are used for scouting purposes and documentation.
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Judging Tips for Competitions
Judging is a really important aspect when it comes to attending regionals and Championships. The judges evaluates every teams and the more you interact with the judges and show your team accomplishments, the more likely you will become considered for awards!
●Judges wear blue shirts. They may return more than once during your event. It is important to make sure that your pit speakers have enough knowledge about how the team is run and the basics of the robot. It is also nice to have an engineer and public relations person doing pit speaking together, as they can help each other out.
●First impressions count. How your pit looks does matter. Try to be clean and organized and free of team members “hanging around”. Too many people might discourage a judge from getting a chance to speak to your pit speakers.
●It is always important to always have a few students available on Friday and Saturday in your pit area. Judges have a very tight time schedule and may not have a chance to come back to speak to your team.
●Don’t be afraid to pull in a judge, even if they are not coming to your pit area. All the judges talk and the more that you speak to the more judges will remember your team.
●Assume judges will not have seen copies of your Chairman’s Award entry, if you submitted one. Feel free to hand them a copy in the pits.
●During Chairman’s presentation some teams give the judges binders, scrapbooks, or other documentation to take back with them to the deliberation room, these will be available to pick up after deliberations.
●Judging for the Entrepreneurship Award will occur on the first day of competition. Make sure you have an example of your business plan to share with the judges on that day.
●Some teams prepare short handouts, brochures or a magazine about their team for the judges to take away, highlighting what your team has done throughout the year.
●Judges will be observing your team throughout the entire competition, even if they aren’t interviewing you. Make sure your teammates are very careful what they say in the halls, stands, and bathrooms it will reflect back on your team. Judges will also ask the other volunteers, for their input.
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Scouting
Scouting in FRC is a way to analyze and record data during competitions. The data will be used to determine which teams we would like to be on our alliance and improve our chances of winning.
There are different ways to scout, in the pits and during qualification matches. In the pits, members of the team will take pictures of other teams’ robots, which reminds us of what the robot looks like. In addition, members will ask the questions about the robot, such as type of drive base, whether it is a long or wide robot, and other technical questions about the robot. During qualification matches, members of the teams will watch the robots play the game. Depending on the game, we make a scouting sheet containing the list of abilities of the robot during game play. For example, 2012’s game was Rebound Rumble, and we collected data on the robot’s ability to score and to balance. As team members watch the robots play, they recorded if the robots were able to shoot, the accuracy scoring, and whether if it was able to balance. We also record the qualification matches to help us clarify a robot’s ability if the data from the scouting sheets inconsistent.
Not all teams may want to interview teams or spend the entire regional competition watching robots play. Teams may choose one method over the other or some combination of both.
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Once you qualify for Championships...
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Photography
Having a photographer on any FIRST team is very important. Photographs allow you to see the progress your team has made, show others and rookies what your team is all about, and so much more! It is also best to have someone on the team be the photographer. Though a team parent makes a good photographer, it may be best to have a student on the team take the photos because it could give someone a chance to join a FIRST team, that wouldn’t normally have joined.
Some helpful things to remember:
1) Make sure you have a clear of idea of what you want photos of. Make a checklist to ensure you have taken those shots. It is an easy way of keeping track of what photos you’ve taken and photos you need to take.
2) It is best, but not necessary, if your camera is a DSLR or an SLR. These types of cameras tend to have better quality than most cameras, and can capture more than a small point-and-shoot camera. Also, you can change lenses, which can allow you to zoom in when you’re too far, or blur out the background if you need to take a photo of a person or object.
3) Always bring a second camera. You never know when you could have issues with your first camera. It could randomly stop working or run out of battery, and a spare battery is not found at the moment it is needed. This second camera could be a simple point and shoot.
4) Bring an extra battery or charger to events and competitions. After taking a lot of photos and or video, your camera can run out of battery quite quickly. With an extra charged battery, you can keep taking photos and video, or if you do not own a second battery, charge the camera and you can use your second camera for the time being.
5) Having a second person taking photos at a large event or important competition really helps, but it isn’t necessary. Two photographers could get more done and split up important things to photograph.
6) Bring an external flash if you have one. At competitions or events, you can never predict what your lighting situation will be. It could be too dark, and sometimes the flash that comes on your camera doesn’t always work well.
7) Use flash as much as you can. A flash, even if it’s just the flash that comes on your camera, is really helpful. It makes things that are hard to see more visible, and usually makes a photo look better during an event or competition. Even though flash isn’t the most flattering thing in the world, use it away. Remember, you’re taking photos for your robotics team, not trying to win an photo contest.
8) Have one large memory card to store all robotics related photos. A 32 gig or 16 gig memory card is best. Each of these memory cards can hold many photos, and it’s better to have a large memory card then a small one. A small memory card fills up fast, which would require you to change cards a lot and then you would end up with many memory cards, making it confusing to find specific photos. Try to designate one or two large memory cards to robotics.
9) Put your photos on a photo sharing website where people on the team can have access to, like a Picasa or Flickr. That way, if someone needs a specific photo, the photographer wouldn’t have to go through all the photos just to email a few.
10) If you do keep you pictures hosted on a website be sure to make an album for each event, this will make finding pictures from a specific event or year much easier than sorting through thousands of pictures.
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Team Managment
1Team Handbook
2Finding and Asking For Help
3Preparing for and Attending Kickoff
4Creating A Team Website
5Finding and Recruiting Team Members
6Finding and Utilizing Mentors
7Getting Connected With FIRST
8Using Google Docs
9FIRST Philosophy and Practices
10Creating an Image or Brand
11Sponsorship
12Structuring, Managing, and Utilizing Students
Setting up and using Piggybackr
During 2012, The Holy Cows discovered a website named PiggyBackr, a tool that has helped our students raise money for the team and our travel fund by contacting friends, family, and community members. In late 2011, an experienced team in technology, fundraising, and youth empowerment created Piggybackr. It was created by using research on the best practices in motivation, youth engagement, giving, and fundraising.
There are two ways to set up an account with PiggyBackr:
1Use the code that was given to your FIRST team
2Fill out your contact information and once you finish signing up you’ll need to complete your page. You’ll need a picture of you, a video of your cause, and information about yourself. Now you’re able to send emails to people, companies, and businesses to help fund your cause.
How to set up an email template:
1. Go To: Tools > Spread The Word
2. Add Supporters - enter email addresses of all the friends and family members that
you will be sending this email to. We recommend at least 20. Pro Tip: The most successful fundraisers enter over 100.
3. Select the supporters by checking boxes next to their names
4. Select the email template titled "Use This - Email To Friends and Family"
5. Customize the email template by:
●adding your unique Page URL in the 3 bracketed locations (remove the brackets)
●filling in the 3 reasons why you "LOVE FIRST Robotics"
●changing [Your Name Here] at the end of the email, to your real name and remove the brackets
Note: Your unique URL can be found when going to your personal fundraising Page and copying it from the URL bar. Your reasons for why you love FIRST are best kept to one short sentence each. Your email will not send if there are any brackets present.
6. Check Box: "Save Letter As Template"
7. VERY IMPORTANT - Under "Name" - enter whatever you want and hit "Save".