FIRST in Florida

Greetings Teams:

As you all know, the 2013 FRC Kickoff is this Saturday, January 5th!  We have lots of important Kickoff and season information to share with you, so please read carefully and be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed on the 2013 FRC Season News and Email Blasts page:http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/emailblastarchive.aspx.

Surrogate Kit Pickup Reminder: If your team signed up to pick up your Kit of Parts (KoP) at a Local Kickoff and your team’s travel plans have fallen through, you can ask another team in your area to pick up your KoP for you during the Kickoff.  You must provide FIRST (in Manchester, NH) with a Surrogate Kit Pick up letter as soon as possible. For a sample letter, please visit:http://tinyurl.com/cy6kkfr.

The surrogate letter should be sent or faxed to:

FIRST 
Attn: FRC Team Support/Operations
200 Bedford Street
Manchester, NH 03101
Fax #: 603-666-3907

Or scanned and emailed to frcteams@usfirst.org

FRC Manual Q & A System: FIRST recognizes that teams may have questions about game rules, robot construction, event logistics, and more. FIRST asks that teams use the Question & Answer System (Q&A) to post questions pertaining to a specific section within the 2013 FRC Game Manual.  Your posted questions will be reviewed by the appropriate moderator and answered in a timely manner (usually within 2-3 business days). The 2013 Q&A System,http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/game-q-and-a, will go live on Wednesday, 1/9/13 at 12 pm (noon) ET.

In order to access the Q&A System, your team’s specific login info can be found on the Team Summary page in your TIMS record. Please assign one individual from your team to act as the team rules expert and only share your team’s unique username and password with him/her. This team rules expert should be the only person responsible for posting questions to the Q&A System.

Before posting a question on the Q&A System, we encourage teams to look for the answers to questions first within the 2013 FRC Game Manual and Team Updates. You can review these documents here: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/game-and-season-info.

**Time Sensitive** Don’t forget to take inventory of your KoP after Kickoff: After receiving and checking all items in your KoP, should you determine you are missing a part(s), or need replacement part(s) you must use the FIRST ”Replacement Parts Request” system to order replacements. Find more details about this process here:http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/kit-of-parts-replacement-parts-process.

IMPORTANT: This is a time limited, one-time only opportunity to submit your Replacement Parts Request.  We must receive your Replacement Parts Request by 12 pm (noon) ET on Sunday, 1/13/13.

Important Downloads: Please visit the FRC Blog:http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/blog-information-for-2013-the-what-when-where-and-how for a summary of important 2013 season downloads.

Encrypted Sections of the 2013 FRC Manual: Please find the FRC Game Manual page here:http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/competition-manual-and-related-documents. To download the encrypted sections, you will need to right-click on the .pdf file and select “Save Link/Target As…”.The password for accessing these documents will be available at the end of the Kickoff broadcast.

Prior to Kickoff, make sure that your computer has the proper software by following the instructions for the 2013 Decryption Test found here:http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/blog-2013-manual-decryption-test.

Consent and Release Forms: If you haven’t done so already, please consider which 2013FIRST Consent and Release form your team members will be submitting this season.  Remember, if you choose to submit the electronic Consent and Release form you will only need to do so once to attend the 2013 FRC competition events. Students and their parents access the electronic form in STIMS; adult mentors in TIMS).

If anyone on your team opts to submit a hard-copy Consent and Release form instead, please download at: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/first-student-team-information-members-system-and-consent-form and follow instructions for submission located in the “Process Overview Document”.

Michigan (FiM) and MAR (Mid-Atlantic Robotics) teams will find instructions specific to their Consent and Release form submissions in the “process overview document” as well.

Print your Team Roster! No matter which method you choose (electronic or hard-copy), you MUST print off your Team Roster from TIMS and bring it with you to your Kickoff, and your initial competition event. To print the Team Roster:

1)  On the Team Summary page in TIMS, scroll down to the “Student/Roster” field.

2)  Click “View” next to Team Roster.

3) Click Printable Roster.

4) If you have any students/mentors who are providing hard-copy forms, please write in their names on the printed roster and attach their Consent and Release forms.

For more information about the 2013 Consent and Release form, including FAQs and a helpful process overview, please visit: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/first-student-team-information-members-system-and-consent-form

FRC Team Support Available on Kickoff Day: Team Support will be available the day of Kickoff (Saturday, 1/5/13) from 9:00 am-1:00 pm ET. For assistance, please call 1-800-871-8326 x 0.

NASA FRC Kickoff Broadcast:  For those of you who will not be attending a Kickoff this weekend, NASA will broadcast the event live on their website. The broadcast will be available here: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html and will begin at 10:30 am ET.

FIRST® Virtual Technical Advisor: Are you looking for help with your robot? Do you have technical experience and want to help a team? We have the solution! FIRST Virtual Technical Advisor (VTA) is here to help! Sign up to find/give support from anywhere in the world!https://my.usfirst.org/FIRSTPortal/Login/Virtual_login.aspx.

Go Teams!

FRC Team Support

FIRST® is recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) Not-For-Profit Public Charity

V 1(800)871-8326

F 603-666-3907

E frcteams@usfirst.org

W www.usfirst.org

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