Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

Announcing the Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up (FRC Off-Season Competition)

Sponsored by FIRST in Texas and National Instruments, planned and organized by Alamo FIRST, the ausTIN CANs - team 2158, and Austin area teams and volunteers!

When:
July 29-30, 2011 (July 29th is an optional practice day. An agenda will be released soon)

Where:
Anderson High School, 8403 Mesa Drive, Austin, Texas
(Home of FIRST Team 2158 - ausTIN CANs)

Cost:
$200 for early registration (must be received by May 15, 2011)
$250 for regular registration (must be received by June 15, 2011)

Capacity: 30 teams

Why:
This is an opportunity for FRC teams (Veteran & Rookie) to come together one more time to share experiences, learn from each other, build new friendships, practice and compete with their robots and have a fun time. This is also an opportunity to bring new team members or sponsors up to speed on what FIRST is really all about.

Team Registration: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/spr...NQWmJOd2c6M Q

Volunteer Registration: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spre...FNZ2RBZnc6M Q

Please contact Patrick Felty (pfelty@USFIRST.org) or Jess Jankowitsch (jessjank@gmail.com) with any questions.

Re: Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

Already input my volunteer prefs and would like to know more about the online system you are using as I think it will help manage multiple other FIRST events as Texas is still under rapid expansion and can really tweak and improve our management efforts and organization.

Re: Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

It is just a google form....it saves the output as a google doc. You can configure the front end through a wysiwyg editor.

Re: Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

I've signed up to help at the event. Let me know if you need help with the planning side of things Jess.

~Stash~

Re: Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

Really excited about off-season in Texas ! We have a huge number of Texas teams that really need an extra event to help them prepare and become FIRST quality. Austin is the place to visit if you have never been to Texas !


Anyword on who's coming so far ?
An event with the Texas Powerhouses should be fun ( 57, 118, 148, 418, 624, 1429, and 1477)

How many teams outside of Texas are interested in registering ?

Will there be an official game field at the event ?

Re: Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

Hey to answer a few of your questions, Andymark is sending an official game field down!

Heres the link to the Facebook event, https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=204992072868726

I know almost all of the Austin team will be there, but I don't know about other teams outside of ATX.

Will the Discobots be there?

Re: Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

Team 1429 is trying to attend. If there isn't any scheduling problems with the students at that time, we will be there.

Re: Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

Yes, an official FIRST field for Logo Motion will be hauled down to Austin from Indiana by AndyMark personnel. Most likely, we will have two FTAs, Mark Koors and Jerry Budd, on site for the event. We are excited to be a part of this event, and more AndyMark personnel may also attend and help.

Sincerely,
Andy Baker

Re: Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

I'll most likely be down there to do team queing per Jess' request.

Re: Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

I haven't been on CD in a while, but I thought I would post for this one.

As someone who tried to get an off season in Texas going a few years back, it is good to see one that is backed by a big name like NI.

Kudos, and I hope it turns out well!

Pavan

Re: Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

False modesty isn't becoming of you Andrew, I think all those teams will admit that if Disco isn't a powerhouse of Texas, they're fast becoming one.

At any rate, I'm hearing that 57 will likely attend, hopefully with an actually functioning minibot system.* Possibly with new drivers, since our two drivers this year are graduating. Which means the deployment system has a chance of surviving the event!**

To add to your questions, what's been lined out as far as volunteers? Are inspectors or other volunteers needed?

Also, are there any plans to add more value to this event for younger teams? I think a mini FIRST Conference with some seminars by those powerhouse teams could go a long way to spreading the success around in Texas.

*BTW, we owe you a minibot. Your original took an unfortunate leap off the tower when I attempted to save it from smoking its motors. But fear not, we've made a heck of a lot of improvements since then.

**Our first version of the deployment failed the Bryant test at Champs. We've gifted him the remains for his coat of arms and as a warning to any team foolhardy enough to put him behind the stick of a questionably robust robot.

Re: Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

This was sent out yesterday (should be to any interested teams) :

Re: Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

I haven't talked to my team yet, but it looks like we'll be going.

I'd love to see a mentor match at around lunch Saturday. :)

A skills challenge would also be nice to see.

Re: Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

3103 is planning on coming! We hope to bring up some new members too, get them excited for the year!

Re: Inaugural 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!
 

We have 9 teams who have completed registration and word from between 15 to 20 teams who have expressed interest! Make sure you get your teams registered as soon as possible so that you don't miss your chance to take part in the 2011 Texas Robot Round-up!

Hopefully, we'll have some interested non-Texas teams too!

We're thrilled to have AndyMark's support! Thanks so very much, Andy!

As the volunteer coordinator of the Alamo Regional, I've taken on the role of also coordinating volunteers for this event. If you go to the volunteer registration (see my original post above, or simply click here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spre...FNZ2RBZnc6M Q) you will see a variety of volunteer positions we're looking to fill. This may change with time as we determine needs specific to the event.

We will be having inspectors, though the exact process has not been determined yet (it obviously will not be as stringent as a regional event). I'm certain those of you who have served as inspectors would be able to provide valuable input. We will also be looking to models utilized by other off-season events.

This is in the works! We don't have an agenda firmly squared away yet, however, we are anticipating having seminars available and will let everyone know when we are prepared to take submissions for conference and workshop topics!

ALL teams are absolutely invited, hence the post here on CD first. We're still determining what other means of communication are best to spread word of the event to all teams (we're not authorized to send a mass email out to all 2000+ FRC teams). Assuming that most teams will come from Texas and we would like to ensure that all Texas teams have an opportunity to compete, we made sure to send this out to all TX teams yesterday (timed so that it would be received after Championships). We certainly hope that non-Texas teams are interested and will be able to join us!

We're taking these in to consideration as we solidify the event agenda. Once an agenda is finalized, we'll be sure to make it available!


Thanks so very much for all the excitement and support of the event! We hope that many of you will join us with your teams and/or as volunteers. Please do not hesitate to ask more questions or provide additional suggestions and feedback!