[VexisDarksteele]

Hello fellow FRC teams,

Each of you have expressed an avid interest in attending and participating in the upcoming May 4th event at the Michigan Science Center, and your eagerness is greatly valued. However, due to a recent development, the event is being moved to June 1st & 2nd.

This year, Oakland University is not going to be hosting its annual TARDEC IGVC FIRST Robotics Invitational, and the Science Center is offering its facilities for this event. Therefore, in lieu of a completely separate event, FIRST in Michigan is partnering up with us to arrange the invitational and demonstrations in the same weekend. The competition aspect of this event (coordinated by FiM) is open to the top ranked teams in the state, however, the downstairs demonstrations and presentation spaces (coordinated by us) are still as they had been planned for the original May 4th event — open to all interested teams. The competition will be taking place on the museum's fourth floor; the rest of the event will still be housed within the main entryway, the atrium, and the Science Stage. We are in the process of getting approval for having a practice field (1 pyramid, 1 set of goals) down in the demonstration space for open use.
Teams attending the demonstration aspect are encouraged to bring along any desired promotional materials or interactive exhibits/activities to engage the public, along with their robots. If there is extra space available, teams might even be able to reserve an extended pit for a Chairman's display. The Science Stage will be open for any presentations teams may wish to hold; please draft up a content outline and submit it for review prior to the event if you'd like to present. Also, if your team has any association with a local FLL or FTC league, we would greatly appreciate any outreach efforts to introduce these two programs to the event as well.

NOTE: The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum event, scheduled for May 11th & 12th, remains unchanged. A few spaces are still open for teams interested in this demonstration opportunity as well.

Please respond with your team's decision on whether you would like to transfer your reservation to the new date or to decline. We're looking forward to hosting this event, and really hope to see you there!