[archiver]

Posted by Andy Baker.

Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 8/20/2000 10:52 PM MST


In Reply to: Forum posted by Michael Martus on 8/19/2000 12:59 PM MST:



Here are my notes from the 'ADMINISTRATIVE-AWARDS-SHIPPING' meeting. There is some speculation in here also, but I'll start out with the facts that Lori, Ericka, and Lynn gave to us:

SHIPPING:
1. There will be these restrictions this year:
size: 4ft. x 4ft. x 6ft. tall
weight: 400 lbs.
crate limit: 2
teams pay: school to drayage
FIRST pays: Drayage to event
teams pay: event to home
FIRST only pays for 1st crate (as long as it's under 400 lbs.)

REGISTRATION:
1. Start date: 9/11/00 End date: 12/8/00
2. Online registration and team info editing: by means of password (team leader only)
3. Rookie status is up to team. For example, if a team decides to change schools (or sponsors), but they feel that they are not rookies, they CAN keep their old team #, and not become rookies. Contact your team coordintator for more info on this.
4. Team info is edited by the team... so if your team name is wrong, you team leader changes it.
5. You cannot 'unregister' or change comps. w/o calling your team rep.

MENTORING PROGRAM:
Ericka Smith, who replaced Theresa Clement at FIRST is coordinating an extensive MENTORING program. It has two sides:
1. She gave each team a mentoring guide book that gives good outlines for inter-team mentoring. The goal is to mentor the students so that they will themselves be mentors. This will be on-line (see below).
2. There will be an extensive mentoring portion to the FIRST site. If a team wants to be a mentor or a mentee, then they can sign up on this site-to-be. If a team wants to be 'adopted' by a mentor team, then they go to this site to get set up... and they don't even have to be a rookie team to do this. Look for more on MENTORING and this new site.

AWARDS:
1. The FIRST staff asked us if we would like to submit a summary sheet for the Chairman's award. The general concensus was no, bit reaction was mixed.
2. They said that many teams want an award for participating... even just an official certificate.
3. They discussed the option of having more awards, but did not elude to much... they said that things were in the works.

REGIONALS & NATIONALS:
1. Much talk was made about how to improve each regional, from the pits to hotels to food and parties.
2. Not much time was spent talking about Nationals... BUT, FIRST asked that teams DO NOT make any premature reservations, and to use the FIRST package at Disney, once the date is announced in EARLY OCTOBER.
...others might have more on these issues.

Please take my writing as 'unofficial', and if you have any questions on these topics, call or email your FIRST team representative.

Take care,
Andy B.