As an FYI - San Antonio will be hosting several rookie workshops at the kick-off. One of which will be a modified drivetrain session, a session on how to connect all of the electronics and the control system and then a great introduction to Lab View by NI folks up the road in Austin. We are suggesting that rookie teams send at least 2 - 3 students/adults to each of those sessions. We've also asked veteran teams attending our kick-off to help with those sessions as we will have 20 rookie teams at our kick-off event of 38 teams from San Antonio and the South Texas. Austin and Central Texas teams will do something similar up in Austin, Texas.
So bring a few basic hand tools such as a ratchet set, screw drivers, wire cutters, and allen wrenches. We won't be doing any cutting of the frame materials as we don't want to force a set foot print onto your robot design right off the bat during kick-off. I would say bring safety goggles/glasses but we won't be cutting any metal so you should be fine.
So save room for the kit of parts boxes but bring a dozen or so students/adults to the kick-off to get a running start to the season.
If you can't bring all of the team, then bring the leads for mechanical, programming, and business as we will also have a session on developing a team business plan. Have the worker bees stay at school and watch the webcast and then print and read all of the game and robot rules sections cover to cover before the leaders return from San Antonio later that evening.
Al's advice for a cart to move the kit of parts boxes from the store room to your van/car/bus is a great reminder as a couple of the boxes are large and heavy as I described a couple of posts earlier.