**FIRST EMAIL**/Event Registration Opens Sept 30/Policy for Changing Team Contacts/Tr

[Mark McLeod]

Greetings Teams:

IMPORTANT - Event Registration Date Change!: Initial Event Registration for the FRC® 2011 Season will open in TIMS on Thursday, September 30th @ 12 noon EST. We are opening registration a week early this year to better accommodate teams. Teams will be able to:

• Register for one (1) Regional event (or two district events if you are from Michigan)
• Teams that prequalify for the 2011 Championship and Veteran teams who did NOT compete in the 2010 Championship, may register for the 2011 Championship event. Learn more about 2011 Championship Eligibility Criteria here: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...nt.aspx?id=944

Clarification of Policy for Changing Team Contacts in TIMS: You may change your team’s contacts yourself by inviting a replacement in TIMS within the “Team Contacts” field. Please do not email FIRST® requesting that we change the contacts for you—we do not touch teams’ personal information unless there are special circumstances.
If your main contact has switched schools, moved, or otherwise cannot be reached, you must contact your Regional Director and request that they authorize FIRST to manually make a team contact change. You can search for your Regional Director here: http://www.usfirst.org/regionalcontact.aspx. Your Regional Director will need to submit an email to frcteams@usfirst.org on your behalf in the following format:

To: frcteams@usfirst.org

Subject: Team Contact Change- Team ###

Body: Please remove ________ as the main contact for team ###. _________ is now the new main contact, and his/her preferred email address is ___________.

Trademark Policy: FIRST, the FIRST programs (FIRST Robotics Competition, FRC, etc.) and the names of our FIRST games (Breakaway®, Lunacy®, etc.) are now registered trademarks. Teams are still encouraged to use the FIRST & FRC logos and terms on team websites, promotional materials and t-shirts, but now we ask everyone to comply with the trademark policy here: http://www.usfirst.org/aboutus/content.aspx?id=2880.

Get Out the Vote for FIRST! – Round #2: FIRST could receive $200,000 from American Express through Members Project; but we need your help…and the help of all your friends, family and other members of the extended FIRST family/community….. to make this potential contribution a reality. If you are 18 years of age or older, please go register and vote each week: www.takepart.com/membersproject/vote. Thanks for your continued support!

FIRST Senior Mentor Call September 21: The next FSM call will take place on 9/21 @ 7 PM EST. The call topic is FRC Mentor Orientation 101. For more information about the call, please visit: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/....aspx?id=18104

2011 Beta Test Teams: The Beta Test Teams have been announced in Bill’s Blog: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/....aspx?id=18089. Our thanks to everyone who offered to help with this project. You can follow the Beta Test Teams’ progress and communicate directly with Beta Test Teams here: http://forums.usfirst.org/forumdisplay.php?f=1458

2011 Event Schedule: Be sure to check out Bill’s Blog to see what we have established so far in terms of Regional Events for the 2011 Season: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/....aspx?id=18101

Go Teams!

[Mark McLeod]

The claim that September 30 is a week earlier than last year's October 1 registration opening is kind of weird...

[Jon Stratis]

Personally, I'm liking the addition of a regional in Duluth. It's a much, much shorter drive for us than our previous traveling regionals to St. Louis and Kansas City. And of course, you can expect to see us back to defend our finalist position in Minneapolis for the 4th year in a row!

[rsisk]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

The claim that September 30 is a week earlier than last year's October 1 registration opening is kind of weird...

That's because the Kamen corollary to Einstein's theory of relativity states:

The closer we get to kickoff, the slower time passes.

In fact, some speculate that kickoff is possibly a technological singularity

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

The claim that September 30 is a week earlier than last year's October 1 registration opening is kind of weird...

It doesn't say "a week earlier than last year." It just says "a week early." Weren't you the one who pointed out yesterday that the September 30 date is a week earlier than the previous month's draft calendar had it?

[Mark McLeod]

sigh - that may be a week(sic) argument, but I do believe you got me...


I wonder if we have to retrofit all our archived old workshops wherever the new trademark rules apply?
Just finding all our uses of FIRST® buried everywhere in our website is driving us nuts. It's everywhere, it's everywhere...

I just noticed that the FIRST® email blast doesn't follow the rules...BREAKAWAY™ and LUNACY® should be capitalized and BREAKAWAY™ requires a ™.

CO-OPERTITION FIRST®™ looks really strange.