**FIRST ROOKIE ALERT**/'Deadlines/Plan Ahead/We're Here to Help!

[Mark McLeod]

Greetings Rookies:

Deadlines:

January 27th: Payments for Additional Regional Events are due.

February 16th: The FIRST Dean’s list, the Woodie Flowers Award and the Website Award submissions all close at noon EST. If you would like to apply for any of these awards, please do so soon. The Chairman’s Award closes on this date and time as well. Rookie teams are not eligible for the Chairman’s Award, however they are invited to submit for the award (the process of applying will give you a benchmark to measure your team against in future years). There are three awards specifically for rookie teams at FRC competitions, but you don’t need to do anything now to be eligible for rookie specific awards.

February 21st: Stop Build Day. On this day your team MUST stop work on your robot and seal it in the bag provided in your Kit of Parts, with the tag from your Kit of Parts.
You may work on your robot until midnight local time, but the seal must be on the bag when the clock strikes midnight! You will also need to complete the Robot
Lock-Up Form: http://www.usfirst.org/sites/default...ck-Up_Form.pdf. Details on the process are
available in Section 5 of the Administrative manual – Robot Transportation. http://frc-manual.usfirst.org/viewItem/7

February 23rd: Judge’s information in TIMS closes: https://my.usfirst.org/frc/tims/site.lasso Judges use this information at competitions when judging teams for awards. Rookies are eligible for
all FRC awards with the exception of the Chairman’s Award AND are eligible for three rookie-only awards. To learn more about FRC awards, please review Section 6 of the Administrative
manual – The Awards. http://frc-manual.usfirst.org/viewItem/8.

Plan Ahead:

If you aren’t already checking Team Updates http://frc-manual.usfirst.org/TeamUpdates/0 , you should start NOW. This is the official place where FRC posts clarifications and updates to the game rules. You don’t want to work long and hard on your robot, and then learn that a rule update disallows your design at your first competition.

If you haven’t already assigned one person to read and distribute every email blast from yet, assign someone NOW. We will be disseminating a lot of information over the next few weeks. If you have one person assigned to communication, they can make sure each division on your team gets the information they need. If you’ve missed any email blasts, you can find them archived on the FRC Team Email Blast page http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...starchive.aspx

As much as you want to focus on building a working robot right now, it’s a good idea to share progress updates with your school, parents, contributors and sponsors so everyone knows what they are supporting. That way they’ll remember the amazing things you accomplished this year when you ask them for their support next year.

We’re Here to Help:

If you have any questions, please contact Team Support at frcteams@usfirst.org or 1-800-871-8326, "0" – they are eager to help you during this rookie season!

Go Rookies!