100 Days till Kickoff 2013

[akoscielski3]

Well I think we can officially say we are in "Pre-Season" with about 100 days left.

So what has your team been doing during the off-season, and what are your plans for the Pre-Season?

772 has been up to A LOT! We are currently in the process of creating multiple teams in the Windsor-Essex area (including restarting 773 and 776). Have gone to many Demo's and done many presentations. We have contacted the University of Windsor and St.Claire College and have their full support and help with starting new teams. Here is a video one of our students recently made to summarize our off-season thus far.

Our plans for preseason:
- Create a couple more FRC teams
- Train people in Solidworks for this year
- Build a prototype
- Hopefully build a surprise, Any Guesses? (IF you know please don't say it)
- Train new members
- Start work on Chairman's
- Possibly move because of the issues in Ontario (not a plan, but will happen if needed)

Hope everyone has a great Pre-Season, and I hope you learn/accomplish alot!

See you at Kick-off! 100 DAYS!!!!!

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by akoscielski3

- Hopefully build a surprise, Any Guesses? (IF you know please don't say it)

Mecanums that strafe, or shifting gearboxes that shift?

[F22Rapture]

1. Getting. Money. At least we're in the black, unlike last year.

2. Training. We're emptying our $800 reserve materials account on a new drivebase and control system so that we can effectively prototype, demonstrate best practices, start training our programming team (of which I'm the only one who knows any of the FRC-specific stuff, our sole programmer graduated last year), and give the drive team some practice on a more standard drivetrain.

3. Recruitment. We got a demo set up at the county fair and we've been heavily recruiting at local high schools. We went from around 10 members to around 18-22, plus new mentors.

[mplanchard]

You created a really nice video. It must have been pretty exciting to present to the Royal Astronomical Society but I loved all the little kids that surrounded you at the beginning of the video. Thank you for sharing and using SolidWorks. Marie.

[akoscielski3]

Yesterday my team had a Open House, that we assisted in hosting with a local organization called WEtech. It was great! An astronaut came, 1114 came down from st.catherines to show their robot along with ours, FIRST Canada came, AND we signed up 3 new local FRC teams for the 2013 season!

A video and a newsletter should be posted soon!

[CrazyHorse]

Originally Posted by akoscielski3

- Hopefully build a surprise, Any Guesses? (IF you know please don't say it)\

Does it have to do with your drivetrain?

[akoscielski3]

Originally Posted by CrazyHorse

Does it have to do with your drivetrain?

It has a Chassis but thats not the good part about it.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by akoscielski3

It has a Chassis but thats not the good part about it.

2 speed robot that can strafe?

[F22Rapture]

Originally Posted by akoscielski3

It has a Chassis but thats not the good part about it.

I'm guessing something with a cannon

[akoscielski3]

Originally Posted by F22Rapture

I'm guessing something with a cannon

No cannon on it

[Anupam Goli]

An automatic massage and beverage dispensing robot? It would be great for game days!

[Brandon_L]

Speaking of kickoff, has anyone heard word if it will be pre-recorded again this year? I absolutely disliked it last year, it took away from the experience and was even more boring than an hour and a half of kamen speeches.

[akoscielski3]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

Speaking of kickoff, has anyone heard word if it will be pre-recorded again this year? I absolutely disliked it last year, it took away from the experience and was even more boring than an hour and a half of kamen speeches.

I can't say for certain, but I 'm thinking they will do the prerecorded cast again. Reason being that it was a lot easier for them to just press play, than having to do a bunch of work for the Live Cast. You should expect an answer from the Frc Blog with-in a month or so.

I didn't mind last years webcast because it seemed a lot smoother and possibly more clear of a picture. We also go to hear from different compsnies such as Coca Cola, which I think we wouldnt have otherwise, assuming he's a busy man. The only thing I didn't like was that it took away the affect from the New Hamshire kick-off.

[JosephC]

Originally Posted by akoscielski3

No cannon on it

Bacon Dispenser.