Welcome me back?

[D.Allred]

Dan,
Welcome back!

I see you focus on awards and scouting. There have been several changes...

For 2014, FRC teams can receive a free copy of a business intelligence data analysis package by Tableau. There is a CD thread on this announcement.

There were significant changes in awards for 2013 and apparently a few more coming in 2014. The 2014 awards manual just got released today. The website award was removed in 2013 and replaced by a new emphasis on social media. Dean's Homework from last season was to create a 2 minute video of your team's story to share with corporate sponsors or other FIRST marketing initiatives.

There have been a few new developments in the broader FRC community as well. One of my favorites is FRCTop25.com. Check it out.

Also do some research on "Robot in 3 Days" plus this year's "Build Blitz" initiative from VexPro. These efforts are designed to help the FRC community raise the level of competition and will have a significant impact on 2014.

David