New Central Illinois Regional Looking Good!

[Ryan Dognaux]

We are officially attending the inaugural Central Illinois Regional! There are a lot of recognizable numbers on the team list that should make for some great week 1 matches at this rookie event.

[Michael Hill]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

We are officially attending the inaugural Central Illinois Regional! There are a lot of recognizable numbers on the team list that should make for some great week 1 matches at this rookie event.

Congrats! We look forward to seeing you there!

[gurellia53]

Robot Casserole would like to present our unofficial Guide to the Central Illinois Regional.

Its loaded with information about the surrounding area and can hopefully answer some questions!

[Alpha Beta]

Originally Posted by gurellia53

Robot Casserole would like to present our unofficial Guide to the Central Illinois Regional.

Its loaded with information about the surrounding area and can hopefully answer some questions!

Thanks for the guide. We're looking forward to visiting the area.

FYI, the regional planning committee sent out an e-mail today to all TIMS contacts about the regional. There were two attachements which can be found here.

Welcome to the FIRST Robotics Competition Central Illinois Regional (CIR)!

We are thrilled that your team has registered for the inaugural Central Illinois Regional. The Regional Planning Committee has been working hard since September to launch this Regional, and we are firming up many details in the next few weeks. It will be important for you to visit the Central Illinois Website http://www.ilfirst.org/frc/events/ce...nois-regional/ at least weekly, for updates and watch for email blasts, so we can keep you informed. The following information will help your team start planning for the CIR:

Hotels: We have several events in the Pekin / Peoria area during the same weekend as the CIR that will drive demand for hotel rooms, so we recommend that you secure rooms as soon as possible. There are several hotels available through Steele Meetings that are listed on the Illinois First website: http://www.ilfirst.org/frc/events/ce...resources.html More hotel details will be forthcoming.

Box Lunch: We are planning to have a box lunch option for teams on Friday and Saturday. As soon as the contracts with the vendor are confirmed, you will be getting a notice via email and the forms will also be available on the Central Illinois Regional Website.

Team Social: We are planning a Team Social for Friday night that we are hoping many will be able to participate in and yet be over in time to allow you all to do your team scouting meetings as well!

Unique to this Event:

We are hoping to make this Week One Regional special for all the teams that are participating.

We need your help and enthusiasm to make this possible. The Regional Planning Committee has developed several unique ideas that will promote creativity and friendly competition among the teams throughout the weekend, even off the field!

Poster Contest: The Poster Contest is outlined in the attached PDF. Since this is the first time that a Regional has been held in Central Illinois, we are anticipating a huge interest in the event, but we need your help in creating the posters that will be used to publicize your Regional! We hope to attract students and their families, but also future supporters and VIPS’s.

FIRST Lamps: We know you all have a lot of bright ideas! So this is your chance to prove it. We are planning a VIP event to publicize FIRST robotics to a select group of individuals that will be providing support for the CIR in the future. We want to make this VIP event special as well, so we are asking each team to consider participating in the Central Illinois VIP Lamp project outlined in the attached PDF. These lamps will be used to decorate the VIP breakfast tables.

Get to Know the Teams: Since this is a new mix of teams that normally might not attend the same regional, we want to get to know each other! We are asking each team (at their option) to develop a one minute (or less) video that introduces your team, so we can play these between matches. The video formatting instructions will be sent to you in a future email. You can be thinking about how you want to introduce yourselves and planning your video in the mean time. At a minimum, we will need: Team Number, Name, Rookie Year, how many students are on your team, a team picture including your mentors, a picture or video of where you build your robot, something unique about your town, or school or team, something about your sponsors, and something you are especially proud of that you did this past year as a team. Remember, this is going to play in front of thousands of students, families, judges and sponsors during the weekend. Make it something you can be proud of.

TIMS Contacts / Main mentors: We are counting on you to disseminate the information contained in the email blasts to your team. Also, if you have any constructive ideas, comments, or questions regarding the Central Illinois Regional, we would love to hear from you.

Please contact us at FRCCIR2014@gmail.com


Thanks!

The Central Illinois Regional Planning Committee

Tim Koch, Central Illinois Regional Chair

Dan Green, Illinois FIRST Executive Director

[CIRegional]

Hello and welcome Teams to the Central Illinois Regional.

A few tips about the Dome:

- Be sure to bring some warm clothes in case the weather outside gets cold to frigid. The temp in the Dome can get to 55 degrees or so when the temp outside is less than 10 or 15 degrees.

The average temps in Pekin at the end of February are: highs of lower 40's and lows of mid to upper 20's.

- The Dome's air pressure is hardly noticeable except as you go in and out of the rotating doors and airlocks. Consider it good practice for the 2095 Regionals on the Space Platform.

- See the Dome from the air... inside! My son Andrew Barth from Metamora's Team 4143 Mars Wars made this vid with his tricopter (with a real closeup of the turf at the beginning to answer a lot of questions on that subject) lol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPUAbzKSVkQ . You can see that lights and sound will have to be self supporting as there are no trusses in the entire Dome, except for one about 5 feet tall and about 25 feet long in the middle.........

- There are plenty of restaurants within a few blocks of the Dome... just google map Avantis Dome in Pekin IL and go to street view for a walk around...just head south from the Dome.

- Also within a few blocks of the Dome is a huge Menards Home Improvement for many of your nuts and bolts needs.

- Check out the posters that were submitted for our contest... about 45 of them, on http://RobotPosterContest.org/posterpage and see who won at http://RobotPosterContest.org/winner

- Streaming of the event should be on ILFIRST.org we hear. Tune in and enjoy!

- We'll bring you the results of the Lamp Contest on Friday of the competition.

- I hear the Dome food kitchen on location there is concocting a new soft drink they are calling "Battery Acid" or something like that. Be sure to try it out. They also have unlimited pizza, "gondolas" and Italian cuisine at the kitchen and inside the dome proper, and also available from their restaurant down the block... of course it's called Avanti's.

- There's also a rumor that Regional tshirts might be available while supply lasts and when those run out, on an order basis. It will list all teams on the back and have the Aerial Assist logo on the front.

- All of us from the area within 20 - 30 miles of the Dome wholeheatedly welcome all the teams to this really exciting Regional! It will be quite the time here we are sure!

- I've also heard the mayor is going to present the "Joystick Controller To The City" at the Opening Ceremonies on Friday. The City of Pekin Council is very enthusiastic, and I can just about guarantee within a year or so Pekin High School will miraculously have a new Robotics team there!

Doede Barth
CIR Planning Committee

[Jaxom]

Originally Posted by CIRegional

- Also within a few blocks of the Dome is a huge Menards Home Improvement for many of your nuts and bolts needs.

Or you can stop by 1986's pit; we've had a free bolt shop for several years.

[nicholsjj]

Will there be a webcast for the Central Illinois Regional this year?

[popnbrown]

Originally Posted by CIRegional

- Streaming of the event should be on ILFIRST.org we hear. Tune in and enjoy!

Doede Barth
CIR Planning Committee

Sounds like there will be streaming.

[nicholsjj]

Originally Posted by popnbrown

Sounds like there will be streaming.

Yep looks like I should read better . Here is the web link for anyone interested http://www.ilfirst.org/frc/events/ce...webstream.html

[audietron]

I am wondering what they are doing about stands for all the crowd? Will it be metal bleachers or something else?

[barn34]

Originally Posted by audietron

I am wondering what they are doing about stands for all the crowd? Will it be metal bleachers or something else?

yep, metal bleachers. I believe there should be seating for around 3000, but I'll try to get clarification on that.

[audietron]

Originally Posted by barn34

yep, metal bleachers. I believe there should be seating for around 3000, but I'll try to get clarification on that.

Great! That should be more than enough.

[Michael Hill]

Any electrical outlets accessible from the stands?

[XaulZan11]

I'm really looking forward to making the trip down for Friday and Saturday. Myself and another strategy mentor will be testing out our new 2 person scouting data collection system and we will glady share any data with anyone (especially those 18 teams going to Wisconsin or Midwest so they can open up a wildcard ). If all goes well, we'll try to post the data after Friday's matches.

[neshera]

We used to have an inflatable dome, 60'X30' with an airlock door.
We didn't need chewing gum, we never noticed much of a pressure change in the doorway. If both doors of an airlock are open, however, the dome will attempt to deflate via the doorway, hence the gust of wind.
It is true however - you can't hang stuff from the ceiling. I suspect they have trusses, just like Aerial Assist's truss, for AV equipment. Seating will be on bleachers.

Pekin is a suburb of Peoria, so you'll have plenty of dining choices for dinner Friday night.

Fun tip: If you meet anyone who is from Pekin itself, ask them the old nickname of their high school sports teams. Hint: they are now the Pekin Dragons.