[NE FIRST] 2014 New England Championship!

[Kims Robot]

Alright Teams, we know that there are 2 more weeks of build, AND 6 weeks of District Qualifiers before we find out who is attending the big New England Event, but WHO's EXCITED?!?!

Come Join us on April 10-12th to see the excitement of the New England Championship Event at Boston University's Agganis Arena!!

This Email went out to Teams Today:

Hello Teams!!

We hope you are all doing well as you work through Week 4 of Build Season, and that you are coming up with some great robots for Aerial Assist!!

We just wanted to take a moment to send you some updates on the New England Championship Event! As you all know, 53 New England Teams will qualify for the New England Championship in Boston and a shot at moving on to the World Championship in St Louis. While many of you are focused on your robots and the 9 upcoming District Qualifier events, we wanted to make sure you are considering a trip to the New England Championship in your plans!! Here are some details we don't want you to miss!

New Features!!
Back in the Fall we sent out a Survey asking what the teams liked and wanted to see at the NE CMP event. As a result of that and some of our committee's ideas we have worked hard on many new features. Check out the attached document for details!

Volunteers!!
We are still in need of plenty of volunteers to help staff our event. While we know that many of you do not know if your team will be attending yet, consider having some of your non-critical team members volunteer for our event (we prefer not to have volunteers sign up that will have to drop out if their team qualifies) and come join the excitement!
Spread the word & Sign up in VIMS today!

Connect with Us!!
Keep an Eye on our Event Webpage for Details & Updates
Subscribe to our Twitter Feed
Register for our Facebook Event

Charity Drive!!
This year the NE CMP is kicking off a District-Wide Charity Drive to collect New Toys for the Boston Children's Hospital. Currently Collections will be hosted at the Hartford, Rhode Island, Northeastern, Granite State, and Pine Tree District Events, in addition to the collection at the New England Championship. Stay tuned for more details!!

Alumni & Seniors!!
Is your team still in touch with your Alumni? How about those Seniors that are about to become FIRST Alumni?? The NECMP will be hosting an Alumni Lunch for All New England Alumni & Seniors on Friday. Have them register for the NE FIRST Alumni Network to receive more information.

Thinking Ahead??
If your team is thinking ahead to the New England Championship, there are a few things we want you to know to assist in your planning.
- Steele Meetings has blocked off Hotel Rooms for Teams & Volunteers
- Our event is a THREE DAY event, Qualification Matches start on Thursday Afternoon!
- Team Load-In will be Wednesday 6-8pm, this is the ONLY time you can use our Loading Dock (other options will be detailed in our Welcome Packet).


Whew that was a lot of information!! If you made it all the way through, thank you for your time! Good luck with the rest of build season, and we will stay in touch!! Feel free to contact us with event specific questions at <necmp at nefirst.org>. For general district information, qualification details, etc, please contact <info at nefirst.org>.

Happy Build Season!

[Steven Donow]

I'm already excited seeing that there's gonna be an organized, dedicated area for scouting

[smurfgirl]

Mark your calendars! We will be holding a team social event at the Museum of Science on Friday, April 11. Come join your fellow FIRSTers for more science, math, engineering, and fun.

Tickets will be free to teams. These tickets will give you access to the full museum, from right after the awards ceremony until museum closing at 9:30pm.

Food will be available for purchase at the museum - they will have the museum grill open for made-to-order food until 8pm, as well as grab-and-go sandwiches/salads and the museum cafe open until 9:30.

Ticket reservations will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Be prepared to get your tickets once reservations are opened! We will share the ticket reservation form with team contacts by email, as well as here on Chief Delphi and on the NE FIRST Facebook page.

[Chi Meson]

HEY KIM!
Nice job with the info so far. I like the idea of a team storage area. I wanted to do the same, but couldn't figure out how or where to do it. I'll scope it out when (if) we get there.

Question about the parking. It says "special" arrangements are made for busses. Is that a special "free" arrangement for a team bus?

Thanks in advance--and can you do something to, you know, make sure we get in?

Oh, did I say that out loud?

[Kims Robot]

More details were sent out earlier this week!

New England Teams!

It's almost that time - Time for the New England Championship Event!! We have some important information to share with all of you, especially those attending the event!

Welcome Packet
The NE CMP Team Welcome Packet has been posted to our event website. Please MAKE SURE TO READ Section 5 and Section 6!! Also note that the schedule is different from a Regional or District event, Qualification Matches will begin on Thursday!!

Qualification
All official qualification details & invitations will come from NE FIRST, but here are some quick notes:

• All 9 District Chairman's Award winners are prequalified to attend with their full team and robot
• The additional 45 teams will be invited to bring their robots based on the points qualification system (remember there may be declines, so teams ranked below the 45 qualifying teams should still be prepared!!)
• NE FIRST will update the rankings ASAP after Pine Tree Awards on Saturday, and will send invites to Team main contacts in TIMS. Main contacts MUST respond to this official invitation.
• EI and RAS winners are invited to come interview for the EI and RAS awards regardless of robot qualification (but do not pay registration).
• Registration for the event is $4,000. If funds are tight contact your Regional Director.
• Contact NE FIRST at info-at-nefirst.org with questions on qualification and registration

Scouting Preregistration
Teams, if there is ANY chance you will qualify to attend the NE CMP with your robot, please preregister your scouting team!! See section 6.1 of the welcome packet for details and fill out this registration form. (Please only ONE submission per team, so contact your team leader to submit!)

Load In Registration
If your team has qualified and needs to use the loading dock for Wednesday night load in, please register by emailing Steve Cremer at scremer-at-usfirst-dot-org.

Team Social Registration
Teams that have qualified for the event can register for the Museum of Science Team Social on Friday night.

Educator Event
Teams - invite your School Principals, Administrators and Board Members to attend our Educators Event on Friday from 1-4pm!!

Chairmans & Deans List
We are still looking for submissions for our CA & DL Display. Any team that submitted for CA or DL in New England should submit!! Please use the Chairmans and Deans List Templates and send to Lisa at lisaperez-at-gmail-dot-com. There will also be a Chairman's Chat event Friday 3-4pm that all teams are encouraged to attend.

Charity Drive
Don't forget to bring in new toys for the Boston Children's Hospital Charity Drive!

Alumni Luncheon
We still have space for your seniors and Alumni at our Alumni Luncheon on Friday from 12-1pm. Have them register for the NE Alumni Network!

Questions??
If you have any questions about the event at all, please feel free to contact us at necmp-at-nefirst.org!!

Note: We hope to have non Google Docs also available shortly for those who have trouble accessing some of the files.

[Lisa Perez]

*NEW ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIP DISPLAYS*

We plan to have TV displays featuring all of the New England Dean’s List nominees and Chairman’s Award submitters, and we would love for your nominees and team to be among those featured!

Each display will be showing a video in the format of a PowerPoint presentation containing 1 slide (or 2 in the case of teams submitting 2 Dean’s List nominees) for each team. To make things easy for teams, we have created templates for each display:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?...1E&usp=sharing

Can your team take 10-15 minutes to fill them out before Thursday, April 3? We've gotten responses from about 15 teams, we would like to see even more! Once filled out, please e-mail them to me at lisaperez [at] gmail [dot] com. These submissions will be kept private until the Thursday of competition.

We are looking forward to seeing your submissions!

[Lisa Perez]

*NEW ENGLAND MENTOR RECOGNITION*

We would like to recognize all New England mentors on a wall in the Mentor Lounge. Can your team take a few seconds to fill out this form with all of the names of your mentors?:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ZnC...9syNk/viewform

If you would like to put in a quote about your mentors, as well, please fill out this form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/150x...hPp0M/viewform

[CTbiker105]

I look forward to spending as much time as possible in those VIP scouting seats.

[Banderoonies]

Is there any overnight parking for team cargo trailers after unloading?

[Chi Meson]

Originally Posted by Banderoonies

Is there any overnight parking for team cargo trailers after unloading?

Similar question, but modified:
Our bus is just dropping us off. Could we use the bus parking allocation for our truck/trailer?

[Niezrecki]

Originally Posted by smurfgirl

Mark your calendars! We will be holding a team social event at the Museum of Science on Friday, April 11. Come join your fellow FIRSTers for more science, math, engineering, and fun.

It's awesome that a team social is coming back. Hanging out with teams at the Science Museum in Hartford next to the convention center was such a great event. A great opportunity to make some FIRST friends.

[Nathan Streeter]

Originally Posted by Chi Meson

Similar question, but modified:
Our bus is just dropping us off. Could we use the bus parking allocation for our truck/trailer?

Similar question, but again modified:

We have no bus... but we do plan to have a fifteen passenger van and a pickup/trailer. Could either one of these use our bus parking allocation?

Post #: Team Daisy!

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

Similar question, but again modified:

We have no bus... but we do plan to have a fifteen passenger van and a pickup/trailer. Could either one of these use our bus parking allocation?

Another similar question, but also modified:

We have no bus, but the 0.7 mile walk from my apartment to the arena can be a rough one. Can we use our bus allocation to be super lazy? :-P


Just kiddinggggg. Looking forward to the NECMP in our hometown!

-Brando

[Dantvman27]

Cannot wait for this event. Wish this sort of thing existed when I was a student. Competition is going to be top notch and I'm looking forward to watching 3467 compete with everyone on the field, as well as off the field. .Nothing gets me more amped up for something than knowing we are competing against the best of the best. So proud of everything my students have accomplished this year so far. Good luck to all teams, let's make this magical!

[Kims Robot]

To all that have asked about trailers, I have contacted the venue to find out our options and will be in touch shortly (sorry we didn't think of it earlier!).