**IMPORTANT FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Season Updates and New Information!

[miketwalker]

Greetings Teams:

Please read the following information.

Early competition admission for uncrating robots

This year teams will be able to have three (3) team representatives enter at 7:45 am on Thursday morning to uncrate the robot and tools. One of these 3 should be an adult with the team. MSC (the drayage company) will put tags on the robot crates to show weight.

**IMPORTANT** If a crate is marked as overweight, and the team wishes to dispute the charge for the additional weight, they must do so before the robot is uncrated. MSC will have a palette jack and scale available to weigh the crate.

Rookie All-Star Award

The Rookie All-Star Award does not require a submission process; however, those rookie teams who sent a Chairman's Award submission will have their materials given to the Rookie All-Star Judges.

No separate interviews other than the standard Pit interview will take place for rookie teams. Any team that has additional materials to present to the judges may use the Pit interview time to do so.

Spare parts at events

Please be sure you have read FIRST's Policy on Replacement of Kit of Parts at Event Sites in Team Update #11 at http://www2.usfirst.org/2004comp/tmup11.pdf.

Safety Glasses

Please dont forget to bring Safety Glasses for each member of your team. Last year FIRST received a generous donation of glasses, which we were able to share with teams who may have forgotten or not had enough. We did not receive the donation this year and will have a very limited number for volunteers and staff only.

Robot transport reminder

You will want to bring something to transport your robot to and from the field. Lugging 130 lbs around can get very tiresome! At a minimum, a moving dolly works; better yet a modified wagon to carry your robot is suggested.

FIRST Scholarships Opportunities

FIRST is excited to announce a tremendous new scholarship offering from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).

The School of Engineering Foundation at VCU has established a multi-year scholarship program for FIRST participants who will attend the VCU School of Engineering. At least 15 scholarships (valued at $5,000 per year) are available to eligible students who qualify for admission and enroll in the VCU School of Engineering in the Fall of 2004 and beyond. Please note that VCU has a rolling admissions system, and high school seniors can still apply for fall admission. While there are no hard deadlines for receipt and review of applications, it is strongly recommended that applications be submitted by April 15 for proper review.

Please be sure to have your team members visit the FIRST website at http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/scholsh.htm to learn more about this and all other scholarship opportunities. Many deadlines are coming soon!!

School Rings

ZolnierClassRings is offering the FIRST logo on class rings, without any additional cost to students. Please let your students know they can go to www.zolnierclassrings.com for additional information.

Go Teams!