**FIRST EMAIL**/Award Deadline Reminders and Judges Information

[Mark McLeod]

Greetings Teams:

Please refer to the Calendar of Important Deadline Dates at http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=454 for key award deadline dates coming up soon!

**Important** We are very sorry, but there will be no extensions for missed deadlines. Please allow yourself enough time to trouble shoot technical issues (i.e., loss of power, computer freezes, etc...) that could potentially occur and impact your ability to complete your submission(s).

Special Note on Judges Information Section in TIMS

The Judge's Information Section in the Team Information Management System (TIMS) is your opportunity to share valuable information about your team with FIRST. The data collected helps FIRST track important statistics such as how much it costs your team to participate in the competition, team population (e.g., male/female students, number of teachers on the team) and class breakdown (freshmen, sophomore, etc..,) to name a few. This information is helpful in FIRST's efforts to procure funding.

This information (in particular the Team Essays section information) is also used by the Judges at the Regional and Championship events to learn about your team's history, goals, strengths and the challenges it may have overcome. Judges take this information into consideration when making decisions about team awards, so we encourage you all to complete these sections! Please note we may use the robot photos you submit for the Awards Ceremonies.

To enter this data, please go to TIMS at https://my.usfirst.org/frc/tims/. Once logged in, go to the "Judge's Information" area at the bottom of the Team Summary page, and complete the Additional Team Info, Team School Demographics, and Team Essays sections.

The Judges Information Deadline is: 11:59 pm EST February 21st. Please note this area will be locked at 12:00 am EST February 22nd.

TIP! Your team may be working up to the last minute completing robot build, and therefore may not be able to take its robot photo until right before shipping on February 20th. If you complete all other parts of the Judges Information section in advance, this will be the only item left to input!

Go Teams!