Michigan Teams We need your help!

[WEHickok]

This note is going out to all teams in Michigan, and especially the teams is southeast Michigan.

This message has good news and bad news...

The good news--FIRST has been invited to put up a display in the new Science and Technology area of the Mighigan State Fair.

The bad news--The fair starts next Wednesday.

Here is what I need from Michigan Teams. If your team would be willing to place their 2007 FRC robot in a static display for the fair, August 22 to September 3, I need to know that immediately.

Also, we are trying to staff the area with two or three people at any time for the fair. We are looking for a four hour committment. I am trying to get fair passes for people that will help us. If you, and some of your team members, are willing to take a four hour turn, talking with the public about FRC and FLL, please let me know that. Maybe your team would like to committ to an entire day.

Please send me an email if you can help. And please do it quickly so we can make plans. Again, I am sorry for the short notice, but working under pressure is old hat to a FRC team, right?

My email address is: walter.hickok@eds.com

Please pass this on to other Michigan teams. We want to let the people know about FIRST and FIRST's great programs. Many hundreds of thousands will attend the Michigan State Fair, billed as the oldest continuious fair in the US.

Thanks,

[Andrew Bates]

Noticed that you are asking for people to talk about FRC and FLL but not FTC. Any particular reason?

[Beth Sweet]

Originally Posted by corpralchee

Noticed that you are asking for people to talk about FRC and FLL but not FTC. Any particular reason?

Likely because FTC is not a FIRST supported program in the state of Michigan. See their latest release on the FIRST website.

Walt, I've sent an email out to my team, and I overheard some talk of this at MARC. I'll do my best to help make this happen for you!

[Jack Jones]

Originally Posted by corpralchee

Noticed that you are asking for people to talk about FRC and FLL but not FTC. Any particular reason?

Pertaining sentence highlighted...

Originally Posted by FIRST Tech Challenge Announcement

From: Paul Gudonis, President; Steve Chism, Senior Director of Programs

Updated August 1, 2007

After two successful pilot seasons as the FIRST Vex Challenge, we are pleased to announce that the intermediate program, now named the FIRST Tech Challenge, is an official FIRST program. It joins our continuum of FIRST programs with the Junior FIRST LEGO League, FIRST LEGO League, and FIRST Robotics Competition. This program will be structured similarly to our pilot seasons and will continue to target an audience between the FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Robotics Competition both to serve as a feeder program into the FIRST Robotics Competition and to bring FIRST to new geographic areas.

The next season of the FIRST Tech Challenge will begin in September 2007, and planning is underway. Team registration is open. Details on tournaments and season information will be posted starting October 1, 2007. FTC competitions will take place in locations where FIRST has an Affiliate Partner. In certain states where FTC will not be available, such as Michigan, the FIRST Robotics Competition will be the program available to high schools. Please check the FIRST web site for periodic updates.

The FIRST Tech Challenge will continue to use the Vex Robotics Design System for this coming season. FIRST will make Vex kits available at a price that only registered FIRST Tech Challenge teams will be able to access. Teams may also use their existing kits from previous years' competitions. FIRST is actively exploring the use of other robotics platforms of similar scale for the FIRST Tech Challenge for future seasons. While it's unlikely that FTC will use the Vex kits in next year's competition, they can be used in a variety of applications: in classrooms, for training, for demonstrations, etc. After evaluating other robotics kits, we will notify the FIRST community of our future plans.

We are excited to launch the FTC season, sure to engage a greater number of students in the excitement of discovering science, engineering, and technology.

[GaryVoshol]

Has anyone explained why FTC isn't in MI? Or if there are any other "certain states"?

[joeweber]

I did hear that because Michigan has so many FRC teams that the addition of aTech Challage competition may take away from the FRC base. I also beleive politics may be a small issue. Last year thier were some unoffical competitions that went off very well in Michigan. Such as http://www.automationalleyvex.com/

[Andrew Bates]

Even though Michigan does not officially have the FTC. You can still have a team. You just have to travel outside of Michigan to compete. That's what my team is doing/did.

[fredliu168]

Originally Posted by joeweber

I did hear that because Michigan has so many FRC teams that the addition of aTech Challage competition may take away from the FRC base. I also beleive politics may be a small issue. Last year thier were some unoffical competitions that went off very well in Michigan. Such as http://www.automationalleyvex.com/

It wasn't really unofficial. Winners still qualified to go to Atlanta, and the awards, game, and tournement structure were the same as everywhere else. The only difference was they gave us different style trophies than FIRST's standard circle/square/triangle.

It might have just seemed unofficial because there was no announcement on the actual FIRST site.

[Andrew Bates]

The tournament was kinda a last minute thing.

[jacob07]

The tournament was a local event with some of the bonuses of an official event. Such as trophies and three teams advancing to Atlanta to compete in internationals. There was a tournament committee and was planned months before hand to get it up to standards of an official competition

[joeweber]

The subject is getting away from the original post for help. In my original post I just wanted to give a quick answer to the question about "why FTC isn't in MI?", but I would like to see a discussion about this subject. I was on the committee for the Automation alley competition and helped put on the event. We are very proud of what we did. We wanted to make it and official competition but were limited to what we could say or post about the event by FIRST officials. We are hoping to have another event this fall.

[Beth Sweet]

I hear rumor that the Thunderchickens and Frog Force have both stepped up to help out. Not a surprise that these 2 regional Chairmans winners are volunteering to help out once again!