Austin Robot Roundup 2008

[Richard McClellan]

Team 2158, the ausTIN CANs, is hosting the first annual Austin Robot Roundup on the Saturday before ship day, February 16th at Anderson High School in the cafeteria.

Our full size low-budget version of the competition course will be setup, so this will be the perfect opportunity for your drivers to get some great practice in on a full size course, with timed matches, as well as other robots. As most FIRST veterans know, you could build the greatest robot, but if your drivers can't drive, you're not going to do very well in competition. So, we definitely encourage any and all teams within driving distance to come take advantage of this opportunity.

Teams currently attending:
Team 2158, ausTIN CANs, Anderson High School
Team 418, Purple Haze, LASA
Team 2583, Westwood High School
Team 2468, Chap Robotics, Westlake High School
Team 660, Round Rock High School

Additionally, this event is one of the things our team is doing to fulfill Dean's homework this year. As has been shown in the past, the greatest way for people to understand what makes FIRST FIRST, is to actually come and see the excitement. So, we have invited our sponsors, several media crews, at least one government official, and the general public. Posters and flyers have been distributed at local businesses, grocery stores, church bulletin boards all over town. We have also invited several of the FLL teams that we helped out with last year to get them exposed to what they can do when they get to high school.

I highly encourage all other teams attending to contact their sponsors, their government representatives, their family members, the school board, the general public and invite them to this event as well. When sponsors are actually able to see the impact of their support, they will be much more likely to continue sponsorship and increase the amount that they are willing to give. When family members see how cool the robots are at the end of build season, they may finally begin to understand why you don't come home until the wee hours of the morning Feel free to print out the flyer below and post it in your school, send it to your sponsors, and local media crews. One goal for this event, is not just increased sponsorship for our team, but increased sponsorship and support for all area teams.

Schedule:
9am-12pm: Team Setup- Feel free to arrive as early as 9am to setup your work area and work on your robots to ensure that everything is working. The course will be available for anyone to have some free practice time.
12pm-1pm: Lunch: will be served and sold to all teams and the sponsors, media crews, and general public that have been invited to arrive at noon. This will serve as one of our team's fund raisers for this year.
1pm-4pm: Event - Several speakers will start off this event including the Principal of Anderson High School as well as a representative from National Instruments, who has been one of the largest sponsors for robotics in Austin over the last few years. Following the introductions, will be timed matches, to give teams an opportunity to feel what 2 minutes is like and to make this an exciting event.

[JaneYoung]

Team 418 is looking forward to this upcoming event.
2158 has done a great job of putting this together for everyone invited and involved. No small thing for a 2nd year team.

As the Austin area continues to develop new teams with the help and support of our great sponsors, it is exciting that events like this are beginning to take place. Thanks ausTIN CANs!

See you this weekend.
Jane