**FIRST EMAIL**/Get Ready FRC 2009 Teams Autodesk FIRSTbase To Re-Launch Soon!

[Mark McLeod]

Greetings Teams:

For the 18th consecutive year, Autodesk is supporting the 2009 FIRST Robotics Competition. Since 1992, Autodesk has been working with the FIRST Robotics Competition to provide students and mentors with the same software that professionals use as well as many valuable tools all delivered through its one-of-a-kind FIRSTbase website dedicated to the teams.

What can you expect to get on FIRSTbase?

* The newest Autodesk software with a 1 year license, including:
o Autodesk Inventor Professional 2009
o Autodesk 3ds Max 2009
o Autodesk Combustion

* Online training exclusively designed for FRC teams
* The kit of parts modeled in Autodesk Inventor to save you crucial days of development
* Product technical support free of charge
* Hundreds of Autodesk Design Competition entries and all of the winners to view
* Your team's own collaborative workspace
o File sharing upload and download files of up to 500 MB each
o Team Discussion
o Team Photo Sharing - post and share up to 100 photos
o Assign tasks to team members
o Post team news
o Video sharing
o Emailing capabilities
o Plus learn interesting and fun facts about your team members

How can I get access to FIRSTbase?

The current Autodesk FIRSTbase site posted is for the FRC 2008 season. If you were a member for the FRC 2008 you can still take advantage of the software downloads, training and our resources to get prepared for this upcoming season by logging into the site. If you are a new team this season, you will have access to the FIRSTbase site when it re-launches. All registered FRC 2009 teams will have access to the re-launched site by the first week of November 2008.

What do you need to do now?

Existing Users of Autodesk FIRSTbase:

1. Make sure that your main contact information is updated in the FIRST TIMS system for this FRC 2009 season.
2. Make sure the email address we have on file in your Autodesk FIRSTbase account is still current. To check, go to www.autodesk.com/firstbase and Login using the user name and password that you had originally selected.
3. Autodesk and FIRST will send out an email to the main contact for the team when the site is ready and then the main contact can re-register and invite team members to join. This re-registration process will re-form your new team for this season so only current team members will show on your team. All former members will be cleared from your 2009 team.

New Teams This Season:

1. Make sure that your main contact information is updated in the FIRST TIMS system for this FRC 2009 season.
2 . Autodesk and FIRST will send out an email to the main contact for the team when the site is ready and then the main contact can register and invite team members to join.

Good luck teams!

Go Teams!