**FIRST EMAIL**/ Call For Proposals 2009 FIRST Robotics Conference @ Champs, April 15

[Mark McLeod]

Greetings Teams:

FIRST is seeking presentation proposals for the sixth annual FIRST Robotics Conference. 45-minute workshops on topics of interest to FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) and FIRST LEGO League (FLL) teams, coaches, mentors, students and prospective leaders will be accepted. You may present alone, as a group, or as a team.

The goal of the conference is to provide personal and professional development for K-12 educators, non-engineering mentors, technical mentors and students.

We encourage presentations in all technical and non-technical areas that might interest current and future FRC, FTC, and FLL teams and coaches. For 2009, we are particularly interested in presentations which address sustainability of teams in all programs, initiatives to encourage growth in a region, and tools for developing training materials and curriculum around FIRST programs. We also have a special interest in seeing proposals from current students in addition to the usual proposals from mentors and coaches.

If you are interested in submitting a proposal for a 45-minute presentation in Atlanta, please submit an abstract on or before January 19th, 2009 via our web form. You will be asked to submit the following information:

* Your name(s)
* Team number(s), if applicable
* Affiliation (school, company, agency, etc)
* Are you a coach? Mentor? Professional? HS student? College student? Faculty? Teacher? Team of the above?
* Email address(es), phone number(s), address(es) of presenter(s)
* Have you given this presentation before?
* Program this presentation is geared toward (FRC, FTC, FLL)
* Technical presentation or non-technical (gears versus team dynamics, for example)
* Special equipment FIRST would need to provide (laptop, extra power, table for demonstrations, etc)
* Preferred day (Wed or Thu) and time (morning, afternoon, evening), if applicable
* Title of presentation proposed
* A short abstract outlining your presentation (no more than 250 words, please)

In order to respect the schedule and time constraints of our planning committee, proposals significantly longer than 250 words cannot be considered. Please adhere to the above guidelines.

Selected proposals will presented at the conference in Atlanta on April 15-16, 2009. Travel and accommodations will not be provided by FIRST.

Deadline for proposals: January 19, 2009

All this information plus the link to our submission form can be found through our Conferences page at http://usfirst.org/community/firstplace/content.aspx?id=11300

Recordings and slides from the past Robotics Conferences are available at http://first.wpi.edu/Workshops/index.html thanks to the generous sponsorship of Rolls-Royce!

FIRST Conference Planning Committee
firstconferences@usfirst.org

Go Teams!

[JaneYoung]

As we all wait with baited breath...*grin*

.. for the next couple of days to pass quickly - I'd like to encourage everyone to read this e-mail blast concerning the FIRST Robotics Conference. The 45-minute workshops are continuing to provide excellent opportunities for expanding individual and team horizons.

Please take the time to consider submitting a proposal for a 45-minute workshop. I participated in one for the first time last year and it was a richly rewarding experience that left me with a sense of contributing to our FIRST community and also, a happy feeling of being a part of something that can make a difference.

All the best to you in 2009,
Jane

[JaneYoung]

Hey folks,
This is a friendly reminder that the proposals are due today.
Please consider submitting one, it isn't too late.

It is a wonderful opportunity for everyone involved.

Jane

[lukevanoort]

I'm going to join Jane and strongly urge everybody going to Atlanta to submit a proposal. It doesn't matter if you aren't an expert on control theory, there is something you can present about. Even if you don't think you're the most knowledgeable person out there on a topic, you doing a presentation is better than nobody presenting at all. Students, you should be submitting proposals too, it's not like there is an age requirement to be a presenter. A student may or may not understand some of the really deep little complexities of a topic, but in 45 minutes, you're not going to reach that point anyway.

If you're worried about time, don't be. 45 minutes is really not that long, and there is plenty of time to prepare between now and then. Also, if you really think you can't fill 45 minutes, you can always cut it a bit short (a short presentation is better than none at all).