**FIRST EMAIL**/Deadline to Submit Electronic Consent & Release Form

[Mark McLeod]

Greetings Teams:

The FIRST Student Team Members and Parents/Legal Guardians Information System and the Electronic Consent and Release Form are now available! Keep in mind that students who choose to submit an Electronic Consent and Release Form and are attending a Kickoff Event, must submit online no later than January 6th, 2010. For more details: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/....aspx?id=15999

Go Teams!

[Chris Fultz]

Have any Team Leaders started this process with their teams?

The opening page has a place to login, is that supposed to be for the team leader? If so, how do you establish the account? The TIMS account information does not work and it doesn't look like there is a place to create an account.

[Vikesrock]

From what I understand that login is for students and parents who create an account through the system. Main/Alternate contacts interact with the system through the Roster section in TIMS.

*Note* Our team has not yet used this system, this is just what I gathered from some of the documentation.

There is a full set of instructions for students/parents here:
https://my.usfirst.org/frc/goteams/help/help.pdf

[Manoel]

The e-mail sent by FIRST states that students attending Kickoff should submit their consents by January 6th, whereas in the help document posted by Vikesrock it appears that the January 6th deadline is for everyone.

Does anyone know anything for sure, or should we be contacting FIRST? School's over down here in Brazil and our students won't return until Kickoff, so the January 6th deadline is highly infeasible for us.

[Phalanx]

The deadlines are clearly marked on FIRST's website

Originally Posted by FIRST Web Site

Please note that this new system allows student team members to fill out only one (1) electronic Consent and Release Form, as this Form will cover attendance at both the Kickoff and the FIRST Competition events. Keep in mind that if a student is attending a Kickoff event, the form must be completed online by January 6th, 2010. If a student is NOT attending a Kickoff event, and is attending a competition event during the season, the Consent and Release form must be completed online by March 1st, 2010. Of course, we encourage all student team members to submit the Form as soon as possible

[Pjohn1959]

Originally Posted by Chris Fultz

Have any Team Leaders started this process with their teams?

The opening page has a place to login, is that supposed to be for the team leader? If so, how do you establish the account? The TIMS account information does not work and it doesn't look like there is a place to create an account.

Yea, the TIMS doesn't work. I signed up as a parent to see what it looked like.

I have 2 concerns, (1) how hard is this going to be to try and organize all the parents to sit down on a computer and fill this out? (I'm thinking next to impossible) Since we are over 90% economically disadvantaged families, many don't even own a computer.

And (2) do you get the feeling that 'big brother' is watching over you?

[Rich Kressly]

Originally Posted by Chris Fultz

Have any Team Leaders started this process with their teams?

The opening page has a place to login, is that supposed to be for the team leader? If so, how do you establish the account? The TIMS account information does not work and it doesn't look like there is a place to create an account.

Once students start to register you go into TIMS your "normal" way (forget the page students and parents use for your purposes) and there's a field in there where you validate etc...

[vhcook]

Originally Posted by Pjohn1959

I have 2 concerns, (1) how hard is this going to be to try and organize all the parents to sit down on a computer and fill this out? (I'm thinking next to impossible) Since we are over 90% economically disadvantaged families, many don't even own a computer.

From the FAQ (bold is mine):

What if a parent/legal guardian does not have access to a computer or the internet to complete the Consent and Release Form?
That’s ok! The option to fill out a hard copy Consent and Release Form still exists. Remember, this process is intended to make things easier and not more complicated. One tip we can offer for parents/legal guardians who do not have internet access, is that local libraries often provide public computers which can be used to complete the Form electronically.

So you should be ok - just use paper forms when needed.

[Fe_Will]

Originally Posted by Pjohn1959

And (2) do you get the feeling that 'big brother' is watching over you?

Or maybe are they going to take my info and distribute, sell and/or spam me to death...

[Jon236]

Originally Posted by Fe_Will

Or maybe are they going to take my info and distribute, sell and/or spam me to death...

Hopefully they will use the database to help improve communication with FIRSTers and to try and stay in touch as kids graduate. I believe that FIRST is trying to track alumni to better measure it's impact. This would be an initial, and I believe welcome, step.

[Andrew Schuetze]

Originally Posted by Jon236

Hopefully they will use the database to help improve communication with FIRSTers and to try and stay in touch as kids graduate. I believe that FIRST is trying to track alumni to better measure it's impact. This would be an initial, and I believe welcome, step.

This is exactly my same opinion. As a former coach for 499 Toltechs and now a parent with two sons on 2745, I see the electronic option as interesting as I had tons of paperwork to distribute and collect every year. I would be inclinded to sit all the kids down in front of a computer at a team meeting and knock as much of this out as possible that way. The parent part is something new and I am not yet researched as to what is needed / required.

How many veterans remember getting students to register online for a season badge with a lanyard? As soon as the kids started receiving them in the mail, they were wearing them around school akin to some type of merit badge. I wonder what the costs were to produce and mail those out?