**FIRST EMAIL**/Replacement Parts Procedure/Encrypted FRC Manual

[Mark McLeod]

Greetings Teams:

Don’t forget to take inventory of your Kit of Parts (KoP) after Kickoff:After receiving and checking all items in your Kit of Parts (KoP), should you determine you are missing a part(s), or need replacement part(s) you must use the FIRST "Replacement Parts Request" system to order replacements. Find more details about this process here: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr....aspx?id=18699.

Encrypted Sections of the 2011 FRC Manual: The encrypted sections of the FRC 2011 Competition Manual will soon be available for download. Please find the FRC Competition Manual page here: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...nt.aspx?id=452. To download the encrypted sections, you will right-click on the .pdf file and select “Save Link/Target As…”. The password for accessing these documents will be available at the end of the Kickoff broadcast.
Prior to Kickoff, make sure that your computer has the proper software by following the instructions for the 2011 Decryption Test found here: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr....aspx?id=11570.

Payments for Additional Regional Events & Championship Deadline: Payments for Additional Regional Events and the Championship are due Friday 1/28/2011 – please confirm with FIRST Finance that you have the funding for the events that you are registered for if they are not paid at this time. If you do not have the funding, please email financetemp@usfirst.org as to your status. We do have a waitlist of teams wanting to go to the Championship, so if you do not have the funding to attend please let us know so that we can give another team the opportunity.

Consent and Release Forms: If you haven’t done so already, please consider which 2011 FIRST Consent and Release form your team members will be utilizing this season. Remember, electronic Consent and Release forms “cover” individuals at all 2011 FIRST competitionevents (students and their parents access the electronic form in STIMS; adult mentors in TIMS). If anyone on your team opts to do the hard-copy Consent and Release form, the form must be presented at BOTH the Kickoff event, and your initial Competition event. Full details on the process can be found at http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...t.aspx?id=8128

Print your Team Roster! No matter which method you choose (electronic or hard-copy), you MUST print off your Team Roster from TIMS and bring it with you to your Kickoff, and your initial competition event. To print your Team Roster:
1) On the Team Summary page, scroll down to the “Student/Roster” field.
2) Click “View” next to Team Roster.
3) Click Printable Roster.
4) If you have any students/mentors who are providing hard-copy forms, please write in their names on the printed roster and attach their consent and release forms.
For more information about the 2011 Consent and Release Form, including FAQ’s and a helpful Process Overview, please visit: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...t.aspx?id=8128.

Kickoff Webinars: There will be webinars available for each of the 2011 FRC Kickoff Workshops taking place at FIRST Headquarters in Manchester, NH on Friday January 7th. For more information about the workshops, as well as links to pre-register to attend the webinars, please visit: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr....aspx?id=15787.

Championship Housing Registration Available: Bill Miller, Director of FRC announced that Steele Meetings opened the Championship registration portion of their website last Friday, 12/17: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr....aspx?id=18700.

What better way to say Happy Holidays than with a 2011 Game Hint? To view the first 2011 Game Hint of the season, please visit: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr....aspx?id=18713.

Go Teams!