A Notebook

[Han Tzu]

The FIRST Awards section does not seem to mention how certain awards (i.e. the General Motors, Motorola....etc.etc.) are chosen. In previous years, I have heard that notebooks are made for each team for judges to look at. Can anyone tell me how it is done?

[MasonMM]

There are judges that walk around the pits and will randomly start talking to your team members and ask you questions about your robot. Based on the kind of things you tell them they will divvy up the awards. I belive there are also judges that are at field side and watch how your robot performs.

Just be sure to know what kinda awards you want to win and make sure that when the judges come around that you tell them everything you can about how your robot deserves that award. Tell them everything, your build process, your ideas, how it came together, and what awesome features it has... because they love to hear it.

[Arefin Bari]

I have made the notebook for my team for the past 3 years. Basically, we put all of our information in the notebook, starting from the robot rules to pictures. Bill of materials is also a part of it that we put in.

... put a bit of your team history in there, include few rules, design pictures.

you want that notebook to be as good as for the judges to visualize your build season.

-Arefin.

[RoboMom]

On the TIMS, one of the questions for the yearbook page (under Judge's info) is "most competitive for which awards?"
Help the judges by answering this honestly. If you put down a certain award, be sure to be able to explain why

[Han Tzu]

Originally Posted by RoboMom

On the TIMS, one of the questions for the yearbook page (under Judge's info) is "most competitive for which awards?"
Help the judges by answering this honestly. If you put down a certain award, be sure to be able to explain why

OK, since this is my first time attempting all the awards, what is TIMS and the yearbook page? I need details on this please.

[KathieK]

Originally Posted by Han Tzu

OK, since this is my first time attempting all the awards, what is TIMS and the yearbook page? I need details on this please.

TIMS stands for Team Information Management System.

The Team Information Management System is only for the main contacts of FIRST Robotics Competition teams. It is used to register new (rookie) teams, re-register existing teams for the new season, and update critical team information such as team name, contact information, and event registration.

Your team leader has the information necessary to update TIMS. Each year FIRST publishes Yearbooks for each competition and the information about your team that is submitted into TIMS is included in the yearbook. Judges will be looking at the Yearbook information when considering your team for an award. The Yearbook information must be completed on TIMS by February 23 - don't delay doing it as often the system slows as everyone tries to log on at the last minute. Plus, you may need to print out what they are looking for, research the information, then go back in and complete your Yearbook information. See Section 1.14 of the Manual for complete description of the Yearbook page.