**FIRST EMAIL**/FIRST HQ Closed 11/24-11/25/Senior Mentor Call/Initial Regional Event

[Mark McLeod]

**FIRST EMAIL**/FIRST HQ Closed 11/24-11/25/Senior Mentor Call/Initial Regional Event Payment Deadline 12/2/Robot Shipping Exemptions/Bill's Blog/Kit & Kickoff Reminder


Greetings Teams:

FIRST HQ Closed 11/24-11/25: FIRST HQ will be closed next Thursday and Friday (11/24-11/25) in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday. Consequently, the Email Blast will be sent on Wednesday of next week.

Senior Mentor Call: The next FIRST Senior Mentor call will take place Monday, November 21st @ 7 PM ET. The call topic is Control System/Driver’s Station & Beta Test Observations, hosted by Senior Mentor Keith Hall (IL) and FRC Robotics Engineer Kevin O’Connor (FIRST HQ). For call-in information and an outline of the call, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/3h94c24.

Initial Regional Event Payment Deadline 12/2: Remember that the payment deadline for your first Regional event or first and second District event is Friday, December 2nd, 2011. If you have not already, please review our pricing structure and payment terms for the 2012 FRC Season here: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...-payment-terms.

Robot Shipping Exemptions: This year ALL FRC District and Regional Events in the United States and Canada will be Bag & Tag. Exemptions will be granted on a case-by-case basis, and only if the team would experience substantial hardship in attending the event for which an exemption was requested. We recognize teams attending second and additional events may need to travel some distance to attend those events and we will do our best to accommodate those requests. Bag and Tag exemptions will not be granted to teams participating in FIRST in Michigan or Mid-Atlantic Robotics District Events or Championships, because of their local nature.

Register for your event first, then apply for exemption. Do not wait for exemption approval from FIRST HQ before registering for events. Be aware that not all exemptions will be approved. If an exemption request is declined, FIRST will work with the team to help them resolve the issue.

Teams will be informed by reply email of acceptance or rejection of their request. Teams who ship their robots to events without prior permission risk not being allowed to participate in the event.

For more information on Bag & Tag and how to apply for an exemption, please visit: http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...ag-and-tag-faq.

Bill’s Blog: Please visit Bill’s Blog for information on new rules and more: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...starchive.aspx.

Important Kit & Kickoff Reminder: The deadline to select your team’s Kit of Parts (KoP) and Kickoff location in TIMS is December 2nd, 2011 at 8 pm ET.

Stay up on the latest FRC news! We send weekly email blasts to keep you well-informed on the latest FRC news. Be sure to check your inbox each Thursday for the FRC email blast and if you’ve missed any, you can find an email blast archive on the FRC Season News and Email Blasts page: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...starchive.aspx. You can even subscribe to an RSS feed to receive alerts when this page is updated!

Go Teams!