[Email Blast] FIRST Community News & Updates (3/20/2020)

FIRST General Forum
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I know email blasts aren’t usually posted here, but this one contains some important information about Dean’s List and WFFA that isn’t yet on the blog:

FIRST ® Community News & Updates

COVID-19 Impact
As you heard last week, it was with great disappointment that FIRST suspended the 2020 season and cancelled both FIRST Championship events. These difficult decisions were grounded in our commitment to put the health and safety of our community above all else. We acknowledge and appreciate the thousands of teams, parents, mentors, coaches and volunteers who have poured their hearts and souls into this season and we share your disappointment. The mission of FIRST has always been to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators, and we continue to be deeply committed to this mission. Read full statement from FIRST President, Larry Cohen.

FIRST/COVID-10 Impact: Frequently Asked Questions
We’ve compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions around the impact of COVID-19 on FIRST and the community. You can find it here. This FAQ will be updated as new information becomes available, so please check back often.

A Message from FIRST Founder Dean Kamen

dean-announcement-covid19

SAVE THE DATE! Saturday, May 2, 2020 • 10:00 a.m. ET
FIRST Virtual Showcase Presented by Qualcomm
Join us for a gathering of the FIRST community recognizing the achievements of FIRST teams, mentors and volunteers around the world during the FIRST RISE powered by Star Wars: Force for Change season, to date. More information, as well as ways to showcase your team’s work digitally, will be shared in the coming weeks.

Together, we RISE.

Dean’s List Award: Full Steam Ahead
We are happy to announce that Dean’s List Award for both FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge will continue, and we plan to announce 10 winners for each program for the 2020 season. FIRST Robotics Competition will communicate next steps for semi-finalists that still require interviews. FIRST Tech Challenge has already performed semi-finalist interviews and has selected finalists in each region. Finalists will be forwarded to the Dean’s List Committee for review.

In the coming weeks, we will continue to inform you on how and when the 10 winners for each program will be announced. The details are still being finalized, so we appreciate your patience as we navigate through these changes.

The News , by Frank Merrick, Director, FIRST Robotics Competition
Having a couple days to regroup with the folks in FIRST HQ and hear from many of you, I’ve thought a great deal about the hurt and disappointment we are all experiencing together. But I have also thought about the strength that lies in our mission, our staff, our volunteers and our teams. Strength that has developed over decades. The kind of strength that doesn’t change with the weather. Yep, there’s a storm outside. But there are no better people on this planet with whom I’d rather weather this storm. Read Frank’s full blog post.

Woodie Flowers Finalist Awards
As the judging process is done remotely, finalists will be chosen for each event just as if the event occurred as scheduled. All FIRST Robotics Competition mentors who have been nominated for the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award will be considered for the event they were nominated for. Finalists and re-nominated WFFAs will then be judged by the Woodie Flowers Group and considered to for the Woodie Flowers Award. In the coming weeks, we will continue to inform you on how the Finalists and Winners will be announced.

Just got another email with updated information:

Hi bobbysq,

We hope our email finds you well. Please find important information below:

Awards for Suspended Events

In light of the suspension of the season, we wanted to share some updates on how we will handle awards for the events that have been suspended. FIRST® HQ is working through the Awards process with our Chief Judge Advisors and Woodie Flowers judges and have made the below decisions. We are still reviewing plans for the other awards and will share details as soon as we finalize. Details on the process for each award is below:

FIRST Dean’s List Award:

  • All students that have been nominated for Dean’s List will receive an interview remotely. Students will be considered for the event they are already assigned to. A local Judge Advisor will reach out to Lead Coach/Mentor 1 and 2 to schedule a time to be interviewed.
  • Each Suspended Regional event will have 2 Finalists selected, just as if the event occurred as scheduled. If your team nominated someone for a week 1 or week 2 Regional that occurred as planned but they were unable to attend the event due to a restriction by the school, county, or country, please send an email to deanslist@firstinspires.org with the nominated student’s name(s) and team number by March 27, 2020 . Our Dean’s List team will work to ensure they are interviewed and considered.
  • The number of Finalists for Districts varies by District and each student will be interviewed at least once and considered for one of the District’s Finalist slots.
  • Finalists will be notified once the decisions have been made for that event. Finalists will then be judged by a committee and considered to become Dean’s List Winners. In the coming weeks, we will continue to inform teams on how and when the 10 winners will be announced. The details are still being finalized, so we appreciate your patience as we navigate through these changes.

Woodie Flowers Finalist Awards:

As the judging process is done remotely, Finalists will be chosen for each event just as if the event occurred as scheduled. All mentors who have been nominated for the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award will be considered for the event they were nominated for. Finalists and re-nominated WFFAs will then be judged by the Woodie Flowers Group and considered to for the Woodie Flowers Award. In the coming weeks, we will inform you on how the Finalists and Winners will be announced.

As always, we are here to help. Please contact our Customer Support Team with any questions.

Sincerely,

FIRST® Robotics Competition Team Support

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I’m glad they are still going ahead with the Dean’s list and Woodie Flowers awards.

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Links to view the emails with formatting:

FIRST Community News & Updates

FIRST News
https://info.firstinspires.org/updates-3-20-20

Team Blast: Awards for Suspended Events

FIRST Robotics Competition Team Support
https://info.firstinspires.org/fr-3-20-2020

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I wonder about other judgeable awards. At Will 1, my team won EI. Wondering about that and Chairman’s.

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I have a feeling not much can be done about those awards. Those awards are strongly judged at competition, not only by the chairmans interview judges, but by all the judges going through the pits and watching teams throughout the days. EI and Chairmans also award spots at championships. As of right now, champs are canceled. While that doesnt make the award “worthless” or anything like that, it’s also not a priority. Awards like Woodie Flowers awards and especially Dean’s List are specific to one person. Dean’s List especially because of the grade restriction on that award.

I am very thankful to FIRST for making the decision to carry out Dean’s List and Woodie Flowers awards. I am currently in my junior year, as im sure most nominees are, and so to lose this opportunity completely would have been extremely disappointing. I appreciate FIRST and all their efforts to keep the season as intact as possible in these difficult times.

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In that case, what do you make of this?

FIRST® HQ is working through the Awards process with our Chief Judge Advisors and Woodie Flowers judges and have made the below decisions. We are still reviewing plans for the other awards and will share details as soon as we finalize.

I feel like, if anything, Chairman’s and EI are the easiest to judge without being at an actual event. It’s a lot easier to award those than robot awards given that you can’t watch performance at an event, imo. Before this email, I would’ve agreed with you. But after reading it, I can’t imagine what else “plans for the other awards” would entail.

My guess is that if they were just going to eliminate them, they wouldn’t have included that phrasing. I’ve been wrong before, though.

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Chairman’s, yes. You can do video interviews, potentially, as it’s a relatively small group for each event. I don’t want to be the judge that has to do a video interview with all 60 teams for a large regional for EI, though!

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Too be a little bit of a different nitpick, with that video of dean, how hard is it to just set up a tripod for 3 minutes? It was a bit iterating that the camera just kept bobbing around every once and a while.

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Reschedule the events and don’t let teams and volunteers hanging.

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Please sit down and wait until the entire world figures out what to do next.

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Okay two things:

  1. I think the only thing worse than an event getting canceled is an event getting canceled twice (or more times). We really don’t know what we’re working with. Obviously this will be a few more weeks minimum but nobody knows when we’ll go back to normalcy for certain. Will it be a month? Two months? Six months? More? We really don’t know. Rescheduling an event right now seems irresponsible, considering it could just get canceled again real soon.
  2. It might be possible to get some venues on a short notice but by and large, the logistics for planning a regional or district event takes far too long to simply reschedule this quickly. Even if the threat of COVID-19 disappeared overnight, it would take weeks if not months to reschedule and get everything in place. Aside from venues, the logistics of the field, team and volunteer availability, etc.
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Yeah, I’d like to echo Akash and Jared here. Nobody’s life is back to normal yet, and we don’t really know how long it’ll be before life as we know it returns to normal. Thus, it’s hard to say “We’re rescheduling the regional for xx/xx/xxxx!”

FIRST as an organization is fully aware that people would love to compete in this years game. Everyone is anxious to see their robot compete at an event, volunteers are anxious to be put dates on their calendars and students are anxious to see where their future lies. FIRST wants their events to run as much as we do. When they know, and when they can figure it out, they’ll let us know :slight_smile:

Kudos to FIRST on the news blasts the past few days! They’ve done a good job adjusting to the situation and getting as much info out as they could.

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Little soon to be doing that given the dynamic situation at hand. Might want to worry about that first and robots second eh?

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Boltman would like to speak to COVID-19’s manager.

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Those people clamoring for events to be rescheduled should go volunteer for some of the key roles at some events, say the ones they are asking to be rescheduled.

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You’re referring to the Regional Planning Committee or the district equivalent of that, I take it?

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I mean volunteering for some of the roles that require preparation and planning or training (i.e. not field reset or sitting at the safety glasses table) so that they get some appreciation of how much advance planning has to be done.

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Won’t work. Many of those roles don’t start preparation until AFTER the venue is selected.

If you want experience doing planning/preparation, you want RPC duties.

I’d volunteer for local events in a heartbeat (and I fall right smack dab into that category you mention), but I haven’t the foggiest as to which event(s) are going to need help and where right now. In my usual roles, I don’t see the planning/preparation.

That said, I’ve helped offseasons plan. I think the record is 6 weeks from “let’s have a full competition at [redacted]” to the event; most events need a lot more time than that unless they’re really well established and just have to say “here’s the dates, begin operations!” That’s an offseason, though.

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It should be noted that the person that everyone is jumping on does volunteer in a position that requires training and a test.

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