**FIRST EMAIL**/FRC Senior Mentor call: Mentor Orientation, 101

FIRST General Forum
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Greetings FRC Teams:

Mark your Calendars! The FIRST Senior Mentors are pleased to announce they will be hosting the first in a series of important Teleconference calls for FRC Team Mentors and Coaches this coming Wednesday, September 3, at 7 pm EST.

FRC Mentor Orientation, 101 provides useful guidelines for forming, organizing, and shaping an FRC team for the new robotics season. Suggestions for building team goals, planning activities, developing effective communications, defining roles and responsibilities, and locating helpful resources will be covered. The call will be led by Senior Mentor Kathie Kentfield, Connecticut, and former Senior Mentor Jenny Beatty, co-founder of NEMO, and original FRC Team Mentor.

All team coaches are welcome. The call in number is 1-800-503-2899. The Access number is 6663906.

We will have 150 lines available, so lines are on a “first come, first served” basis. The call will also be recorded and available for replay at: http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=10124. A copy of the call outline FRC Mentor Orientation, 101 can also be downloaded from this page.

When you have accessed the the conference call line, please put your phone on “mute”. Press " * 6 " to mute your phone so that your background noises and chatter will not be heard throughout the call. Whenever you wish to speak, press " * 7 " to unmute your line.

If your phone has a separate “mute” key, you may press that key to mute your microphone element at all times, except when you wish to speak.

We highly recommend that before joining this call, that you download or bring your copy of the FIRST MENTORING GUIDE with you.

New for this season is the FIRST Senior Mentor Hotline. This hotline provides an effective means and opportunity for teams, coaches, and mentors to direct their questions, and to quickly obtain information and/or to request other assistance from FIRST Senior Mentors. All correspondence and inquiries should be addressed to [email protected].

Please Join Us!
Again, all team coaches & mentors are welcome, especially those attached to rookie teams.

The FIRST Senior Mentors

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This call could be very beneficial for our rookie teams so please pass the word along to them if you are working with any.

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Will there be a recording made of this for future use or for those who cannot call in?

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We will have 150 lines available, so lines are on a “first come, first served” basis. The call will also be recorded and available for replay at: http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc…aspx?id=10124. A copy of the call outline FRC Mentor Orientation, 101 can also be downloaded from this page.
Yes, it will be recorded.

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Sorry, I missed that. Thank You.

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The outline for tonight’s call can be downloaded at http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=10124

FIRST has posted it for folks who want to print it out in advance of the call, and so that you can have it for taking notes tonight!

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Since TIMS seems to be inoperative and it’s not yet possible for rookie teams to register, how are new mentors meant to receive e-mail blasts?

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It is an interesting bootstrap problem.

I forwarded the email blast to the two pre-rookies that I know will register come October.

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You are correct. This is a conundrum every year.
Sometimes it takes a village to bring in pre-rookie teams and rookie mentors.
It is hoped that the veteran teams and regional support is forwarding on information, such as where to find the calendar of deadlines, info about new controls, etc.

I suggest the pre-rookies monitor the email blast archive: http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=6616

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Ditto. I have let our pre-rookie team mentors know about the blasts as well as CD, other resources and of course, the call tonight. That’s why I’m glad it’s posted here on CD so that veteran teams/mentors can let pre-rookie teams or new mentors know about the call.

We are limited to 150 lines - FLL’s last two calls filled up as soon as the call started. Will we fill up also? :yikes:

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Thank you to everyone who tuned in on the call and who offered suggestions for our rookie team mentors! I apologize for the technical glitches.

Part two of this series is scheduled for September 17. Be watching for the e-mail blast from FIRST with details. Please let rookie team mentors in your area know about these calls, since they are not receiving the blasts from FIRST yet!

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