Open Alliance 2023

FIRST Open Alliance
#1

The Open Alliance is a young organization. We’re still learning about ourselves, our processes, and how we can best serve the community. Last year, we opened The Open Alliance to all teams . We saw amazing growth, and with that growth came growing pains. We love how many teams joined our commitment to sharing information and ideas, but we want to make sure that what is shared can be found, or referenced. We need a way to filter the noise.

Opt-In

Every year, The Open Alliance will open an opt-in period for teams to decide if they want to participate.

From September 1 until 2 weeks after kickoff, all teams wishing to participate in the year’s Open Alliance can visit https://www.theopenalliance.com/join/ to opt-in. Every team, regardless of past participation, must opt-in each year. Every team is still welcome to participate, and no team will be denied.

Featured, Active, and Inactive Teams

We’re introducing three categories for teams:

Featured Teams

When opting in, teams can indicate if they wish to be featured.

Featured teams are expected to be quite active; posting multiple times a week during the build season with a minimum of 1 post a week. During competition season we expect featured teams to post before/after their competitions. Featured teams stay active during the school year with posts as needed.

The Open Alliance will select ~12 teams to be featured each year. To be selected as a Featured Team, a team must have participated in The Open Alliance in the previous year while meeting the expectations of a Featured Team. Selections will be made one week before kickoff.

Featured teams will appear on top of theopenalliance.com website and will have higher consideration for appearing on The Open Alliance Show (should they be interested)

Active Teams

All other teams that have opted in for the season.

Active teams are expected to post at least once every 2 weeks between FRC kickoff and Week 1 event, and to post at least once when they compete or leading up to competition.

Inactive Teams

Inactive teams are teams that have either not opted in for the season, or have missed the Active Team guideline multiple times. If an Active Team misses the guideline multiple times in a season, they will be moved to Inactive after The Championship. We will notify a team prior to moving them to inactive.

Posting in inactive team channels on The OA Discord will be disabled. Inactive teams will not be highlighted in OA posts or selected to appear on The Open Alliance Show. Inactive teams are still encouraged to share information until the opt in window opens again in September.

Like every team, Inactive teams must re-apply to be part of OA next season to move back from inactive.

Improved Website

Thanks to some amazing work lead by @jtrv , we have a website where we’ll list Open Alliance teams and run the opt-in process.

https://www.theopenalliance.com/

Thank you

We’d like to thank everyone for embracing and encouraging The Open Alliance. We hope you are excited for 2023!

93 Likes
All the CHARGED UP resources
#2
#3

This is all getting way too legit :upside_down_face:

20 Likes
#4

we can’t wait to join!
a student should be filling out our form on Thursday. we will be joining as an active team. we considered being featured but thats a big jump from never doing it before. (but if the opportunity to go on FUN comes up we will certainly take it :wink: )

2 Likes
#5

:slightly_frowning_face:

2 Likes
#6

oh yeah also that lol

#7
6 Likes
#8

look im at work lol

1 Like
#9

We’re currently up to 64 applications including 36 returning and 28 new teams!

Current Returning Teams:
95 847 1339 1466 1745 2357 2412 2656 2877 3481 3506 3512 3588 3636 3735 3749 4099 4131 4160 4255 4481 4587 4926 5123 5417 5431 5727 6328 6838 7125 7312 7407 7461 7492 8177 8728

Current New Teams:
687 948 1018 1165 1418 1511 1757 1884 2587 2996 3134 3467 3596 4219 4392 4467 4504 5013 5119 5553 6421 6647 7439 8129 8248 8738 8810 8874

New teams: If you applied by the timecode on this message we sent your contact(s) an email about proceeding both on CD and here on Discord.

You can still apply to let us know you are interested to join or return to OA at https://www.theopenalliance.com/join/

23 Likes
#10

Our team is extremely excited about joining #openalliance this season! BC Robotics Team 4504 has been preparing all offseason in a new build space and will be posting about it soon. Thanks for this opportunity and in the spirit of Coopertition ™, we look forward to being an active member of this community.

9 Likes
#11

We are now up to 70 teams! 39 returning and 31 new.

Current Returning Teams:
95 847 1339 1466 1745 2357 2412 2656 2713 2877 3161 3481 3506 3512 3588 3636 3735 3749 4099 4131 4160 4255 4481 4587 4926 5123 5417 5431 5727 6328 6838 7125 7312 7407 7461 7492 8177 8725 8728

New Teams:
342 687 948 1018 1165 1418 1511 1672 1757 1884 2587 2996 3134 3467 3596 4219 4392 4467 4504 4533 5013 5119 5553 6421 6647 7439 8129 8248 8738 8810 8874

New teams: If you applied by the timecode on this message we sent your contact(s) an email about proceeding both on CD and here on Discord.

12 Likes
#12

(In a good way)

12 Likes
#13

We are now up to 78 teams! 41 returning and 37 new.

Teams: If you are interested in being part of the Open Alliance show during the build season please check our discord announcements at https://discord.gg/TkezqvZXGr

Current Returning Teams:
95 847 1339 1466 1745 2357 2412 2656 2713 2877 3161 3481 3506 3512 3588 3636 3735 3749 4099 4131 4160 4255 4481 4587 4926 5123 5417 5431 5727 6328 6838 7125 7312 7407 7461 7492 8177 8622 8725 8726 8728

New Teams:
172 342 599 687 948 1018 1165 1418 1511 1672 1675 1757 1884 2587 2996 3134 3467 3596 4219 4392 4467 4504 4533 4795 5013 5119 5553 6421 6423 6647 6925 7439 8129 8248 8738 8810 8874

New teams: If you applied by the timecode on this message we sent your contact(s) an email about proceeding both on CD and here on Discord.

7 Likes
#14

@AllenGregoryIV has Spectrum decided whether or not to do open alliance this year?

1 Like
#15

Yeah we will, we filled out the form yesterday.

6 Likes
#16

FYI I’m only updating this thread every few days as I don’t want to keep bumping it. The most up to date list will always be in the announcements channel on the OA Discord

We are now up to 82 teams! 43 returning and 39 new.

Returning Teams:
95 847 1339 1466 1745 2357 2412 2656 2713 2877 3136 3161 3481 3506 3512 3588 3636 3735 3749 3847 4099 4131 4160 4255 4481 4587 4926 5123 5417 5431 5727 6328 6838 7125 7312 7407 7461 7492 8177 8622 8725 8726 8728

New Teams:
172 342 599 687 948 1018 1165 1418 1511 1672 1675 1757 1884 2521 2587 2996 3134 3467 3596 4219 4392 4467 4504 4533 4795 5013 5119 5553 6421 6423 6647 6925 7439 8129 8248 8738 8810 8874 9255

New teams: Reminder to create a Build Thread on CD if you have not already. All new teams have been sent a welcome email with instructions for getting started.

4 Likes
#17

Currently at 87 teams. Waiting to hear back from a couple more so numbers may shift but we expect to be around 80-90 going into 2023!

Congratulations to the following teams who have been selected to ‘featured’ OA teams for the 2023 season:

95 The Grasshoppers
1339 Angelbotics
3506 YETI Robotics
3512 Spartatroniks
3636 Generals
3847 Spectrum
4481 Team Rembrandts
6328 Mechanical Advantage
7407 Wired Boars
7461 Sushi Squad
7492 CavBots
8177 Vector

Featured teams are expected to be quite active posting multiple times a week during the build season with a minimum of 1 post a week. During competition season we expect featured teams to post before/after their competitions. Featured teams stay active during the school year with posts as needed. Featured teams will appear on top of theopenalliance.com website and also on the OA Discord

Returning Teams (45)
95 847 1339 1466 1745 1899 2357 2412 2656 2713 2877 3136 3161 3481 3506 3512 3588 3636 3735 3749 3847 4099 4131 4160 4255 4329 4481 4587 4926 5123 5417 5431 5727 6328 6838 7125 7312 7407 7461 7492 8177 8622 8725 8726 8728

New Teams (42)
172 342 599 687 948 1018 1165 1418 1511 1672 1675 1757 1884 2521 2582 2587 2611 2996 3134 3467 3596 4219 4392 4458 4467 4504 4533 4795 5013 5119 5553 6421 6423 6647 6925 7439 8129 8248 8738 8810 8874 9255

Guideline for all OA teams: Post once a week during build season and at least once every 2 weeks. Post at least once when they compete or leading up to competition. Post more frequently as needed.

The Open Alliance show with myself and @Greg_Needel will be coming back for 2023 every Tuesday starting after kickoff at 8pm eastern at Twitch (archived at youtube.com/firstupdatesnow) We plan on having 3-5 teams on each week to give a 10-15 minute breakdown and be an open book on their build season progress to showcase what teams around FRC are working on and have come up with. We also plan on releasing a general weekly update and video on OA team progress from multiple teams.

14 Likes
#18

Glad to hear we are reaching the 100 teams mark who are willing to give back to the community!

Is there any information if new teams that can be selected to be highlighted as time progresses?
If so, I know we, 6838, sure want to be on that waitlist!

1 Like
#19

For any OA aspirational teams: no one is stopping you from running a build thread at all. Official or not you will learn from the experience and contribute to the community.

15 Likes
#20

Most of our announcements for OA teams are on the OA discord. I would encourage you to check there.

To directly answer your question: We only plan on adjusting featured teams once a year prior to kickoff. There may be special exemptions but in general if a team drops off we most likely just will not feature them in the next season.

You are welcome to also indicate you would like to be on the OA show in Discord on the oa-show channel (check announcements).

As James mentioned. Be active. Post, contribute and learn!

From what I posted on Discord today: If you are interested in having your team featured for the 2024 season please be active and contributing to the community on Discord and CD. This is what we are looking for in teams to be featured especially during the build and competition seasons.

2 Likes