A couple of items/updates for everyone!

– Qualifying Tournament Registration Status
– Dean’s List Process
– Inspection at Tournaments
– Screamage (scrimmage) 10/28/17 at The Play Space
– Open Practice Field at The Play Space
– Grants for Eligible Teams

Tournaments will start up VERY quickly and we are excited to see everyone’s robots in action!

– Mark Edelman

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Qualifying Tournament Status

November registration is running OK. There is still space for teams at 2 tournaments; Redwood City and Folsom. I would STRONGLY encourage teams.

Registration for December tournaments will open up next weekend. Not all potential December events are confirmed yet. Registration will open as scheduled, with tournaments added to the list as they become fully confirmed.

Dean’s List Process

Coaches/Mentors, if you are not familiar with the Dean’s List award, we would strongly encourage you to read the section in Part 1 of the FTC Game Manual. Nominating a student on your team is a great way to recognize the contributions of your students and reward their leadership within your team!

For Northern California, all Dean’s List Nominees will be interviewed as an “Interview Only” event that will take place in early February. Interview will NOT be performed at the qualifying tournaments. Details on the event will be published soon.

Inspection at Tournaments

New this year, all teams will be provided a scheduled inspection slot as a part of the tournament schedule. Teams are expected to be prepared for inspection at that time! We wish to conclude robot inspection in a timely way to allow the potential of adding an additional match per team into the match play schedule!

Teams that miss their scheduled time slot and/or are not able to complete inspection by the time the inspection schedule concludes may end up not being able to participate in match play!

If your team is not familiar with the inspection process, we would strongly recommend coming to the scrimmage on 10/28 for a dry run through inspection! You should also read through the inspection section in Part 1 of the FTC Game Manaul

Screamage 10/28/17

We will be hosting a Halloween themed scrimmage (i.e. Screamage) at The Play Space in San Jose on Saturday 10/28/17. This will be an informal event, with pit tables and opportunities to run matches on a full field. Robot troubleshooting help will also be available for teams. The Screamage will run from 10am to 4pm.

Registration is free and first-come, first-served for up to 16 teams. Registration can be done by sending an email to ftc@playingatlearning.org with the subject “SCREAMAGE Registration”. The body of the email should include the team name, team number, and contact information for the coach, including both email and cellphone.

Open Practice at The Play Space

Thanks to a generous volunteer, we have open practice on the field at The Play Space two nights a week, Tuesday and Friday. Teams are required to register to attend and there is paperwork that must be competed to participate.

Additional information, including links to the required paperwork and the calendar of open practice sessions can be found at http://www.norcalftc.org/ftc-practice-field-usage/

Grants for Eligible Teams

There are currently a couple of grants open and available to eligible teams. Playing At Learning has PG&E Grants available to teams that meet certain diversity and need criteria – http://www.playingatlearning.org/pge/

FIRST has grants that target new, rookie teams – http://info.firstinspires.org/first-tech-challenge-grants