In this note:

Team Workshops
Team Registration
Qualifier Hosts
Town Hall – Qualifier Registration
Pilot Leagues
Volunteer Recruitment
Game Documentation
Science Day in the Park

Team Workshops

We have teams in Northern California that have put together helpful information for teams. They have recorded workshops to be reviewed when you need the information. There’s also a link at the bottom of the page to prior year’s workshops. If you have content that you’d like to share this year, please send an email to ftc@playingatlearning.org. You can find the link on our website under “Items of Interest” at the top of the page. Or here. Thank you to the teams that have taken the time to share their skills!!!

Team Registration

Every year, one of our greatest mysteries is how many teams we’re trying to serve. If your team is planning to compete this year and you haven’t yet registered, PLEASE DO!! The number of teams we have for the season affects nearly everything we do up to and including the size of our championship at the end of the year. Right now we are trying to figure out how many events we need to facilitate to give everyone the chances to play that they want. Please register!

Qualifier Hosts

In NorCal, prior to the pandemic, we targeted an average of 2.5 plays per team, and many of our teams got three plays. However, with our team growth and our loss of host sites, we’re not going to make that this year. In order to offer an average of nearly 2 plays per team, we need an additional 6 (SIX), hosts. If you are willing to host and have a venue, please contact us ASAP. If you have a venue but don’t want to host, or if you can host but don’t have a venue, please contact us. Send an email to ftc@playingatlearning.org. There’s a guide to hosting events on our website here. We are trying to finalize the season calendar by early October and that’s right around the corner!

Town Hall – Qualifier Registration

We are planning to host a Town Hall Meeting on Monday, Oct 10th at 7:00pm to discuss our new registration process. If your team is competing in qualifiers this season, you should plan to have at least one coach/parent/team lead attend this meeting. You may have as many as you want to join, but please send at least one person.

For rookie teams – all of the competitions are registered locally through us, not through FIRST or through your FIRST Dashboard. This meeting will discuss the process we will use to register to compete.

Register here to attend: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8246714766781457935

Pilot Leagues

We still have a few spaces in each of our pilot leagues. If your team is interested in competing in a league, please complete this team survey. We’ll go in a first come first served order and will send an invitation based on the survey. The invitation form will need to be returned quickly to secure a spot.

Quick league overview – we are piloting two stand alone leagues of 16 teams (Peninsula and Sacramento/East/North areas) and one metro league of apx 28 teams in the “South Bay” area. Each league will run meets in Nov, Dec, and Jan with a League Tournament in late Jan early Feb. A meet is like a scrimmage with inspections then randomized qualifier matches (5-6). There’s no judging during a meet. The League Tournament is just like a qualifier except each team brings in up to 10 match results from their best meet scores to seed the League Tournament team rankings. League teams will only compete within their league and cannot participate in qualifiers.

Volunteer Recruitment

We need your help to recruit volunteers to support our events! We particularly need your help recruiting unaffiliated judges – these are people who don’t have a close friend or family member currently on an FTC team. Good candidates are people who like talking with students like retired teachers, scout leaders, and parents (especially FIRST alumni parents). We also need non-technical judges so volunteers don’t need to be technical.

What can you do? Recruit! We will be hosting information sessions on Oct 6th, Oct 12th and Oct 24th all at 7:00pm. No commitment – just come hear about the jobs and signup process. For teams competing in Leagues, each team will need to supply at least one volunteer, preferably an inspector or referee. To get the zoom link to join us, please send an email (or have your recruited people send an email) to volunteer@playingatlearning.org or complete the form below.

Form to get more information about volunteering: https://forms.gle/QbJpRXQDY7GszCSHA

Science in the Park

Playing at Learning is planning to have a booth at the Science in the Park event on Oct 1st from 9:00am to 3:00pm at CSU East Bay 25800 Carlos Bee Blvd, Hayward.

If you’re a veteran team who is interested in providing a demonstration and talking with people for the day or part of the day, please send an email to ftc@playingatlearning.org. Please let me know if there’s a time slot you prefer. Each team will need to have at least two adult chaperones.

I hope your teams are off to a good start! As usual, let us know if you have questions.

Dianne & Mark