Big Changes in FLL this year!

Hello teams,

As we approach our FLL tournament season I just wanted to touch base regarding a few major changes that FLL is going through this year. They are:
1) Pilot change in judging values (the BIG one)

Please remember that Ontario is one of a few regions that has been chosen to be a part of the FLL Judging Pilot. We are very excited about this opportunity and welcome any feedback (good and bad) you may have regarding anything to do with the pilot. For a recap of these major changes please see my email to the coach of your team for more info or email me directly. We're not allowed to post them on a website.

2) Robot strategy change (from previous years)

One major change from previous years that we thought we should point out is that there is no more "stray objects" rule. Please note Rule 18, 22, and 23 in the attached "Rules" document. Some points to consider as a result:

• If your robot leaves base with an object and loses control of it, you don't get it back and you can't ask the ref to move it for you. IT STAYS WHERE IT IS.
  
• If you pick up your robot outside of base while it is still in control of the object you get a touch penalty for the robot touch but you would get the robot and object back in base.
  
• If you are retrieving an object to base and lose control of the object, it stays where it is.
• If you pick up your robot while it is retrieving an object you get a touch penalty AND lose the object (ref removes it from the table).

Questions regarding Judging can go to either me or Calum Tsang (our Provincial Judge Advisor) at tsangc@mie.utoronto.ca.

Questions regarding Reffing can go to either me or Ian Mackenzie (our Provincial Head Ref) at ian.e.mackenzie@gmail.com.

Also, I wanted to let you all know that there will be another practice tournament being held in Kingston - these practice tournaments are a great opportunity for your team. I strongly recommend getting to one if you are able. If you are interested in the Kingston tournament, there is more information at http://kbotics.ca/fll/.

Thanks,

Dave

We need your input!

Hello coaches and kids!

Once again, I'm greeting you with great news from FLL-land in Ontario!

Part of the mandate for our Provincial funding is that we have some data to present to the province when the season is over. To fulfill that requirement, and to also help drive our program to become even better than it is, we have created two surveys. I am asking that you take a moment yourself AND with your team to go over the two surveys. As I said, it will help our program moving forward AND at each tournament we will have a PRIZE DRAW from all the names of the people who complete the survey. There is a coach survey for you to fill out and a participant survey for EACH of the children on your team to fill out.

This is how it will work:

1. BEFORE you attend your tournament, you and the children must complete the surveys (actually submissions MUST be received at least 24 HOURS BEFORE your tournament date)
2. I will collect the data and send a list of names of those who completed the survey to the tournament director at your tournament (this will happen the day before your tournament so make sure you complete the survey EARLY!). Please note that only the names will be sent on to the tournament director - no other data will be seen by the tournament directors so your answers will NOT influence the judges at all :)
3. At some point on your tournament day, your tournament director will perform the draws. One draw will be for the coaches who completed their survey and one draw will be for the participants who completed the survey - I'm going to keep the prizes a surprise, but believe me, you DEFINITELY want to win these prizes!! Hint hint, they could REALLY help you next season!!
   

NB: the participant survey asks for the name of the children and the team's name. We've asked that they enter ONLY their first names in the name field. This information is being collected solely for the purpose of the draw and will not be used to contact the children (there is no contact information requested on the survey). If you and the children would feel more comfortable putting in nicknames that would be fine as well (as long as you know which nicknames belong to which children in case they win).

The links to the two surveys are provided below - please complete them as soon as you can.

Coach Survey
Participant Survey

Thank you for your attention to these two surveys and GOOD LUCK in the draw!!

Dave

Dave Ellis
FLL Operational Partner - Ontario, Canada
http://fllontario.org/

AMAZING Financial Incentive Program!!

IMPORTANT: An updated process has recently been posted.  Please read the most up to date post here.

Hello FLL teams in Ontario!

I have VERY exciting news for you today! In the spring the provincial government provided FIRST Robotics Canada with a $3 million grant to be used over the next 5 years to grow FIRST programs in Ontario.

Do you like FLL? Do you think it benefits your kids? Wouldn't it be great if we could spread the word about FLL and get even MORE kids involved?! I just heard today from a coach who had been working in a very under-privileged school in Toronto. After moving through the FLL program roughly 30% of his graduating class went on to advanced Science and Tech programs at specialized Sci/Tech high schools which are very prestigious! 30% is an incredible success story for those kids in that area. And it was largely because of his initiative to bring FLL to his school! You've all likely got an exciting story with your own team; however, wouldn't it be awesome to leave behind a legacy of positive change in even MORE kids' lives? Now you can be part of that!

OK, the details of the growth incentive program are in the two attached documents (one for starting a new team and one for experienced teams like yourselves to mentor rookie teams). Please read them over carefully. In a nutshell however, FIRST Robotics Canada will be providing a grant for new teams to start up next year (NXT and registration paid for) and a separate grant for veteran teams (registration paid for) to mentor rookie teams.

I would strongly suggest that if you have a school/teacher/organization in mind that you invite the interested stakeholders out to the tournament you are attending. Get them to see the event in action and you'll have them hooked for sure! Then they can register their team at the beginning of May, you can apply for the mentoring grant and everyone benefits! If you can't get them to your local qualifier then approach them before the Provincial Championships in January and ask them to join you there.

Once we reach our target # funding will cease - make sure to read everything thoroughly. Please note that neither the Mentoring Team application nor the New Team application will be accepted until after FLL registration begins in May as we need your FLL team number if you are a new team. If you are a mentoring team you will need to include your “new teams’” FLL team number. Only complete forms will be considered. Applications must be emailed in to me at this address and my inbox will provide the time stamp of acceptance.

There is money to be had people!!

New Team Grant
Mentoring Team Grant

Dave

Dave Ellis
FLL Operational Partner - Ontario, Canada
http://fllontario.org/

Sponsorship Opportunity from Apprenticesearch.com

Hello everyone, earlier in the season we announced the sponsorship opportunity from Apprenticesearch.com for teams in Ontario. Many teams applied and the results are IN!

To see the results, click here!

Congrats to everyone who applied and THANK YOU to Apprenticesearch.com!

Dave