Good day, Teams and Volunteers,
Welcome to the third email blast for the upcoming PA FIRST Tech Challenge Season. Please liberally and broadly share this email with your parents, students, friends, co-workers and acquaintances in and outside of the FIRST robotics community.
Also, if you missed our 1st and 2nd blast of the season, please go to our Communications page to reference Announcements and Archive Emails for this and all past seasons.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/communications
Welcome back to the FIRST Tech Challenge program and competitions and specifically FTC as administered by Pennsylvania FIRST Robotics, your Program Delivery Organization.
In addition to this welcome, we also want to inform you, our coaches, mentors, parents and volunteers, that the FIRST Child and Youth Protection Services Department, Manchester, NH will be taking charge of logging, tracking and data protection for PA Act 153 clearances this season. For veteran teams and volunteers, the requirements should be nothing new to you as we have communicated and detailed on our volunteer page.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/volunteer/youth-protection
FIRST will be sending out a Blog very soon to describe the requirements and how to share your background checks directly with them. However, we at PA FIRST Robotics will also be extending an offer to update your status with FIRST, on your behalf should you choose to simply opt in to this option. We have your PA clearance info already, why not simplify it and let us do it for you. FIRST Mid-Atlantic has already initiated and executed this offer so there is precedent in the region and in collaboration with FIRST HQ.
More to come in our next Email Blast and FIRST Blogs.
FTC Team REGISTRATION with FIRST opened Wed May 14th, 2025. Please go to the following link to either:
- Gain access to your current Dashboard login, or
- Registration instructions for Rookie (new) Teams
- Registration instructions for Veteran (returning) Teams
- Payment Terms
Note that registering your FTC team with FIRST is $325 this season, up $20 from last season
https://community.firstinspires.org/2025-2026-first-program-registration-pricing
Please expect more emails to come and, as always. Let us know if you should have any questions or require additional information.
The new overall theme for all programs is FIRST AGESM presented by Qualcomm. Uncovering the Future. The FTC Challenge is aptly named DECODE™ Presented by RTX.
https://info.firstinspires.org/first-age
“Every artifact we uncover holds a story. Each tool, each innovation, each work of art connects us to the people and ideas that came before us. Using STEM skills and teamwork, today we can dig deeper into discoveries than ever before.”
Please join us for the 2025-2026 season and, as you all know how, encourage, invite, and assist new teams to join us in the challenge and fun that is FIRST Tech Challenge.
So, as announced, our Pennsylvania Kick-off will correspond with the official kickoff on Saturday, Sep 6th, 2025.
We are working on arranging live and in-person locations across the state as we did last season. Please be sure to check our website as we add the Kickoff and Qualifier locations. We will have all posted before the start of the season and will send additional emails throughout the summer as we add them. We also plan on specific Pennsylvania FIRST Robotic event registrations to start on Saturday, Sep 20th, just 2 weeks after kickoff.
REMINDER: Invitation for teams to compete in one last 2024-2025 Season event called the Kennett Square Off to be held Saturday June 7th ,2025 at Charles F Patton Middle School located in Kennett Square. Please go to the following link for information and agenda.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2024-2025-season/kennett-square-off
This one-day event will be unique as teams will compete in a variation of this past season challenge called INTO to DEEP-er, a similar but much more challenging version. To pique your interest, the competition rules for this game are detailed in the attached document as created by our dynamic and creative Head Referee, Noah Dillard who has a reputation for dialing up everything he touches more than a notch or 2.
We still have many slots open and have invited teams from throughout the region,
https://www.ftcpenn.org/event-registration
All the Best,
Tom and the FTC Planning Team
Pennsylvania FIRST® Robotics
FIRST Tech Challenge® Program Delivery Partner
phone: (302) 383-9925
email: ftc@pennfirst.org
Website: www.FTCPenn.org