Good afternoon and weekend to the Pennsylvania FTC PA Teams and Volunteers,
Team Robot Video Submissions:
Now open to all teams regardless of whether you are competing in the current or future Remote Scrimmages or Meets, we are happy to announce that we have again created a portal for submission of team videos that we encourage you to share with other teams! This is optional of course however we and all of our teams would love to see your team in action in this season’s Freight Frenzy extravaganza.
We provided this option last season and it was a huge success. Your videos should feature your robot in action. This can be a specific function (e.g. shooting mechanism) or an entire match. Please keep the length of the videos under 5 minutes. Note that the following form has a dropdown menu for you to select a specific event; however if your video(s) are not associated with an event and you just want to share, please use n/a. Please also provide context in the Comments section regardless. Go to the following site for submissions. Once you have provided basic information you will be asked to provide a link to your video (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, etc.).
https://www.ftcpenn.org/photos/team-robot-video-submission
Have fun with this! We watched nearly all of the videos last season and appreciated the excitement they generated for all that viewed them.
Volunteering:
As in past emails are reiterating a call for Event Volunteers this season.
We also would like to remind you that Pennsylvania FIRST Robotics is seeking to fulfill important organizational finance roles in Bookkeeping and as PFR Treasurer. JDs are attached for both. These are very much part time positions with the busiest and most challenging period being the active FTC Season (like now). The predicted time commitment for these roles is in the Job Descriptions. While we have defined the positions separately, they certainly can be combined into one realm of responsibility. We wish to fill these positions by the end of November.
In reaching out to our community we will consider anyone interested who has the commensurate skills and background. Conversely, we will also seriously consider those who have the passion to learn and grow from the experience of working with a nonprofit. As such, FIRST alumni or others in your family or circle of acquaintances exploring or who have emerging, new careers in accounting, finance, business administration or operations are invited to apply. To be clear, the Treasurer is a volunteer position as are all of PFR leadership positions. We would prefer a volunteer for the bookkeeper position as well, but would consider paying for this service from an established accounting business. We are not hiring employees.
Call for Volunteers:
We welcome back our awesome volunteers who participated with us in past years but especially welcome new volunteers from family, friends, the community and businesses alike. Please know that this is also a great opportunity for coaches, mentors and parents to get an insider’s perspective of how FTC events are conducted in our State and region. The perspectives and guidance gained may also translate into helping your own team and students be successful. Please RECRUIT aggressively and widely to assist us in expanding our reach. Volunteer opportunities abound, and our schedule of events can be found on our website as cited above.
Volunteer roles are defined in the link provided below. We welcome volunteers in all capacities but especially in key roles such as Judging, Referees and Inspectors.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/volunteer/volunteer-roles
For guidance on volunteering at a PA FTC Event please got to the following link or see instructions below. https://www.ftcpenn.org/volunteer
We use the FIRST Event Volunteer Registration system for all of our events. Volunteering for an event is one of the options on your personal FIRST Dashboard on the http://www.firstinspires.org website
To access the FIRST Event Volunteer Registration system:
Browse to http://www.firstinspires.org
Click Log In in the upper right-hand corner
If you already have a FIRST account, enter your FIRST username and password, and click LOG IN
If you do not have a FIRST account, click Register in the upper right-hand corner, then fill out the account form
Once on your personal DASHBOARD, select VOLUNTEER REGISTRATION and then EVENT VOLUNTEERING.
To narrow the available events to Pennsylvania FTC events, under Event Filters select FTC, United States, Pennsylvania, optionally enter dates and/or event name information, and then click APPLY FILTERS. Select an event on the right-hand side and click Volunteer. Follow the prompts to select the roles you are interested in.
https://www.firstinspires.org/resource-library/volunteer/general-volunteer-resources has several good resources, including a Volunteer Registration Step by Step Guide if you have further questions about the Volunteer Registration system.
Please let us know if you have any questions. We are so excited for his season and to see all of our teams and friends once again.
Best Regards,
Tom Zawislak and Dave Hackett
Pennsylvania FIRST® Robotics
FIRST Tech Challenge® Program Delivery Partner
phone: (302) 383-9925
email: ftc@pennfirst.org
Website: www.FTCPenn.org