Hello Teams and Volunteers,
Welcome to Pennsylvania FIRST Robotics fifth email blast of the 2024-2025 Season! The new overall theme for all programs is FIRST DIVE presented by Qualcomm. The variation on that theme for FTC is INTO THE DEEP, once again proudly presented by RTX and launching September 7, 2024.
https://info.firstinspires.org/first-dive
The first 4 email blasts this season were dedicated to new season, live kickoff and upcoming Grant Opportunities. As always, previous emails can be found on our website in the COMMUNICATION Archives.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/communications
Kickoff Registrations:
As a reminder, we are happy to announce that we have arranged for “live” and in-person fields at 5 locations in the state! The Team Powered events will host other FIRST Tech Challenge teams from within their region. This is in addition to the Virtual broadcast we are planning that can be attended by all teams and will also be webcast to the in-person events. Registration has been sparse so far but it is still early, so please be sure to register ASAP. Full teams, students, coaches and parents are welcome. Please note that FTC Teams do not need to be fully registered with FIRST HQ to attend kickoff events, but please ID your current team number and/or name on the forms.
We detailed the kickoff locations and agendas in our last email blast, but please visit our website for the comprehensive list which includes locations and agendas
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2024-2025-season
Kickoff Registration:
https://www.ftcpenn.org/event-registration
Coaches Calls:
Also, as a reminder, we will be holding Coaches Calls on two consecutive Wednesday’s Sep 11th and 18th, 2024. Registration not required. We may also carry on with monthly Coaches Calls throughout the season as well.
Sep 11th, 2024, 7:00 pm – https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2024-2025-season/coaches-call-1
Sep 18th, 2024, 7:00 pm – https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2024-2025-season/coaches-call-2
Team Registration with FIRST
Please be reminded that Team REGISTRATION with FIRST opened on Wed May 15th, 2024. New this season, and for your reference, Rookie teams numbers will start at # 25609. FIRST FTC will no longer issue temporary team numbers as well. New teams will get a permanent number at registration regardless of payment status. So far, we have 65 confirmed and secured teams registered with another 10 in progress. We look forward to our usual flurry of registrations in the upcoming weeks. Please let us know if you have any questions or require assistance with the FIRST registration process.
https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc
PA Events Posted
Now the exciting news! Our PA website has been updated with the upcoming schedule of EVENTS for the 2024-2025 season. This includes confirmed live kick-off (Sep 7th, 2024) scrimmage and Qualifier dates and locations. Please note that we are again planning 10 Qualifiers this season over 5 weekends in different regions of the state. We sincerely hope that this helps you plan your selected events and potential travel earlier than any past season. Regardless of this advance visibility, Qualifier Registration does not open until October 1st, 2024 to assure that we have a substantial number of teams registered with FIRST before we open up PA events.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2024-2025-season
Website Updates
We’ve made several updates to the website. Maps have been added to the Teams, the FTC Events, and the individual event pages. The Teams page now recognizes teams who reach specific season registration milestones, plus the Teams Table now includes a Season Count column. And finally, there is a refinement in the results when you click on a team number on any page. See this announcement on our website for details.
Sincerely,
Tom Zawislak and the FTC PA Team