FIRST in Michigan finally has a final list of events! You can find your home event designation through the link later in this email.
Two important items to note:
1. YOU ARE NOT AUTOMATICALLY PLACED INTO YOUR HOME EVENT. YOU MUST SELECT IT DURING FIRST-EVENT PREFERENCING.
2. YOU DO NOT NEED TO PAY FOR THE SEASON TO REGISTER / PREFERENCE FOR YOUR EVENTS.
How Event Preferencing Works
Right now your team is not signed up for any events, not even your home event. First event preferencing opens on Thursday of this week (tomorrow).
Think of this period as FIRST asking the question:
1. What event would you like us to sign you up for first?
2. If you can’t get in there, what event would you like us to try next?
Regardless of how many events you put on your list, you will only get one event out of the first event sign up. To get a second event, you put in another list in a few weeks during second event sign up.
Home Event Designation for Guaranteed Spots
The dashboard will tell you which event is your designated “home event.” Your HOME EVENT is not a choice teams can make or change. It is simply the event the computer program deems to be closest to you!
If you’d like to attend your designated home event, select it and you are guaranteed a spot there, but ONLY during the first round of sign ups. If you select it during sign ups for your second event you will not be guaranteed a spot there. You will be treated like any other team trying to get into an event.
Actions to take while telling FIRST your preferences for your first event:
1. If you want your home event:
Select ONLY your home event. You will get it.
Do not select your second event too. That comes later, during second-event preferencing.
2. If you don’t want your home event:
Choose a different event but know that we will release your home event spot after the first round of preferencing. There are no guaranteed spots during second event preferencing… just events, no “home events.” You can sign up for the one that was your home event but again, you won’t be guaranteed a spot there.
If Your Home Event Is Either Kettering and Troy
Kettering (#1 and #2) and Troy (#1 and #2) are special cases for preferencing your home event. Only Kettering #1 and Troy #1 carry the “home event designation” in the computer because we don’t want to choose a week for you. You can pick either week.
If you want Kettering #2 or Troy #2 as your home event, do one of these two things during preferencing:
1. Select only #2 and you will get assigned to the #2 waitlist. Then we will manually move you in.
2. Select only #1, and you will get assigned to it. Then quickly send us a note that you’d like #2 instead and we will manually move you over into that one.
You can find your home event designation here (also on the FIM website above the list of FRC events):
Other Tasks to Take Care of While Registering Your First Event Preferences
There are other actions to take while in the dashboard selecting which event you want first:
1. Again, you DO NOT have to have your registration fee paid to select events or kickoffs or opt outs.
2. Kick Off Selection:
Select a kick off site. The kickoff site is where you will go to pick up your kit in January on kickoff day. Selecting a kickoff tells FIRST where to send your kit.
If you select that you don’t want your kit sent to a kickoff site and instead want it sent to your school, your kit will not leave New Hampshire until about a week after kickoff.
3. Opting out of Black Tote and Drive Base (veteran teams only):
Veterans only (not rookies) may choose to opt out of the black tote and/or the drive base kit. Remember that for the first time, FIRST is including ALL the parts (except minor hardware store hardware) to make the FIRST KITBOT (FIRST’s version of the EVERYBOT) in the BLACK TOTE. You will need both the black tote and the drive base if you plan to build it.
The opt out period ends shortly. Here is the link to opt out:
Registering for FTC and FLL events
The process to register for FTC and FLL is different. It is not done through the dashboard. It is done through your FIRST in Michigan program director via a google form:
| FTC | Tammy Damrath | tammy@firstinmichigan.org |
| FLL Challenge | Angela Hite | angela@firstinmichigan.org |
| FLL Explore | Cindy Nader | cindy@firstinmichigan.org |
Remember, if you don’t yet have an FTC feeder team or FLL Challenge team, we have FREE KITS and REGISTRATION FEES FOR FTC AND FLL CHALLENGE rookies! If you used to have a team and want to restart it, we have grants to ensure you have the current equipment. Contact the program director today to get a new team started or to restart an old team!
State Grant Update
The grant will open in NexSys on Oct 1. The MDE is putting on a technical webinar on Sept 26, 2023 at 2:30 pm. Anyone can attend but you must pre-register. Please pass this pre-registration link along to your district, especially the person with clearance to access NexSys (called your “level 5”):
We are looking for anyone who has access to NexSys and has been through applying for the grant to help assist our teams with questions during the application process. Please contact me if you or someone you know is interested in helping.
