09.30.24 Team Eblast

Round 1 Event Registration Opens 10/1, 7am  l  99h State Grant Opens 10/1 – anticipated  l
Resources

There is a lot of important information below regarding Round 1 Event registration. Please review the sections below in their entirety before reaching out with questions. 

Our FiM FTC fall qualifiers/league tournaments are set! Thank you to our fall event hosts!! If you haven’t visited the FiM FTC EVENTS page lately, you will notice two events came on board late last week to round out the list, 11/9-Royal Oak FTC Qualifier and 11/16-Grand Rapids FTC Qualifier. League meets have not yet been added to the list of events but will be soon.

ROUND 1 FiM FTC EVENT REGISTRATION

1st Round Event Registration will open on Tuesday, October 1, at 7:00AM. Mark your calenders! This is the only email reminder that will be sent.

Form link: Round 1 FiM FTC Event Registration Form. Opens 7am on 10/1.
  • Round 1 forms must be submitted by Friday, October 4
  • The Round 1 event registration form is linked below and is also available on the FiM FTC EVENTS site page and the EVENT PROCESS site page.
PLEASE READ THESE KEY POINTS:
  • This eblast has been sent to the Lead Coach/Mentor 1, Lead Coach/Mentor 2, and Team Administrator for your team. The team should submit ONE Round 1 Event Registration Form.
  • The Home Event Pre-assignment IS NOT an event placement. A Round 1 Event Registration form must be submitted even if your team would like to “keep” their pre-assigned home event. 
  • Full list: FiM FTC Home Event Pre-assignment list (link).
  • If your team does not have a pre-assigned home event listed above, please fill out the linked FTC Registration Status form to share the team’s season participation status.
  • If you are a league team, your pre-assigned home event should be your league tournament. If this is not the case, email tammy@firstinmichigan.org.
  • If your pre-assigned home event is a crazy distance away from your location, there is likely a mistake. Email tammy@firstinmichigan.org.
  • FiM FTC will not be able to officially place a team into an event through the FTC Scoring System until the team is registered with FIRST HQ for the 2024-25 season ($295 FIRST HQ season registration fee is paid).
  • Note your event’s States’ advancement location:
    • Each qualifying event (qualifier or league tournament) advances a set number of teams to one of the two FiM FTC State Championship events:12/7-8 States-SE or 12/13-14 States-NW.
    • A team can earn advancement to only one State Championship event.
    • If a team has a strong preference for attending a particular State Championship event, the team should choose to participate in qualifying events that advance to that preferred State Championship event. It will not be possible to switch an advancing team from one State Championship event to the other.
    • Once a team earns a state’s advancement spot, they are no longer eligible to earn advancement spots at subsequent qualifying events where the team participates. The team can still earn awards at the subsequent events. 
    • Advancement allocations by event are posted on the https://firstinmichigan.us/FTC/event-registration/ site page under “Advancement Allocations”.

Overview of Round 1 Event Registration:

  • The Round 1 event registration form will prompt the team to make a choice: “Keep” their pre-assigned home event or “Change” events.
  • If a team chooses to “change” their Round 1 event from their pre-assigned home event, they must provide 5 ranked alternative preferences of events. These are preferences and not a guarantee of where the team will be placed.
  • For multiple teams out of the same school/org. that want to be placed in the same event: Opting to “keep” your team’s Home Event Pre-assignment is the only choice that guarantees that this occurs due to capacity constraints at events.
  • When processing the forms, all of the teams that choose to “keep” their pre-assigned home events will be placed in those events first. Then, in date/timestamp order, the “change” request preferences are processed.
  • For example, when processing a team’s “change” form and their first choice preference has space, the team will be placed in that event. But, if the team’s first choice preference is at capacity, the 2nd ranked preference is checked. If the team’s 2nd preference still has space, the team will be placed in that event. If not, the 3rd ranked preference is checked, and so on.
  • If a team does not provide enough ranked preferences (like only one, for example), and their 1st ranked preference is at capacity, the team will be placed in their pre-assigned home event by default. It is recommended that if a team really doesn’t want their pre-assigned home event, the team should provide all 5 ranked preferences.
  • 2nd and possibly 3rd Round Event Registration will occur after 1st round event placement is completed. Stay tuned to team eblasts!
  • Please refer to the https://firstinmichigan.us/FTC/event-registration/ site page for more details on the event registration process if you have more questions. The allocation of advancement spots by event is posted at the above link.

HQ “Event Ready” Status

FIRST HQ deems a team as “Event Ready” when the following tasks are completed:
  • Team has both a Lead Coach/Mentor 1 and 2 listed on the Team Dashboard.
  • Both Lead Coach/Mentor 1 and 2 have electronically signed their FIRST HQ Consent/Release form (indicated on the individual’s FIRST Account).
  • Both Lead Coach/Mentor 1 and 2 have completed the FIRST Youth Protection background screening (indicated on the individual’s FIRST Account).
Coaches will not have access to the Team Roster nor be able to register youth team members using the “Express Enrollment” path if the above tasks are not completed. FIRST requires all youth team members to register before participating in official events. Handy Veteran Team Registration Guide – contains screenshots of the process.
 
If your team paid their season registration fee over a weekend or via PO, there could be a delay in the team showing as “paid” on the HQ system. If there is a problem with the processing of your team’s season registration fee, reach out directly to FIRST HQ at ftcteams@firstinspires.org. Please put your team number in the subject line of the note i.e. “FTC 9999”. 
9h STATE GRANT – ANTICIPATED OPENING 10/1
Application: The 99h state grant application is anticipated to open on Oct. 1 through the MI Dept. of Education’s (MDE) NexSys grant system. The grant is anticipated to close in early December. School personnel who are “Level 5s” (usually someone in finance, superintendent’s office, or principal) can access the NexSys grant system. This is a single application per school district or school (for those not in a district) submitted on behalf of all of the FIRST teams in that district or school.  This grant is administrated by the MDE and not FIRST in Michigan. More info will be shared as the MDE makes it available to us.
Eligibility: Teams must be affiliated by an MDE-recognized ISD, district, public or nonpublic school. The team must be registered for the 2024-25 season before the grant closes to be eligible for consideration. Teams must participate in one official FiM FTC qualifier/league tournament/spring event in the 2024-25 season to meet the competition requirement of the grant.
Grant Payout: Payout of the grant is done by the MDE and usually occurs in March. Awarded grant funds are paid to the team’s fiscal partner i.e. district/school on behalf of the awarded teams in that district/school. Teams should work with their district/school to access the funding. Funding can solely be used by the team to which they were awarded.
Anticipated FTC Funding: These are the maximum award amounts. The MDE has applied a blanket percentage reduction to the award payout amounts for the past few years in order to stay within the grant’s funding allocation. This is decided upon by the MDE and not FIRST in Michigan. This decision is not made until after the application closes and the MDE has had a chance to process all the grant applications.
Level Team Award (Max) Coach Stipend (Max per bldg)*
Rookie $2,200 $1,500
Veteran $1,500 $1,500
FTC PROGRAM INFORMATION
Lots of resources linked below but don’t get overwhelmed. You don’t need them all now.