Difference between revisions of "Clean Sweep Newsletter 9 December"

Latest revision as of 03:06, 17 January 2010

VEX Parent Update – 12/09/2008 – Last update of 2009

Please READ THE Website! -- http://wiki.team1640.com -- This is the #1 way to get current information about what is going on. The wiki is updated when we know what is going on, it’s how we announce if we will be closed for snow, etc. PLEASE READ IT AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK! With all of the issues around e-mail getting sent to spam folders and us being accused of being spammers it’s not effective to send out emails. If we are closed for snow it will be on the website!

Saturday December 5 was our first scrimmage at Penn State. We did pretty well for the day, the teams were able to field robots. Our all girls team, Team 80 – Pegasus – won a trophy for playing in 12 out of 23 matches. The FREE pizza and soda for lunch went over well, we helped eat 50 pizzas. Thank you very much to all the parents that drove and stayed on to help out with the event.

Sunday December 6 -- The Pancake breakfast at Applebee’s was a huge success. The roboteers from the FRC team did a great job as wait staff. Thanks again for all that helped out and purchased tickets. If you’ve not turned your money into Rita Wall please do so, and remember to thank her for setting up and managing this event.

WE ARE DONE WITH VEX ROBOTS FOR 2009 Last meeting is December 9th

January 6, 2010 at 6:30-8:30PM - We will be starting our next 12 week cycle of VEX robots. This cycle consists mostly of building and improving the robots for the three competitions that we are going to:

January 23, 2010 – DockBot’10 – Christopher Dock High School, Lansdale PA – we will leave from the school at 7AM

February 27, 2010 – Atlantic Coast Championships – Westminster MD – 100 teams! -- We will be leaving the school at 6AM (it’s a longer drive)

March 13, 2010 – Eastern Pennsylvania Regional – Downingtown PA – Meet at the school at 8AM

Meetings the first two weeks in January. – Our official meeting night is Wednesday 6:30-8:30. With the short time between January 6 and when we go to Dock’Bot two weeks later, the VEX roboteers can work on any of the days we are at DEC for the FRC robot.

From Sunday January 10 until Sunday January 24 the schedule will be: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday - 6:30 PM - 9 PM, Saturday and Sunday Noon - 5PM.

After we come back from the event on the 23rd we will go back to 1 night a week. Let me be clear, the official night is Wednesday night. If team members want to come to an optional time and work on the robot they can. Roboteers should use the robot workshop door on the optional days.

Tee-shirts – They will be available starting the first meeting in January. Cost per shirt is $15.

Programming – There will be another series of programming classes starting in January.

Adult Mentor Workshops – If you are interested in attending the adult workshops starting in January 2010 please send an email to Foster so we can make final plans. The workshop is 7 weeks long, including the two week programming class.

Sponsorship – Downingtown Area Robotics is looking for sponsors. If you work at a company or business or know of a company or business that would be willing to sponsor us please let us know. Presently it costs about $5,000 to run the VEX robotics teams and about $40,000 to run the FRC team. The school district funds about 20%, the rest comes from sponsor donations. Many companies have a matching gift program, what you give they will match. Depending on the amount, sponsors name appear on the robot and on team t-shirts.

Sponsorships are tax deductible and while we are always looking for money, gifts-in-kind may be acceptable.

It costs about $5000 to run the eight VEX robotics teams which is less than $100 per roboteer - If you can help out with sponsorships or donations we appreciate it.

Have a very Happy and Healthy holiday season and New Year. Look forward to seeing you all again in January!

Clean Sweep

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