Championship Event : Saturday December 12, 2009

Event Registration

• Your advancing team will be admitted for Championship by the tournament director.  You will receive an email invitation.  You must respond to Fran@ColoradoFIRST.org to name your team's recruited volunteer to help out with Championship.  Please adhere to the volunteer guidelines below.
• Tournament fees are $75.  Make your check payable to Mindsports Colorado, and note your team number and "Championship" in the memo.  Send payments by Nov 30 to:
   
  Mindsports Colorado
  c/o Technetronic Solutions
  3443 S. Galena Street, Suite 210
  Denver, CO 80231-5079
   
• Participating teams must advance from a qualifier including a completed Innovation Project Presentation.
  Please provide a volunteer from your team or mentors that can help us make the Championship a success!
• Please bring your COMPLETED Consent and Release forms to streamline your check in!  FIRST requires a completed form for every participant - team, coach, mentor, volunteer, tournament director, operational partner - for every event!
  • English
  • Spanish
• Order your Championship T-Shirts from your team management page (linked at right) and include payments at the same time!  T-shirt orders must be completed no later than Thursday, December 3rd.   All t-shirts for 2009 are $8, regardless of size.

Directions & Parking

• Address:
  Auraria Event Center
  1010 Larimer St, Denver CO  80204

• Google map to Denver's Auraria Campus  ――›

• Parking Map for Teams

• Best Parking options:

  • Lot R - $5.50 for the day

  • Tivoli Parking (orange lot on the map) $10

    for the day

 Schedule for the Day

• 6:45 - 7:15 volunteer check in (lobby)
  7:30 - 7:45 - volunteer briefing (upstairs rm 205)
  7:30- 9:00 -
   - judge's meeting (upstairs room 206)
   - referee meeting (competition floor - center court)
• 7:45 - 8:30 coach/team check in (lobby), settle in to your pit (pit assignments here)
  8:30 Coaches' meeting, Observation Mezzanine (floor plan here).  Access doors north west of the Pits.
   
• 8:45 - 8:50 kick-off and announcements
  9:00 - 11:40 - judging - teamwork, projects, technical interviews - refer to your own team's schedule for exact completion times.
   
• 11:30 -12:15 lunch
  11:40 Judges deliberation begins (upstairs rooms 206, 207, 208)
   
• 12:15 -12:25 Competition Rounds Opening Ceremony
  12:30 - 2:50 Robot competition matches
  Please review code of conduct expectations here.
  3:00 - 3:30 clean up pits, entertainments, etc
   
• 3:30 - 4:30 awards

Code of Conduct

You will be tested on this during Team Work judging!

• Know your FLL Core Values!  Check the first page of the coach's handbook. 
• Know what Gracious Professionalism means, and be prepared with examples of how your team has behaved in this manner.
• Adults - Kids learn by example!  Teach them to do as you do!  Please review the code of conduct expectations here.

Event floor plans

• Click for Auraria Event Center floor plan showing:

  • Competition tables - center court

    • Check the optimal traffic pattern to and from the competition tables

  • Technical Interviews - center court

  • Pits - east court

  • Access to Team Work Judging room (lower right corner)

• Plaza Building for Presentation Judging.  All rooms have projectors accessible with your PC.

Visitors and Guests are welcome

Admission to the tournament is FREE!  Please wear comfortable clothing and white soled athletic shoes for un-restricted access to the facilities - especially to the pits and teamwork judging.  Families and guests are welcome in the activity and presentation judging rooms, but please respect the judging process and keep your  numbers and distraction to the teams at a minimum!

Food 

You may Pre-Order food from Subway or Little Ceaser's in support of FIRST in Colorado and the Thompson Valley HS FRC team.  Download the pre-order form (linked) and return it to Liz.Rayment@Action-Works.org by Tuesday, Dec 8.

The food court at the Tivoli building will be open with a choice of several restaurants:

Volunteers!

Registered Volunteers, please plan to arrive between 6:45 and 7:15 am.  We'll need volunteers just to check in the volunteers, so you all please be here on the early side.

• Coaches! Those of you still recruiting your volunteers can find some recruiting suggestions here. Please, 1 person per job, and team parents may want to volunteer at a tourament OTHER THAN the team's tournament!
• As with other tournament events, your participation at championship requires you provide at least one volunteer per team.  Be sure your volunteer registers with Fran at ColoradoFIRST.org, providing their name and e-mail address, their preferred position and t-shirt size, and they MUST mention your team number for your registration to be confirmed!
• New volunteer positions include
  • Shopping – collect a donation card from your favorite super market for bottled water, sodas, fruit or deli trays.  Or ask Starbucks for a “Traveler” donation.  Contact me for a “donation request letter” and what we need.
  • tournament set up the night before,
  • helping to load and port tables
  • Clean up afterward – people to stick with us until the lights are ready to be turned off after the event
• We also need judges and referees.  If you know a team that didn’t get promoted, perhaps that team’s coach would be interested in seeing the tournament from the other side of the clipboard.

These events wouldn't happen without our volunteers!  Please help keep this terrific program alive in Colorado - come on down and pitch in!  We have had terrific turn out all season long, let's keep up the push for our Championship event! 

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU! 

Awards and Advancement

Click the link above for details about the awards to be presented and opportunities for your team to advance to one of the national FLL events.  Regardless of your teams awards, your accomplishments are many and your achievements commendable!  Remember your FLL core values, most especially,

It's not what you Win but what you discover!

Congratulations on a wonderful season!

What happens next?

World Festival and International Open Festivals

Invitations to the FIRST World Festival lottery winners did not include Colorado this year. This means there will be no automatic advancement to World Festival beyond the Colorado Championship. While in previous years regions that have not "won" the invitation to Atlanta have had other US Open festival atlernatives. Any of these festivals included a $700 to $1,000 registration fee, plus transportation, food and lodging expenses while there. Per US FIRST,
"In terms of the Opens, there are two slated this year: Taiwan and Turkey. We have not received what the invitation protocol will be for US teams yet, unfortunately so a bit premature to communicate out. Also, remember that it is always an option for you to nominate a team for WF Core Values…".

Core Values Essay

The Colorado Tournament Judges will continue the tradition of the World Festival Core Values Essay competition beyond the December Championship. More information will follow, but judges will base their decisions on how the team exhibits the core values in their communities during the course of the season. It pays to know your core values and the meaning of Gracious Professionalism.

Location