Congratulations to all of the coaches and teams for an outstanding showing at this season's regional tournaments!  As always, it has been an exciting whirlwind for the kids, parents, coaches, and tournament volunteers.  While the regional qualifiers have all wrapped up, as an organization we are ramping up for the next step - the Championship Tournament - and I am writing to share some information with you all.

I will be reaching out to all of the teams that qualified to advance to the championship tournament over the next few days to share more details and request an RSVP.  Please also be on the look out for details about where we have hotel rooms blocked at a special rate tomorrow (Monday) via a follow up email.  We will also update the tournaments page of the Web site with the information contained in this email and more as additional details become available.

We are anticipating 85 teams, which means 600 participants and about 1,200 adults.  If you arrive early or have children who are not participating, please check out the Massanutten Resort and Water Park.  The tournament will take place on December 6^th and 7^th (Saturday and Sunday).  Programs will be available soon.  Detailed team schedules will be in the teams' individual registration packets.

For planning purposes, the Saturday schedule will look like this:

No need to bring your robot with you on Saturday!

8:00 am – Registration opens at JMU’s Memorial Hall

9:30 am – Opening Ceremonies

10:00 – 12:00 – Half of teams will do judging – the other half will participate in age appropriate student activities.  Teams will be divided into two generally equal groups.  Half of the teams will do their Teamwork and Project judging in the morning.  The other half will have an opportunity to participate in student activities.  Parents will have parent activities as well with an opportunity to hear the JMU Director of Admissions talk about how to get your children into college and the Director of Financial Aid will talk about how to get help paying for it.  The head of JMU’s new School of Engineering will give a presentation on the new Engineering degree – this is their inaugural year.

12:00 – 1:30 – Lunch break – teams will meet with parents and go to lunch together.  Lunch tickets for JMU’s award winning Gibbons Dining Hall will be sold at registration.  D-hall offers a wide variety of meal choices, both locally and from around the world – including vegetarian and vegan.  The all-you-can-eat buffet is the best dining deal in town.

2:00 – 4:00 – Teams and parents switch roles from the morning.

5:30 – 7:30 – Swap meet at the Harrisonburg Children’s Museum in Downtown Harrisonburg.

 

For planning purposes, the Sunday schedule will look like this:

Teams will have their own space to setup as a base and to display their research projects and other team identity “stuff”. 

8:00 am – Team check in at Harrisonburg High School (directions)

9:00 am – Opening Ceremony – main gym

9:30 – 3:30 – Robot Performance and Technical Judging

4:30 pm – Closing ceremony and awards presentation

Everyone is welcome to come to the tournament and watch the teams in action on Sunday.  I hope that those of you who won't be accompanying your team to the championship will consider attending as a volunteer.  Amongst the many reasons to volunteer, it is a great way to see how FLL tournaments work from the proverbial other side of the table.  If are interested in volunteering, please contact Nick Swayne at [log in to unmask].  Thank you to everyone for a great season and I hope to see many of you in Harrisonburg!

Best regards,

Brittany

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Brittany Rose
VA/DC FIRST LEGO League
www.vadcfll.org