I will let Nick, Karen and Dustin explain the official position, but we are planning to use paper forms this year for all tournaments.

By our reading, paper forms alone are perfectly legal for this year, for both VA-DC FLL (regional) and US First (national).  There is an online process to request paper forms to meet national requirements (this is a two pager).  The current version of the VA-DC regional tournament registration process (which is just last year's process, thankfully) uses only a paper consent.

US FIRST would love to have the information all in one place (and in the long run, this will help bring professionalism to team marketing, as they will be able to use the magic of social networking and direct marketing to bring more kids to robotics, rather than the current ad hoc school and parent posters), but we have elected to defer the added burden on parents to beyond this transition year by sticking with paper forms.

Please note that VA DC FLL is only asking for the consent form while US FIRST also asks for a demographic form.  We are bringing both to our tournaments.  Also, for new coaches, there is yet a third piece of paper which all teams must bring (at least 4 copies, we suggest more like 10) -- the Team Info Sheet.  This is what helps judges keep track of the teams on competition day.  All judges read this sheet.  Many do not eat the candy that comes with it!

The registration is working beautifully this morning.  A great case for not fixing what isn't broken :-)

Nari

----------------------------------------------------------
Anant S Narayanan
Founder & Executive Director

McLean Robotics Institute
McLean VA 22102
202-421-3826 (cell)
[log in to unmask]
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On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 12:01 PM, Dawn Perry <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I have a question regarding our Team's registration with US FLL. I jumped through all the hoops and registered both of our teams with FLL-US and FLL-VA/DC. Paid all fees and put in all member info on the VA/DC site. Are we required to "invite" team members on the FLL-US page beyond filling in our number and race info? Or can we simply bring our signed consent forms to the Tournament as we have done in the past? I hope someone understands what I am asking. I can see our Team rosters on the VA/DC site, but not the FLL-US site and I am just wondering if this is a "MUST" or simply an option.

Thanks!
Dawn Perry

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lord Of The Bricks <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [VADCFLL-L] STIMS Registration
Date: September 9, 2014 at 2:32:29 PM EDT
Reply-To: Lord Of The Bricks <[log in to unmask]>

Team members who complete a STIMS registration do not have to bring hard copies of consent forms in hard copy; only team members who are not in STIMS.  Coaches and mentors use TIMS, not STIMS (there is a place to designate team mentors in the team's TIMS account.



On Tue, Sep 9, 2014 at 2:20 PM, Laura Dysart <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
In addition, how about teen mentors? Do they need to have a STIMS account to attend the event? Thanks.
On Sep 9, 2014, at 11:39 AM, Michael Jones wrote:

Is it necessary to have each team member create an account on the Student
Team Information Membership System (STIMS) and request join the team using
the team number?  I know that it is necessary to bring a hard copy of your
team roster and consent forms to tournaments, but will we be able to compete
if my team members do not register using STIMS?

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