BB4: Project Delays and New Opportunities

Greetings FIRST LEGO Leauge Jr Oregon,

In this update you will find:

1. Thank You All For Your Patience
2. Behind the Scenes Opportunities at the FIRST LEGO League Championships!
3. Team wanted to represent Oregon in Nagoya, Japan!
4. What's happening with Team Support?
5. When is the last time I can start a new team?

Read this update as a blog

Welcome to BOOMTOWN BUILD! All coaches in Oregon are automatically added to this mailing list. Teams in neighboring communities are welcome to participate in Oregon Expos provided there is space.  If you have missed an email from Oregon you may read the archive on our blog, or see the important links on our website. Official updates and program materials can be found on the FIRST LEGO League Jr Challenge website.

1) Thank You All For Your Patience

Thank you, everyone, who is emailing and checking up on me. For those who are unaware, I underwent thyroid cancer surgery in November and pretty much missed the rest of the year. I am back in a limited, but here capacity, until the next stage of treatment at the end of January. During my time back, I am working on squaring dates for FIRST LEGO Leauge Jr expos in March, April, May, and June (Bend - June 6). Thank you for your patience this year as I lack the energy to do so much of what I normally provide to all of you. I hope to get my energy back in February and be ready to celebrate with you all spring long!




TL;DR - Loridee has been out for medical reasons. There are no expos scheduled yet.

2) Behind the Scenes Opportunities at the FIRST LEGO League Championships!

I have 2 ways for FIRST LEGO League Jr coaches and teams to learn all about FIRST LEGO League, the next level of FIRST programming. Both take place at the Intel Oregon FIRST LEGO League Championship Tournaments presented by Collins Aerospace on January 18 &19 at Liberty High School in Hillsboro.

A) Volunteering - The BEST way to learn what FIRST LEGO Leauge really is!

The absolute best way to learn what it takes to move your child to a FIRST LEGO Leauge team or to move your entire team to the next level, is to volunteer as a judge. We need several Innovation Project Judges on both January 18 (Saturday) and January 19 (Sunday), as well as Core Values Judges and some Robot Design Judges to make our events happen in just 10 days! Can't judge because you already have a student on a FIRST LEGO League team? We still need judge queuers, you just need to keep time and you still get to talk to many of the teams! Love the camera? We are looking for people to help run the robotic cameras in the FIRST LEGO League arena (training provided on site) as well as an additional photographer (please provide your own equipment). 

Please sign up using these links: You will need a FIRST account to sign up!

Saturday, January 18

Sunday, January 19

B) FIRST LEGO Leauge Jr Tour

On Sunday, January 19, at 1:00PM we will hold our annual FIRST LEGO League Jr tour of the FIRST LEGO League Championship Tournaments. This is primarily for teams that are looking to move up in the next two years and are interested in learning more about FIRST LEGO League. We will focus on the differences between FIRST LEGO Leauge Jr and FIRST LEGO League. 

All teams members and parents are welcome. Meet at the Information Desk at 12:45pm on Sunday to join the tour.  No sign up required! The Information Desk is on the West side of the school, right next to the LEGO Table of Awesome, just inside the doors.  If you would like to see the robots run on the robot game tables in the arena, I recommend arriving anytime after 11:30 to watch the matches. Robots will be done when the tour is over.

Please email Loridee-Wetzel@ortop.org if you have questions about either opportunity.

3) Team wanted to represent Oregon in Nagoya, Japan!

Our FIRST friends in Japan have invited Oregon to attend Invitational Japan! This is an international event for invited teams from around the world.

FIRST Japan is thrilled to announce that we will host the FIRST ® LEGO ® League Open International Japan 2020 as well as FIRST ® LEGO ® League Jr. Expo Japan 2020 in Nagoya, Japan. We will be welcoming more than 120 teams from more than 50 countries and celebrating students and their Gracious Professionalism, passion for science, technology and so much more. Not only the FIRST LEGO League event , but also FIRST LEGO League Jr. EXPO and FIRST Robotics Competition off-season event will be held together. (Approximately 40 teams for FIRST LEGO League Jr., 80 teams for FIRST LEGO League and 9 teams for FIRST Robotics Competition are coming to the event.) We are looking forward to seeing you all in Japan where the Olympic game will be held in Summer 2020. 

Dates: May 7th-10th, 2020 

Venue: Nagoya International Exhibition Hall (Portmesse Nagoya) https://portmesse.com/en 

Address: 2-2 Kinjo-futo, Minato-ku, Nagoya Google map link

Website: https://fllopenjapan.firstjapan.jp/eng/

Accommodation: There are many hotels in Nagoya area. A list of recommended hotels will be released in February 2020 on our event website. Note : We only have limited number of rooms specially reserved at LEGOLAND hotel for this event. For those who wish to stay at LEGOLAND Hotel, please book your room directly through their website or use other hotel booking sites. 

Participation fee: JPY15,000 per team member ($138.28), JPY10,000 per coach, family and friend ($92.19)

If you wish to be the team that will represent Oregon at this event, please message Loridee-Wetzel@ortop.org with the subject "Invitational Japan"  If more than one team is interested, the Oregon team will be decided by random.org. The selected team is responsible for all their own costs. The selected team will be notified by the second week of February and will have 48 hours to accept or decline.

4) What's happening with Team Support?

Team Support Awards are trickling out to teams. Thank you all for being our steadfast through our rollout of this new program. If your team has already registered after they applied, but could not wait any longer for support; if you receive as team financial support award, please let us know this and we will work with you. If you are still waiting for word about your team financial support and have started to register your team, please make sure Loridee-Wetzel@ortop.org is your Team Admin.  This will speed up the award process.

5) When is the last time I can start a new team?

FIRST LEGO League Jr is not like the competitive FIRST programs in that the season doesn't end so much as caps out. FIRST will reset their Dashboard system in April. This marks the last time teams can register for the BOOMTOWN BUILD season.  Oregon will continue to hold expos into the first part of June. There is still plenty of time to start your team this year!

I am so incredibly blessed by all of you who are out there making this opportunity happen for the kids in your life. You are just begining a strong path to make a tremendous impact on their future. It would not happen without you! As soon as I get a confirmed venue for an EXPO it will be posted the next day to this mailing list (if not that day). Please watch this space for all updates.  I hope I will see you at our FIRST LEGO League State Championships, if not, I look forward to seeing you at an upcoming expo.

Best Wishes,
Loridee



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