And now the details about what we do and who we are (in simple terms)

We are part of F.I.R.S.T.
“For Inspiration and Recognition of Science & Technology”
FIRST is a non-profit, with partners like NASA, whose goal is to inspire science & technology in kids. We invite you to visit their website at USFIRST.org to get a feel for their robotics program and take a look at the amazing things they do!

Team #675
This is our permanent team number assigned to us by FIRST when we registered ten years ago. The most current team numbers being assigned to new teams this season are past 3500 now. Wow! You will see and hear Team #675 in everything we do: on our robot, on our banners, and including in cheers at the competitions!

Robotics Meetings
Our Robotics meetings are held every Friday afternoon from 2:55-4:00pm, directly after school in Mr. Weaver’s room. Students are expected to make a commitment to attend all meetings. Available parents are also encouraged to attend the meetings; it’s a great way to keep informed, and we can always use the help working with different divisions.

“Build Season”
A term you will hear often! FIRST announces each season’s robotics challenge, for the current year’s competition, to every team at the same time via a NASA satellite feed, on one of the first Saturday's in January. From that day forward, all teams have only 6 weeks to design, build, test and ship their robot. During “build season”, team members work every day of the week, both after school and on weekends. Individual team members give as much time as they can spare, and the collaborative effort gets the work done. This also includes completing paperwork and details for the award applications and competition arrangements.
“Build Season” is the most crucial and hectic six weeks of our robotic season!
Increased parent participation is both necessary & appreciated during this time!

Robotics Board
Our board members consist of Greg Weaver, (Teacher & Robotics advisor), and volunteer parents & students willing to give their time. They oversee all functions of our robotics team, including all aspects of the four main robotics committees. This year’s board members for 2009/2010 are: Greg Weaver, 5 adult volunteers plus 2 student representatives.

Fundraising
FUNDRAISING IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO TEAM #675!
We rely not only on our own fundraising efforts (our annual Pasta Feed and more), but we partner with corporate sponsors, and also plan to write grants, to help raise the money needed to cover the costs necessary for a successful year!

Every member is expected to achieve their fair share of the fundraising effort!
The robot’s direct needs can run from $1500- $3500. Regional competitions cost $6000 for the first one, and $4000 for each additional one, just to register. And should we win at a regional, the National competition in Atlanta costs $5000 to register, plus the cost of airfare & hotel expenses. It’s a TEAM EFFORT!

This year due to our economic times, we have lost many corporate sponsors. Our team and community have really kicked in to help us – we are proudly going to two regional competitions this year!

Regional Competitions
As you would expect, “Regionals” are the competitions that are semi-local to our area. Each team gets to choose where they would like to compete with their robot for that season. Each regional competition is its own separate entity, and they are not tiered for “moving on” to the next regional. You can compete in as many separate “regionals” as you can manage. Our regional competitions are selected by the board, and coordinated with the school calendars, taking into account all costs involved. Typically Team #675 competes in two regional competitions, which have been at San Jose State University (the big Silicon Valley regional!) and UC Davis.

National Competition
FIRST’s “National” competition IS based on “moving on”. Teams in the top winning alliance at a regional competition move onto the “National” competition held in Atlanta, GA. in April. Besides the winning alliances, FIRST also selects 2 teams at each regional competition, who automatically win a spot at “Nationals” by winning either the Chairman’s Award or the Engineering Inspiration Award.
(Team #675 won the Engineering Inspiration Award in the 2006/2007 season!)