Bill Blogged - Kickoff is coming your way
12/21/11 Bill Blogged - Kickoff is coming your way
Good Afternoon Teams,
The first shipment of kits of parts headed to the most distant local kickoffs will leave our warehouse today. The challenge is getting palette loads of equipment to all of the local kickoff locations in time while accounting for weather delays and accommodating holidays and business closings. If all goes well, these kits will spend six business days in transit. If things don’t go well, these kits will have a small cushion of time to make up for snow in the Rockies or other shipping delays. More kits of parts shipments will go out tomorrow, then Friday, then Tuesday and so on until all 74 local kickoff sites have kits ready and waiting on the morning of Jan 7th.
Plan ahead. Veteran kits will be about 100lbs. Rookie kits will weigh approx. 147lbs. Also, remember that only an adult team mentor may sign for the kit of parts. Your team will be asked to sign in at the kickoff when you arrive, you will be handed your team’s kit of parts receipt and someone trustworthy needs to hold onto it all the way through the broadcast. The broadcast, by the way, is scheduled to begin at 10:30AM ET. During kit distribution you will be asked to open a sealed tote and confirm that you have received your Kinect.
What to bring:
- Print out a copy of your team roster from TIMS EVEN IF no one from your team has completed the online Consent and Release form.
- Bring signed paper Consent and Release forms for everyone in attendance who hasn’t signed the online Consent and Release form. The Student electronic student consent and release form may be found in STIMS. The Adult Consent and release form may be found in TIMS. The paper copies may be found on the usfirst.org website.
- Only bring the total number of people you said you were going to bring. (Parents count as people too.) Most local kickoffs have space issues. Can’t remember how many people you said would come from your team? Your main and alternate contact can log into TIMS and check the kit and kickoff section of the team summary page. Want to bring more people? Be sure to check with your local kickoff coordinator. You can find contact information by clicking on your kickoff name on the local kickoff page of our website.
- If you know you have a long walk from the kickoff to your car you may want to bring a hand truck (see kit of part weights above)
- Make sure your vehicle has enough room to transport the kit home. The Kit WILL FILL most car trunks (start empty) and be too big for some smaller models.
Want to know what’s in a rookie kit vs. a veteran kit? The list is now available online
Had a change of plans and can’t make it to your local kickoff? There’s still time to ask another team to pick up your kit of parts. Talk to the team, complete the surrogate kit pick up form and get it to FIRST as soon as you can. Directions are at the bottom of the page here
Can’t make it to a local kickoff at all? Last year, NASA broadcast the kickoff over their TV channels.
17 days until Kickoff
See you then!
