ADMIN - Registration Process
1) Create a Google Form to collect registration information.
2) October 17 - Announce on the website and through email via the superintendent that registration is open.
3) Email past year's coaches to alert them registration is open
After October 27th:
4) Make sure all participants are the correct age and that they reside in Glastonbury.
5) Determine how many coaches, therefore how many teams.
6) Sort the registered students to make sure all coach children are included.
7) Determine how many children I can accept based on the requirement of two coaches per team and run a computer-randomized lottery on the non-coach children.
8) Work with Karen Bonfiglio of the BOE to set up Rev Track registration to collect payment.
9) Ask coaches to pay to ensure they are participating.
10) Send a list of the coaches to Laurie Grenus for fingerprinting.
11) Order FIRST classpacks for the number of teams.
12) Order AA batteries, tri-fold display boards, and any other office supplies.
13) Invite non-coach students to participate.
14) Ask the parents of the children in the program to pay through RevTrack to complete their registration. Follow up with parents who do not pay. Set a deadline. Reach out to the waiting list as needed.
15) Divide children whose parents make the payment onto teams with coaches.
16) Email all the coaches and parents a list with their team and contact information.
17) Post coach names, room number, and names of students on the website.
18) Get reimbursed for classpacks and office supplies.
19) Make sure the equipment is received from FIRST and sorted for each team.
20) Prepare materials for coach training – presentation, handouts, FIRST inspire sets and notebooks.
21) Photocopy so each team has 2 coach manuals and 6 student booklets.
22) Attend and lead coach training December 14, 2023.
2) October 17 - Announce on the website and through email via the superintendent that registration is open.
3) Email past year's coaches to alert them registration is open
After October 27th:
4) Make sure all participants are the correct age and that they reside in Glastonbury.
5) Determine how many coaches, therefore how many teams.
6) Sort the registered students to make sure all coach children are included.
7) Determine how many children I can accept based on the requirement of two coaches per team and run a computer-randomized lottery on the non-coach children.
8) Work with Karen Bonfiglio of the BOE to set up Rev Track registration to collect payment.
9) Ask coaches to pay to ensure they are participating.
10) Send a list of the coaches to Laurie Grenus for fingerprinting.
11) Order FIRST classpacks for the number of teams.
12) Order AA batteries, tri-fold display boards, and any other office supplies.
13) Invite non-coach students to participate.
14) Ask the parents of the children in the program to pay through RevTrack to complete their registration. Follow up with parents who do not pay. Set a deadline. Reach out to the waiting list as needed.
15) Divide children whose parents make the payment onto teams with coaches.
16) Email all the coaches and parents a list with their team and contact information.
17) Post coach names, room number, and names of students on the website.
18) Get reimbursed for classpacks and office supplies.
19) Make sure the equipment is received from FIRST and sorted for each team.
20) Prepare materials for coach training – presentation, handouts, FIRST inspire sets and notebooks.
21) Photocopy so each team has 2 coach manuals and 6 student booklets.
22) Attend and lead coach training December 14, 2023.
FINDING COACHES
Each team is required to have two adult coaches. These are usually parents of children on that team. The strategy for recruiting volunteer coaches is to guarantee participation in FLL Jr. for all of each coach's children.
1st WAVE
Coach children are first to register. Participants must reside in Glastonbury, they must not attend GEHMS (the magnet school has its own program), and the students must be either 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 years old by the start of the program. No exceptions, because we always have a waiting list of students in the specified range.The number of coaches you get will determine the number of teams. As of 2017, we have equipment to accommodate 14 teams, requiring 28 coaches.
2nd WAVE
Once you are certain you have the coaches, you can open up registration to fill each of the remaining spots, up to a maximum of 6 children per team. The smallest team size is 2. As of right now, we have had a waiting list each year, so all teams have had 6 children since the program began in 2015.
Ideally you could collect the required information AND payment at the same time. RevTrack is the current method of payment, and a Google Form is the current method of collecting information. Getting everything at once would be much easier for the organizer, because then you aren't chasing down one or the other. Once people do one, many lag behind bothering to do the second.
INFORMATION TO COLLECT AT SIGN UP
~ Student's full name
~ Students's gender: F, M or non-binary
~ Student's age: choices 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
~ Student's grade
~ Student's school: list our five GPS schools in the form, not GEHMS, and include homeschooling with the caveat that they must not attend any public school, i.e. Portland or Hebron
~ Parent's full name
~ Student's home address
~ Parent's home phone
~ Parent's cell phone
~ Parent's email address
~ Coach name, if preference
~ An emergency contact, different from the parent already listed
~ Emergency contact's phone numbers
~ Have they participated before?
~ Concerns or requests, for example should siblings be placed together or apart
The above are suggestions for registration for the Glastonbury Friends of Robotics program. Each team also needs to register with FIRST to participate and receive the curriculum materials. As administrator, you can purchase a group of materials for a school. The amount of materials you will receive changes; you need to check the FIRST website every year. If you need more materials, you need to register additional teams individually through FIRST. You could have all of the teams register and receive the seasonal materials through FIRST individually, but it's more expensive. However, the school option excludes the teams from Expos other than our own.
The FIRST registration process has changes a few times in the past six years, so I will not provide tips on this website. It would be best to follow the instructions directly on the FIRST website. Individual teams cannot purchase the season-specific curriculum notebooks and Inspire Sets unless the two coaches register the team with FIRST, pay the registration fee to FIRST, and have passed FIRST's background check.