As <many of> you know we had a reporting issue with the FIRST data base, this should be resolved now – if you are still seeing an issue with accepting a coach’s terms and conditions please send us an email.

To accommodate for this Early Bird Registration has been delayed, and will be open Thursday September 13th at 7pm.

Again Early Bird registration is open to Peninsula, Silicon Valley and Capital teams. There are not enough confirmed tournament in the East Bay, therefore East Bay will not be eligible for Early Bird registration.  IF the East Bay does not have enough confirmed tournaments by the time general registration opens, the East Bay will need to wait and register in Delayed Registration. Tournament directors are volunteer and venues are donated. East Bay teams in Alameda and Contra Costa counties – we need your help, if you are interested in hosting please email fll@playingatlearning.org to learn more (quick guide).

**FIRST is reporting an issue with some coach’s terms and conditions agreement, they are working on resolving this.  Registration will not open until this resolved**

If your team is having an issue – we are aware of this issue and working closely with FIRST as they try to resolve this.  Unfortunately, the issue is not with our system and there is nothing we can do until it is resolved.  The issue is with the way FIRST reports the teams status to local partners.

In the meant time, please verify that you’re FIRST dashboard looks correct and you’ve completed all the requirements.

Registration instructions can be found here.  Registration is scheduled to open September 11th at 8am.  If the issue with FIRST is not resolved by 5pm September 10th, Early Bird registration will be delayed by one day.  Again registration will not open before this issue is resolved.

There are a couple of steps to register into a local qualifier:

1.  Pay local registration fee of $285
2. Complete local jotform team info about teams demographics
3. Complete jotform about team list and upload roster

The links for each of these is in your team status that is accessible from the 2018  Team list.  Look up your exact team list, click on the status link and the 3 links will show.

Once all 3 steps are complete and reviewed,  AND after 9/10/2018 evening,  you will be enabled to register via Early Bird Registration (which means that you can register for a tournament in your district).

We are getting a lot of emails and calls about local registration.  All weekend long we were testing and debugging the payment/jotform notifications and registration system and we are almost ready to turn the system on – possibly today.  Once ready to go, we will post an update right here as well as likely email an update on the norcalfll-announce googlegroup.   Thanks for your patience.

Signed your volunteer IT people,  Jill & Mark

Hello NorCalFLL –

We are excited about the new season and very happy to see so many of you are excited as well!  Early Bird registration is not available yet.  Registration details will be sent to the NorCalFLL-announce Google Group once available.  Registration will open five days after the registration details are sent to the Google group.  To join the Google group click here.  Be sure to change your settings so you will receive the messages, by default you will not receive any messages.

What can you do to help get ready for now?

Make sure your two head coaches have passed their YPP screening.

Make sure your entire team is on your FIRST dashboard roster, and their parents have signed their consent and release forms through FIRST.

Be prepared to provide a name and email address for one full day volunteer, who is not one of the two screened coaches to volunteer at your tournament.

Reminder:  Only districts with enough confirmed tournaments are eligible for early bird registration.

Are we still short on Tournament locations and tournament directors?

Yes, we are still looking for tournament directors and tournament locations.  We are still very short in the EAST BAY – please help be a part of the solution.

For example last season we had more than 10% of all Northern California teams in Fremont (awesome!), and ZERO qualifiers in Fremont 🙁  Unfortunately we still do not have any qualifiers in Fremont.

Welcome to the 2018 – 2019 NorCal FLL Season – we’re looking forward to traveling Into Orbit with you!  The Challenge was released August 1st – can’t wait to see what NorCal FLL teams come up with!

Qualifier tournaments will be held November 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th, 17th and 18th.  Each team can compete in a single qualifier tournaments.  Registration instructions will be published to the Google Group once available.

Our Rookie Coach training will be held at The Play Space August 18th 9:00am – 12:00pm, register here.  There will also be a Webinar Rookie Coach training August 21st 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, register here.  The webinar will be recorded and posted as well.

Look for information about our season kick-off soon.

We are still looking for tournament hosts, especially in the East Bay.  All tournament directors** are volunteers and many are coaches.  No prior experience or skills required, email to learn more.

Tentative Tournament Registration Dates:

TOURNAMENT REGISTRATION:  The 2018 registration instructions will be sent to the Google Group once available. Qualifier tournaments will be held the first 3 weekends in November, each team can attend one event.

Priority Registration August 20th* for tournament** directors only.

Early Bird Registration August 27th* for teams who complete all required payments and forms, only available in districts with enough tournaments.  Districts without enough tournaments** are not eligible for Early Bird Registration. Learn more about Early Bird Registration.

General Registration September 10th* for teams who complete all required payments and forms, only available in districts with enough tournaments.  Districts without enough tournaments** are not eligible for General Registration.

Delayed Registration September 17th* for teams who complete all required payments and forms in districts without enough tournaments**.

*Dates are approximate – exact dates will be announced in the Google Group

**See note about tournament directors above.

Looking forward to seeing you this season!

The Playing At Learning Team