Middleton Robotics Parents, Students, Sponsors, & Volunteers:

Final parents meeting of the year is this Friday at 6pm.  I am hoping for a strong turnout so that we can plan our summer fundraising activities. The following are the items highlighted in this newsletter:

1.       Final Parents Meeting – May 24, 2013 at 6pm

2.       Deep Sea Fishing Trip – August 10, 2013

Newsletter Details:

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1.       Final Parents Meeting – May 24, 2013 at 6pm – The final parents meeting of the year will by May 24, 2013 and will start at 6pm.  Attendance at this meeting is just as important as the first meeting of the year. We will review the Robotics Club results from the 2012-2013 season and we will discuss summer fundraising activities.  It will be critical to get a jumpstart on fundraising due to the fact that we will no longer be eligible to receive the school grant that has covered about 30% of the cost of the club.  We would like to continue to keep the club dues low but it will require everyone to contribute to the fundraising activities.  The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

n  Review Robotics Club Financials

n  Review Robotics Club 2012-2013 Goals and Accomplishments

n  Open Discussion – Summer and Fall Fundraising Ideas

n  Logistics for Yellow Book Fundraiser

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2.       Deep Sea Fishing Trip – August 10, 2013 – Anyone interested in joining the Boy Scouts on a Deep Sea fishing trip on August 10, 2013.   Anyone interested in attending should send Rich Berglund (roboticscoach@gmail.com) and email with the total number of people that will be attending.  The following is the detail about the fishing trip:

When: Saturday August 10th – Boat leaves the dock at 8:30 am Sharp! returns around 5 pm

Where: Queen Fleet Deep Sea Fishing – 25 Causeway Blvd #52, Clearwater, FL 727-446-7666

https://plus.google.com/112488395533205028520/about?gl=us&hl=en

Cost: The cost for the private charter is $2,800 that includes all taxes, bait, and tackle. The boat will fit up to 60 people comfortably so we need to get 60 people to get the cost to about $48 per person.

Parking: Parking at the marina is $4 per car and is NOT included in the above cost. So, as many people that can car pool the less cost parking will be.

What to Bring: we will be bringing coolers so everyone can bring a lunch and snacks OR you can buy food on the boat (bring $$). We will be bringing bottled water as well. Bring sun block, hats, fish rags, and something to bring the fish home in. Bring your fishing merit badge worksheets so you know what you need to complete it!

Fish Cleaning: Is NOT included in the cost, you can take them home whole, clean them yourself, or pay the mates to clean them for about $.40 a fish or so. If you need to clean a fish to qualify for fishing merit badge it can be done here.

We will need to pay them a 50% deposit no later than July 26th, so we will have to have all money collected no later than this date! I suggest you have all money in no later than the July 15th Troop meeting! Please plan and sign up ASAP so we can get count to more accurately estimate what the cost will be.

There will be NO REFUNDS after July 15th!

Middleton Robotics Parents, Students, Sponsors, & Volunteers:

Happy Mother’s Day. I hope everyone had a great mother’s day yesterday. I feel very lucky because I have a wife that wanted to go to the Rays baseball game. We got to see a Rays win and Beckie received the Mother’s Day flower pot giveaway at the game.

We want to get a jumpstart on fundraising for next year and we have many parents starting to organize fundraisers. Most of the emails you will received from me in the next 3 months will be about fundraising activities. To help organize and seek input we will have our final parents meeting of the year on May 24^th in Mr. Mead’s classroom. The following are the items highlighted in this newsletter:

1.       Final Parents Meeting – May 24, 2013 at 6pm

2.       Garage Sale Fundraiser – June 14-15, 2013

Newsletter Details:

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1.       Final Parents Meeting – May 24, 2013 at 6pm – The final parents meeting of the year will by May 24, 2013 and will start at 6pm.  Attendance at this meeting is just as important as the first meeting of the year. We will review the Robotics Club results from the 2012-2013 season and we will discuss summer fundraising activities.  It will be critical to get a jumpstart on fundraising due to the fact that we will no longer be eligible to receive the school grant that has covered about 30% of the cost of the club.  We would like to continue to keep the club dues low but it will require everyone to contribute to the fundraising activities.  The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

n  Review Robotics Club Financials

n  Review Robotics Club 2012-2013 Goals and Accomplishments

n  Open Discussion – Summer and Fall Fundraising Ideas

n  Logistics for Yellow Book Fundraiser

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2.       Garage Sale Fundraiser – June 14-15, 2013 – Rich Berglund will be holding a garage sales fundraiser at his house in Bloomingdale (4401 Merrick Run Lane, Valrico).  The garage sale will be held 7am-2pm on June 14 and 15. If you have items to donate, please send an email to Rich Berglund (roboticscoach@gmail.com) to arrange delivery to the garage sale.  The following is a list of items needed for the garage sale:

·         Garage Sale items – the more stuff we have the more we can sell.

·        Folding Tables (will make it easier than on ground)

·        Garage Sale signs (3-4 to put out on street).

·        Water to sell (I have cooler)

·        Ice for cooler

·        People to work the sale, sell water, Demo the robot(s), etc.

Intent is to sell everything, even at discount.  After sale on Saturday, we will take all leftovers to Goodwill. If you have any ideas/comments/suggestions, please let us know. This is another great opportunity to participate in the robotics club fundraising requirements.

Middleton Robotics Parents, Students, Sponsors, & Volunteers:

The following are the other items highlighted in this newsletter:

1.       Yellow Book Fundraiser

2.       Final Parents Meeting – May 24, 2013 at 6pm

3.       End of Year Party – June 8, 2013

Newsletter Details:

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1.       Yellow Book Fundraiser – We had a strong response to the Yellow Book fundraiser but we are still 13 routes short of our goal and therefore still looking for additional volunteers.  Wendy Menouni and Rich Bergland have reserved 10 routes in the 33610 zip code.  The following individuals have reserved one route in the corresponding zip codes: Seits 33635, Kinney 33594, Stein 33626, Ward 33547,  Schutte 33510,  Roth 33635, and Balaji 33647.  I would like to reserve an additional 8-10 routes in the 33556, 33626, and 33635 zip codes if I can get enough students that are available to help.  Please reply as soon as possible if you would like to help with any of the above zip codes are if you would like to add a new zip code.

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2.       Final Parents Meeting – May 24, 2013 at 6pm – The final parents meeting of the year will by May 24, 2013 and will start at 6pm.  Attendance at this meeting is just as important as the first meeting of the year. We will review the Robotics Club results from the 2012-2013 season and we will discuss summer fundraising activities.  It will be critical to get a jumpstart on fundraising due to the fact that we will no longer be eligible to receive the school grant that has covered about 30% of the cost of the club.  We would like to continue to keep the club dues low but it will require everyone to contribute to the fundraising activities.  The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

n  Review Robotics Club Financials

n  Review Robotics Club 2012-2013 Goals and Accomplishments

n  Open Discussion – Summer and Fall Fundraising Ideas

n  Logistics for Yellow Book Fundraiser

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3.       End of Year Party  – The date for the end of the year party has been finalized.  Based on the feedback I received from the previous email about the party, it appears the best date will be June 8, 2013.  Please do try to attend as I will be giving at awards/prizes. Beckie and I will be hosting a party at our house for the enter team and family members (everyone is welcome):

                Date:  June 8, 2011

                Time:  2pm – 11pm

                Location: Wolf House, 18806 Crescent Road, Odessa, FL

I will provide the main dinner meal.  However, I am looking for volunteers to help bring the drinks, chips, dessert, and side dishes that we can enjoy. Plus, we live on a lake and will have the boat in the water so that we can ski, tube, and just have fun in the water.  Make sure you bring or wear your bathing suit.  The party will go into the night so that we can have a camp fire to cook some brown bears and smores.

Please RSVP to this email no later than May 31^st with the number of people attending and let me know if you will be bringing anything.

Middleton Robotics Parents, Students, Sponsors, & Volunteers:

The following are the other items highlighted in this newsletter:

1.       Sponsor Appreciation Event – May 2, 2013

2.       Yellow Book Fundraiser

3.       Minimum Fundraising Requirements

4.       Final Parents Meeting – May 24, 2013 at 6pm

5.       End of Year Party

Newsletter Details:

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1.       Sponsor Appreciation Event (May 2, 2013) – This is a final reminder about the Sponsor Appreciate night tomorrow (May 2, 2013, 6-7:30pm).  I would like as many team members as possible to attend as we will be doing robot demonstrations for our Sponsors and talking about the clubs accomplishments. I would also like everyone to wear their team shirts.  I will see you tomorrow night.

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2.       Yellow Book Fundraiser – On Monday, I sent out an email to all club members asking for participation in the Yellow Book distribution and I have some additional information.  Our goal is to raise $4,000 and we will be paid on average $130 per route.  Therefore, our goal is to distribute Yellow Books to at least 30 routes.  However, the routes are distributed on a first come, first serve basis and the Yellow Books must  be distributed within 3 days of picking them start date.  We will also need your cell phone number and home address to reserve any routes.  Please respond to myself or Wendy Menouni (wendy9278@hotmail.com) as soon as possible if you would like to be included in the Yellow Book Fundraiser.

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3.       Minimum Fundraising Requirements – It has been another incredible year for the Middleton Robotics Club.  Our fundraising goals were significant as we needed $40,000 to cover the costs of 6 robotics teams and send one of those teams the FIRST World Championships. Kathy Freriks worked her magic again and was able to find a school grant to cover most of our transportation costs. We continue to have outstanding parent support and almost every member of the club participated in at least one fundraising activity.  However, we do have a small number of students that will be receiving an email from me about the fact that they did not participate in a fundraising event.  The following will be the additional required payment amounts for those students that did not participate in a fundraiser:
VEX — $25
FTC — $50
FRC — $100

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4.       Final Parents Meeting – May 24, 2013 at 6pm – The final robotics club parents meeting will be held on May 24, 2013 at 6pm in Mr. Mead’s classroom. The focus of this meeting will be to review the club’s 2012-2013 activities/financials and most importantly solicit ideas on summer fundraising activities.  This is a very important meeting and I would like to see a large turnout at this final parents meeting of the year.

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5.       End of Year Party  – In a previous Newsletter, I indicated that the date for the end of year club party is June 8, 2013.  However, I now realize that this is past the last day of school and several people have indicated that they will be on vacation.  Therefore, I am thinking about moving the End of Year Party date to either June 1^st or May 25^th.  Please let me know if you have a preference (May 25, June 1, or June 8) and I will pick a date that best fits most of the club members.

Middleton Robotics Parents, Students, Sponsors, & Volunteers:

Congratulations to FTC Team 3846 Maelstrom for being the Edison Division World Champions and coming in 2nd place at the FIRST World Championships, bringing home more hardware for Middleton’s robotics trophy case. Team 3846 made it through the qualifying rounds in second place with a record of 7 wins and 1 loss. This is where the story gets interesting. During the alliance rounds on Saturday morning, Team 3846 teamed up with a team from Seattle that was defeated by our team 4997 Masquerade in last year’s World Championships.

For the last three years, Middleton has sent an FTC team to the World Championships and all three years our teams have made it to the alliance rounds on Saturday morning. Each season starts with in September with 2,800+ teams from the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Bulgaria, China, India, Italy, Jamaica, Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, and Taiwan. Only 128 teams qualify to attend the World Championships and two days of qualifying matches causes this is number to be reduced even further to just 24 teams for the alliance rounds on Saturday morning. Team 3846 was able to quickly make their way through the first two rounds of the ladder system and into the FTC World Championship finals. Unfortunately, the offensive powerhouse from the Franklin Division was able to outscore our alliance and Middleton ended the day one round short of being the first ever repeat FTC World Champions.

The following are the other items highlighted in this newsletter:

1. Sponsor Appreciation Event – May 2, 2013

Newsletter Details:
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1. Sponsor Appreciation Event (May 2, 2013) – As we wind down the 2012-2013 robotics season, it is time to thank all of our sponsors for their outstanding support. We have invited all of the Middleton Robotics Club Sponsor to attend a review of the club’s 2012-2013 results from 6-7:30pm. We are looking for parent volunteers to help organize the event and more importantly, we are looking for students to talk to the sponsors about how important the robotics club has been to them. If you would like to help with the sponsor event, please send me an email by April 27, 2013.

Middleton Robotics Parents, Students, Sponsors, & Volunteers:

Good luck to FTC team 3846 Maelstrom as the head to the FIRST World Championships tomorrow morning.

I would like to thank everyone that participated in the Chick-fil-a and the TigerFest Yard Sale fundraisers.  The TigerFest Yard Sale contributed $450 to the robotics club and we are still waiting on details from Chick-fil-a. The focus of this Newsletter is on two upcoming end of the year activities: (1) Final parents meeting to discuss summer fundraising ideas and (2) end of school year robotics club party.  The following are all of the topics covered in this Newsletter:

1.       VEX and FRC Photos Still Needed
2.       Sponsor Appreciation Event – May 2, 2013
3.       Final Parents Meeting – May 24, 2013 at 6pm
4.       End of Year Party – June 8, 2013
5.       Team Captain and Club President Application

Newsletter Details:

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1.       VEX and FRC Photos Still Needed – Thank you to all of the FTC parents that have send me some great photos of the teams in action.  However, I still do not have any photos from the FRC or VEX tournaments.  The photos will be used to update the club website and marketing material to help with fundraising.  You can either email me photos or I also have a DropBox account that I use to exchange photos.  Please send me an email if you have any photos from the VEX or FRC tournaments.

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2.       Sponsor Appreciation Event (May 2, 2013) – As we wind down the 2012-2013 robotics season, it is time to thank all of our sponsors for their outstanding support.  We have invited all of the Middleton Robotics Club Sponsor to attend a review of the club’s 2012-2013 results from 6-7:30pm.  We are looking for parent volunteers to help organize the event and more importantly, we are looking for two students to talk to the sponsors about how important the robotics club has been to them.  If you would like to help with the sponsor event, please send me an email by April 27, 2013.
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3.       Final Parents Meeting – May 24, 2013 at 6pm – The final robotics club parents meeting will be helped on May 24, 2013 at 6pm in Mr. Mead’s classroom. The focus of this meeting will be to review the club’s 2012-2013 activities/financials and most importantly solicit ideas on summer fundraising activities.  Middleton has been notified that the Title 1 funds we have typically used to help with travel costs and parts will absolutely not be available next year.  This is largely due to the force Federal Government “sequestration” budget cuts. The school Title 1 Grant represented 30% of our budget this year. Let’s get a jumpstart on fundraising activities for next year. Please come prepared to talk about fundraising activities we will start during the summer.

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4.       End of Year Party – June 8, 2013 – It is time to celebrate the Middleton Robotics team success.  I want to celebrate both the outstanding parent support this year and the success of each of our robotics teams. Beckie and I will be hosting a party at our house for the enter team and family members (everyone is welcome):

                Date:  June 8, 2011

                Time:  2pm – 10pm

                Location: Wolf House, 18806 Crescent Road, Odessa, FL

I will provide the main dinner meal.  However, I am looking for volunteers to help bring the drinks, chips, dessert, and side dishes that we can enjoy. Plus, we live on a lake and will have the boat in the water so that we can ski, tube, and just have fun in the water.  Make sure you bring or wear your bathing suit.  The party will go into the night so that we can have a camp fire to cook some brown bears and smores.

Please RSVP to this email no later than May 31^st with the number of people attending and let me know if you will be bringing anything.
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5.       Team Captain and Club President Application – Any current robotics club members that would like to be a team captain or the overall club student president next year, will need to complete the attached application form.  The information contained in this form will be used by the current club parent leadership to vote on the 2013-14 club student leadership.  The completed from must be given to myself or Kathy Freriks no later than May 31, 2013.

Middleton Robotics Parents, Students, Sponsors, & Volunteers:

Even though our robotics season is coming to an end, it is important that all of teams continue to focus on their community  outreach and fundraising activities.  It is important that we get a jumpstart on fundraising for next year and we still need to help fund sending Team 3846 Maelstrom to the FTC World Championships in St. Louis.   We just completed our Beef O ‘Brady’s booth fundraising in which we received 15% of all proceeds of the people that eat at the booth that we decorated at the Temple Terrace location. The remainder of this Newsletter highlights two upcoming fundraising opportunities:

1.       Chick-fil-A Night – April 19, 2013
2.       Sponsor Appreciation Event – May 2, 2013
3.       Community Outreach – Boy Scouts Robotics Merit Badge Class – May 11, 2013

Newsletter Details:

1.       Chick-fil-A Night (April 19, 2013) – Middleton Robotics night at the Chick-fil-A on Dale Mabry (15801 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, FL) for the evening of April 19, 2013.  We will receive 20% of the proceeds from anyone that mentions the Middleton Robotics club when they purchase food or presents that attached flyers.  Please tell your family members and friends to eat dinner at Chick-fil-a this Saturday to help support the Middleton Robotics Club.
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2.       Sponsor Appreciation Event (May 2, 2013) – As we wind down the 2012-2013 robotics season, it is time to thank all of our sponsors for their outstanding support.  We have invited all of the Middleton Robotics Club Sponsor to attend a review of the club’s 2012-2013 results from 6-7:30pm.  We are looking for parent volunteers to help organize the event and more importantly, we are looking for two students to talk to the sponsors about how important the robotics club has been to them.  If you would like to help with the sponsor event, please send me an email by April 27, 2013.
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3.       Community Outreach; Boy Scouts Robotics Merit Badge Class (May 11, 2013) – Would you like to help participate in the Gulf Ridge Council Robotics Merit Bade classes on May 11, 2013.  If you are available and would like to help, please contact Rich Berglund.  The following are the details about this event:

Date:  May 11, 2013
Location:  St Leo University, Pasco Cty
Who:  Boy Scouts from Gulf Ridge Council:  Hillsborough, Polk, Pasco, Hernando, Sumter, Citrus, Hardee, Highlands counties
Time:  7:00am – 4:00pm

What:  Teaching Robotics Merit Badge to 25 Boy Scouts.  Still working on whether there will be space/time for a formal robotics Demo during lunch break for all scouts

Logistics:  Lunch will be provided to instructors.  We will be using the FLL NXT system as our base for design/build/program/test.  Scouts will break into small groups (6-8) to work on robots.

Personnel Requirements: Students to assist in Teaching the Class and working with Scouts. I am the Merit Badge Counselor – I also have a co-MB Counselor.  Student instructors will work under my guidance.  I don’t need a large number of instructors (6-8).  Instructors should be familiar with the Boy Scout Teaching Method EDGE  <http://scoutermom.com/1001/scoutings-teaching-edge-method/>   Priority of student instructors will be as follows:

a.  Boy Scouts with FLL Experience
b.  Students with FLL Experience
c.  Boy Scouts with other robotics experience (FRC, FTC, Vex)
d.  Students with other robotics experience (FRC, FTC, Vex)

Merit Badge requirements are at:  http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/AdvancementandAwards/MeritBadges/mb-ROBO.aspx

Middleton Robotics Parents, Students, Sponsors, & Volunteers:

Even though our robotics season is coming to an end, it is important that all of teams continue to focus on their community outreach and fundraising activities. It is important that we get a jumpstart on fundraising for next year and we still need to help fund sending Team 3846 Maelstrom to the FTC World Championships in St. Louis. We just completed our Beef O ‘Brady’s booth fundraising in which we received 15% of all proceeds of the people that eat at the booth that we decorated at the Temple Terrace location. The remainder of this Newsletter highlights two upcoming fundraising opportunities:

1. Tigerfest Yard Sale – April 13, 2013
2. Chick-fil-A Night – April 19, 2013

Newsletter Details:
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1. Tigerfest Yard Sale (April 13, 2013) – There is a yard sale at Middleton High School this Saturday, April 13, 8am to 2pm to support fundraising activities for all clubs at Middleton (see attached flyer). We will have a Robotics Club booth and we are looking for people to help support the event with donations. Please bring any items you would like to donate to Middleton between 7am and 8am on Saturday. All proceeds for items we sell will go to the Robotics Club. Thanks for Debbie Kinney & Allison Roth for coordinating this fundraiser.
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2. Chick-fil-A Night (April 19, 2013) – We are scheduling a Middleton Robotics night at the Chick-fil-A on Dale Mabry (15801 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, FL) for the evening of April 19, 2013. We will receive 20% of the proceeds from anyone that mentions the Middleton Robotics club when they purchase food.

Middleton Robotics Parents, Students, Sponsors, & Volunteers:

We have two events remaining in our 2012-13 robotics season: (1) Team 3846 Maelstrom will be attending the FIRST World Championships April 24-27 and (2)the VEX Robotics 2013-14 game design should be announced next week at the VEX World Championships. The Middleton Robotics Club has participated in 21 different robotics tournaments and spent over 5,000 hours working on robots during the 2013-13 season. Congratulations to all of the teams and good luck to Team 3846 Maelstrom.

The following are the topics discussed in the parents meeting that will be cover in this email:

1. FRC South Regional Update
2. STEM Event at Middleton – April 9, 2013
3. Photos Needed

Newsletter Details:
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1. FRC South Regional Update – FRC 1369 Minotaur competed in the South Florida Regional held at the Broward County Convention Center in Ft Lauderdale, FL on March 27-30. Although the team did not win any awards, it did accomplish all of its pre-season objectives and is well positioned for next season. For the second year in a row, the team avoided catastrophe when the trailer tire had a blowout. After Mr. Mead’s expert nighttime tire changing, the team arrived safe in Ft Lauderdale. Day 1 was spent assembling the robot, passing inspection, Pit Area scouting, and practice rounds. Day 2 was first day of competition and Minotaur’s all rookie Drive team (1 Freshman, 2 Sophomore) jumped out to a great lead going 3-1 in their morning matches. Twice, Minotaur scored all the points for their alliance and one match, scored all the points on the field and holds the record for least amount of points for a win (4-0). During the afternoon, the team had some difficult draws as well as some mechanical challenges with burned out motors and electronics. The team ended day one of the competition with a record of 3-4, tied for 24 place. On Day 2 of competition, more mechanical challenges and tough robot contact played havoc on the matches with 1 broken pneumatic cylinder, 1 burned out motor, and several broken side panels. The team finished the competition with a record of 4-6 and tied for 26 place and with the tiebreaker system, final standing was 31. The team is most proud of the assistance and advice given to their Pit neighbor and rookie team, Mighty Mechanical Mustangs, especially with tools, parts, and scouting which allowed them to advance to the Semi-Finals round.
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2. STEM Event Tonight at Middleton — Middleton Magnet High School would like to invite you to our 3rd annual “STEM Professional Association Event” from 5:30-7:30 PM on Tuesday, April 9th, 2013. This free event is held on an annual basis to connect Tampa Bay area students, parents, educators and professionals to promote student interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) professions. See attached flyers for more details.
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3. Photos Needed – In the coming weeks we will need to start switching our focus to planning for next year as students are able to submit the applications for club president and team captains. I also want to make sure we capture all of the fun, learning, and success of the season. Therefore, I am asking all students and parents to send me a few of your favorite pictures from this robotics season. I will use these photos in a club review document and sponsorship material for next season. Thanks in advance for all of your photo contributions.

Middleton Robotics Parents, Students, Sponsors, & Volunteers:

We are nearing the end of the robotics season.  The Florida FTC season ended last Saturday and two weeks ago we attended our final VEX tournament. Therefore, we will soon need to plan our end of the year celebration and start planning for next year.  However, before that happens we have some exciting news about the Middleton High School Robotics Club continuing to dominate at the Florida FTC state championship, FTC team 4997 Masquerade winning the Kentucky state championship, and our FRC team will be attending the Florida South Regional.

The following are the topics discussed in the parents meeting that will be cover in this email:

1.       FTC State Championship Results

2.       FRC South Regional – March 28-30, 2013

3.       FTC Kentucky State Championship

4.       Photos Needed

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1.       FTC State Championship Results – Congratulations to team 3846 Maelstrom for being the captain of the winning alliance at the Florida FTC State Championship. This means that for the third year in a row the Middleton High School Robotics Club will be representing Florida at the FIRST World Championships.   The most amazing part of the event was that the alliance rounds were dominated by Middleton teams with all of our teams ending the day as an alliance captain.  Because three of the four alliance teams was captained by a Middleton team, team 3846 Maelstrom had to win the state championship by first eliminating 1369 Minotaur in the semi-finals and 4997 Masquerade in the finals.  Congratulations to all three of our teams for your performance at the state championship, your success throughout the FTC season, and most importantly your continued Gracious Professionalism throughout the season  by helping other teams as well as volunteering at FTC events.  Not the planning and fundraising to send another Middleton FTC team to the FIRST World Championships begins.  The FIRST World Championships are April 24-27 in St. Louis.

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2.       FRC South Regional – The Middleton FRC team has wrapped their robot and is ready to score flying disc (aka Frisbee) at the South Florida Regional.  The South Florida Regional is March 28-30, 2013 at the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center.  The team will be driving to Fort Lauderdale and March 27, 2013 and all team members should contact Kathy Freriks about completing all of the required field trip paperwork and FRC coach Rich Berglund about the current travel plans to transport the team and robot.  We are keeping our fingers-crossed in hopes that we are able to have a second Middleton team attend the FIRST World Championships.

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3.       FTC Kentucky State Championship – Congratulations to team 4997 Masquerade for winning the Kentucky State Championship.  Team 4997 Masquerade traveled to Kentucky on February 23, 2013 with the hopes of getting a bid to the World Championships.  The good news is the team’s performance was outstanding and Masquerade was the first robot picked by the second place alliance.  Team 4997 dominated the alliance rounds and was able end the day with the Kentucky State Championship Winning Alliance trophy.  Unfortunately, Masquerade was not the captain and did not receive a bid to the World Championships.

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4.       Photos Needed – In the coming weeks we will need to start switching our focus to planning for next year as students are able to submit the applications for club president and team captains.  Also, in April the new VEX game will be announced and our teams can start discussing design ideas and even start prototyping components.  However, I also want to make sure we capture all of the fun,  learning, and success of the season.  Therefore, I am asking all students and parents to send me a few of your favorite pictures from this robotics season.  I will use these photos in a club review document and sponsorship material for next season.  Thanks in advance for all of your photo contributions.