Qualifier Registration Open!

I hope everyone is making good progress on their robots to compete in the FIRST® Tech Challenge DECODE® Game Challenge!

We are two months out from our first Qualifier of the DECODE Season on December 12 and 13 at La Academia de Esperanza Charter School in Albuquerque!  We have opened online registration for both the Albuquerque and Alamogordo Qualifiers on the website.  Teams are welcome to sign up for one or both Qualifiers at this time!   Click the “Events / Event Registration” button above to sign up.

As in the past several years, we have received funding from our generous sponsors to help keep local competition fees at a low flat $125 which covers both qualifiers and potential advancement to the NM FTC Regional Championship! After your team registers for one or both qualifiers, I will send an invoice to your lead mentors.

Please also start working on getting your students signed up for your team and their parental consent & Release forms complete!  These are done via your FIRST Dashboard.  FIRST has made changes in that process this season.  There is a new express system to simplify the process of inviting the parents/guardians complete the online forms.  IMPORTANT  This season:  FIRST is no longer  providing the paper Consent and Release Forms to local Program Delivery Partners!  If you really need that paper form, coaches will now have to contact FIRST headquarters directly to get the form and justify its use on a case by case basis, so there will be no mechanism for getting the paper forms from me at the last minute – I won’t have them!    Please try to get this done far enough in advance to deal with any issues before the competitions – students will not be allowed to compete unless these forms are completed.

We look forward to seeing everyone at one or both qualifiers!

Jim Jackson, NM FTC Program Delivery Partner, Co-Director, Land of Enchantment Robotics