NorCal FLL Challenge updates on spring league, championships and more...
Jill Wilker
A couple of updates that many have been waiting for....
1. Spring League events are still getting finalized
(unfortunately). Registration is NOT going to open this month.
We are still looking for more locations and organizers, so if you
have access to a space and/or capacity to help with organizing,
please let me know as soon as possible. At this point, the only
confirmed location is our building - The Play Space - in north San
Jose. We would really like to have events spread throughout our
region but need your help. We may extend events into May if
needed.
2. Championships! As previously reported, there are 3 NorCal Championships and a team advances based on the location of their qualifier. Your team's advancement certificate has the specific Championship listed. Here is the current status:
- The SF / East Bay / Capital Championship is confirmed for January 19th at Pleasant Grove HS in Elk Grove
- The Peninsula Championship is confirmed for March 9th at Palo Alto HS in Palo Alto
- The San Jose Championship is not quite confirmed but we have a reservation request in for March 2nd - keeping fingers crossed that this will get confirmed this week (otherwise it will be after school is back after the New Year)
The events will get posted in mylumi later this week and we will be starting to update the championship.norcalfll.org site soon which will be your go-to place and include all information about the Championships along with the process of swapping between championships.
We are going to open registration on December 23rd for the January Championship and in early January for the last 2 championships (a message will go out on this group once ready).
Finally, it costs us over $600 per team to host a Championship event. We continue to look for sponsors to help reduce the cost to teams. We will keep the registration fee at $450 but if you can donate a few extra dollars when you register that would be greatly appreciated. We do also have team grants that can be used (up to $200/team) but you will have to apply for this grant. Application is here.
3. If you submitted a FLL Team grant application, I am
in the final stretches of going through these. The process that I
used worked okay when we had fewer requests but I need to
streamline this going forward as it is very time consuming (and
mentally exhausting). But email updates will be going out before
the end of the year.
4. Reminder: Now through December 31st, you can vote for us
through the Target Circle program to help determine how
Target’s donation will be divvied up. The Target Circle program is
a digital program that rewards shoppers whether they shop in store
or online and it is free to sign up. Find out more about Target
Circle here: www.target.com/circle And reminder that you have to
select location, home store or shipping location to be Mountain
View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, or San Jose.
5. Finally just a reminder about end of year giving. Playing At Learning depends on individual donations to support our programs and would greatly appreciate your support. Donate
Happy Holidays and have a joyous New Year!
Jill & Nicki
Playing At Learning FLL Challenge