SR2015 Signups

[Andy Busse]

Hello,

When is the plan to open up signups for SR2015 (or is this blocking on
something important that I've missed)? I only ask as term is due to end
very soon.

My apologies if this has cropped up elsewhere and this is a repeat question.

Thanks,
Andy

PS: and yes, I'm aware that it's possible to register interest on the
website while signup is closed.

[Peter Law]

Andy wrote:
> When is the plan to open up signups for SR2015 (or is this blocking on
> something important that I've missed)? I only ask as term is due to end very
> soon.

Huh, I thought we included this in the post-competition news article,
but it appears we merely alluded to it:
> If you didn't take part but your appetite's been whetted, or you want to
> enter again next year, the sign up page for next year's competition will
> be up soon. Get forming your teams and talking to your teachers now!

The how_to_enter page [1] has been open for a long while now; I'm not
aware of any reason not to open the entries if they're not already.

Do we want a news article/twitter/facebook/mailshot to advertise this?

Peter

[1] https://www.studentrobotics.org/schools/how_to_enter

[Andrew Cottrell]

If we're sure that they're open (I also don't see why not - we've already had a few people fill it in), we can get on this straight away.

Cheers,

Andy

--

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Student Robotics" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to srobo+un...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

Andrew Cottrell

http://ultimationee.blogspot.com

[Jeremy Morse]

Hi,

The thing that's missing from this is what a signup means. I'm of the
opinion that we can't guarantee anyone a place until at least September,
for a couple of:
- We should re-run the Team Leader Agreement situation
- We don't know how many teams we can support next year

The former needn't necessitate any lawyering this time; I think we're
better off having some protection from such an agreement setting out
what our relationship is, than from skipping it again.

The team number situation is because (as I understand it), the ability
to support ~80 teams next year hinges entirely on ECS handing us some
money, which hasn't yet happened (or had a number finalised).

So, I'd suggest the following steps:
- Mark off the current state of the sign-up form
- Email all previously competing teams with the above caveat (no
confirmations til September), and tell them to fill out the form to
request a place.
- Exchange emails with any rookie teams who sign up -- as discussed
here [0], some speculative signups occur, and actually exchanging
emails will confirm that a team is serious (or at least non-vaporous)
- Start confirming places in September, as by then we'll know the
number of places. If there are more teams than places, we'll have
to discuss how allocation occurs.
- Teams leaders sign a team leader agreement to actually get the place

Something similar was going to happen last year, but the application of
lawyers to the team leader agreement (which I think was ultimately
worthwhile) tore up the timings.

[0] https://www.studentrobotics.org/trac/ticket/2497

--
Thanks,
Jeremy

[Jeremy Morse]

Hi,

Here's the email I'll send out, Wednesday most likely. Note that I'm
obliging a decision about Kickstart to occur by August (which seems
reasonable to me, opinions?), and a decision about whether kit
upgrade/expansion occurs by September (If ECS haven't coughed up by
then, IMO there's no possibility of getting things done without casualties).

~

Hi,

The Student Robotics 2015 competition is a go! We're now accepting
signups to request a place in the competition, so please fill in the
signup form here [0]. If you've already filled it in (before today) then
please fill it out again to confirm you're still interested in a place.

Next years competition should be broadly the same as this year's format,
although with a different game being played. Unfortunately right now
we're unable to confirm either the venue, or details about Kickstart.

We're also not able to confirm how many places there are -- we currently
have enough kit to support 54 teams taking part, and we've also been
offered additional funding by another sponsor to expand and support 80
teams. Unfortunately they haven't yet confirmed that funding, which
leaves us hanging somewhat. This means that we won't be able to
_confirm_ any places in the competition until the first week of September.

We're also planning on re-trying the "Team leader agreement" (which is
rolling already). With that in mind, the schedule for entering a team
looks like this:

Today ($date): Fill out the signup form to apply for a place
01/08/14: Publication of the Kickstart event(s) details
01/09/14: We'll let you know how many places there are in the
competition, and whether you have one, We'll also issue
the team leader agreement to be signed + returned
Pre-Kickstart: Recruit team members
Kickstart (date TBA): Attend and receive kit!

--
Thanks,
Jeremy

[Peter Law]

Jeremy wrote:
> Here's the email I'll send out, Wednesday most likely. Note that I'm
> obliging a decision about Kickstart to occur by August (which seems
> reasonable to me, opinions?), and a decision about whether kit
> upgrade/expansion occurs by September (If ECS haven't coughed up by
> then, IMO there's no possibility of getting things done without casualties).

This seems reasonable. Unless anyone has any objections, I think we
should aim for KickStart being early/mid October, and that we should
say as much now.

The email is mostly good, some minor things below.

> We're also not able to confirm how many places there are -- we currently
> have enough kit to support 54 teams taking part, and we've also been
> offered additional funding by another sponsor to expand and support 80
> teams.

I'm certain I'm deliberately mis-reading this, but could we phrase it
as "a total of 80 teams", to avoid people thinking we mean 54+80
total.

> We're also planning on re-trying the "Team leader agreement" (which is
> rolling already).

Do they all already know what this is? Either way, it feels like we
could usefully have something which explains it.

Should we look at putting the comment about the team leader agreement
and the schedule on the how_to_enter page as well, so that this
information is also available to new teams who find us by other
routes?

Thanks,
Peter

[Jeremy Morse]

Hi,

[Thunderbird doesn't seem to be coping well with > 200,000 emails on one
account],

On 07/07/14 21:43, Peter Law wrote:
> This seems reasonable. Unless anyone has any objections, I think we
> should aim for KickStart being early/mid October, and that we should
> say as much now.

Discussion for another thread; I favour later in October as we have no
estimates on kit manufacture right now.

>> We're also not able to confirm how many places there are -- we currently
>> have enough kit to support 54 teams taking part, and we've also been
>> offered additional funding by another sponsor to expand and support 80
>> teams.
>
> I'm certain I'm deliberately mis-reading this, but could we phrase it
> as "a total of 80 teams", to avoid people thinking we mean 54+80
> total.

That makes sense, sure,

>> We're also planning on re-trying the "Team leader agreement" (which is
>> rolling already).
>
> Do they all already know what this is? Either way, it feels like we
> could usefully have something which explains it.

Ah, implicitly I was intending on emailing this to all of last years
participants. I think the existing email is probably sufficient for
them, with a few links to explain what Kickstart is, and as you say an
explanation of the Team Leader agreement.

> Should we look at putting the comment about the team leader agreement
> and the schedule on the how_to_enter page as well, so that this
> information is also available to new teams who find us by other
> routes?

Yup.

--
Thanks,
Jeremy

[Harry Cutts]

Hi,

On Monday, 7 July 2014 22:27:35 UTC+2, jmorse wrote:

Here's the email I'll send out, Wednesday most likely.

Looks good, just a few things from my inner grammar critic:

<pedant type="grammar">
 

The Student Robotics 2015 competition is a go!

"Is a go" sounds a bit suspect here. Maybe "is go"?
 

Next years competition should be broadly the same as this year's format,
although with a different game being played.

That first "years" needs an apostrophe (so, it should read "Next year's competition").
 

Today ($date): Fill out the signup form to apply for a place
01/08/14: Publication of the Kickstart event(s) details
01/09/14: We'll let you know how many places there are in the
          competition, and whether you have one, We'll also issue
          the team leader agreement to be signed + returned

 

That last comma should be a full stop ("...you have one. We'll also...").

</pedant>

Harry Cutts

[Rob Spanton]

Hey,

Some comments on making this letter more positive and to the point:

On Mon, 2014-07-07 at 21:27 +0100, Jeremy Morse wrote:
> Next years competition should be broadly the same as this year's format,
> although with a different game being played. Unfortunately right now
> we're unable to confirm either the venue, or details about Kickstart.

Last sentence is too negative. Better:

We will be providing information on the dates and locations of
our kickstart events and competition later in the year.

> We're also not able to confirm how many places there are -- we currently
> have enough kit to support 54 teams taking part, and we've also been
> offered additional funding by another sponsor to expand and support 80
> teams. Unfortunately they haven't yet confirmed that funding, which
> leaves us hanging somewhat. This means that we won't be able to
> _confirm_ any places in the competition until the first week of September.

This paragraph goes into too much detail. I suggest it is reworded to
this single sentence:

We will be confirming places in the competition in the first

week of September.

> We're also planning on re-trying the "Team leader agreement" (which is
> rolling already). With that in mind, the schedule for entering a team
> looks like this:

It is likely that some team leaders don't have any memory of the "team
leader agreement". I would entirely remove this paragraph, as at we can
send out an email to people who have filled in the form later asking
them to sign it (which is entirely reasonable).

> Today ($date): Fill out the signup form to apply for a place
> 01/08/14: Publication of the Kickstart event(s) details

> 01/09/14: We'll let you know how many places there are in the
> competition, and whether you have one, We'll also issue
> the team leader agreement to be signed + returned

Teams don't need to know how many places there are: what they are
interested in is whether they have a place. So this can be reduced to:

01/09/14: We'll let you know whether you have a place, and will
issue you with the accompanying paperwork to sign.

> Pre-Kickstart: Recruit team members

s/Recruit/You recruit/

> Kickstart (date TBA): Attend and receive kit!

Cheers,

Rob

[Jeremy Morse]

Hi,

Revisions applied to the email below. I agree with all the feedback,
without objection I'll emit this tonight.

Hi,

The Student Robotics 2015 competition is on! We're now accepting signups

to request a place in the competition, so please fill in the signup form
here [0]. If you've already filled it in (before today) then please fill
it out again to confirm you're still interested in a place.

Next year's competition should be broadly the same as this year's
format, although with a different game being played. We will be

providing information on the dates and locations of our kickstart events
and competition later in the year.

We will be confirming places in the competition in the first week of

September -- your place in the competition is not guaranteed until it is
confirmed.

With that in mind, the schedule for entering a team looks like this:

Today ($date): Fill out the signup form to apply for a place
01/08/14: Publication of the Kickstart event(s) details

01/09/14: We'll let you know whether you have a place, and will
issue you with the accompanying paperwork to sign.
Pre-Kickstart: Recruit team members

Kickstart (date TBA): Attend and receive kit!

--
Thanks,
Jeremy

[Howard Buck]

> On 11 Jul 2014, at 15:16, Jeremy Morse <jeremy...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Pre-Kickstart: Recruit team members

Did you still want to s/Recruit/You recruit/ ?

[Jeremy Morse]

Hi,

On 11/07/14 19:36, Howard Buck wrote:
> Did you still want to s/Recruit/You recruit/ ?

Fully missed that, thanks for the correction, I shall indeed apply that.

--
Thanks,
Jeremy

[Jeremy Morse]

Hi,

After some internet excitement, this shipped on the 14th, and resulted
in 20 signups from past participants on the day (one was a dropout).

I've now mailed 17 more people who filled out the signup form /
expressed an interest in the competition, two of whom's emails have
expired in the meantime.

I anticipate some half of the schools who dropped out this year won't
register again, we'll see what happens there.

--
Thanks,
Jeremy

[Andrew Cottrell]

Tweeted and Facebook'd:

https://twitter.com/StudentRobotics/status/489830545455845377

https://www.facebook.com/StudentRobotics/posts/299870763524488

Cheers,

Andy