January 8, 2016

Important Reminders from your MRC Student Officers

Kush, Sloan, Mahima, Mahek

McKamy Robotics January Student Meeting! (2 Days before our 1st VEX Competition at FMHS)

Theme:  "What We Wish We Knew Last Year Before Our 1st Competition"

Reminder we have our monthly student meeting Thursday January 14th from 4:15pm - 5:15pm (note ending 15 minutes earlier) in the McKamy Library. Parents and Parent Mentors are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Meeting Overview:

• Attendance/Announcements
• FMHS VEX Competition Day Agenda Overview
• Mock "Alliance Selection" that is done after Qualifying Matches
• Judges Interview Overview - What to expect & Engineering Notebook
  • Role Play of Team to Team Interviews (done by teams during the competition to "scout" potential alliances) - 1 role play done in front by 2 of our teams (Vectors and Robot Destroyers) and then teams will do a quick one if have time with another team next to them.  MRC Potential Alliance Iinterview sheet provided to Parent Mentors.

Please note for next weeks meeting: 

If a student/parent feels they need to go home after school as last of exam week is on early release Friday vs. coming to the meeting the Student Officers, Board, Mr. Blalack and Principal Taggart understand and no worries.

Remember to wear your McKamy Robotics Club T-shirt at the meeting!

• Mr. Szydlik will be taking their FIRST team on Saturday out of town for the announcement of this years competition and get their robot package so he will NOT be at FMHS, so McKamy teams will NOT be able to go to the high school like they graciously opened for us over the holiday. 

• Mr. Blalack offered /received approval from Principal Taggart to open up McKamy Robotics as our competition is only 8 days away! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! 

• Parent Mentors will be working together onsite to rotate teams in and out of the field area so all have an opportunity during this 3 hour window.  Work tables for each team will be in the cafeteria so we can accomodate all teams if desire.

Further into the meeting, Sloan, the vice president, gave a recap on TSA and what we learned about in the last meeting. Each Robotics Member was reminded of when the entries were due to MRC (February 22nd), a recap on the categories and resources on the website. After the recap, Mahek, the reporter, introduced the team building activity with Sloan. During Thanksgiving Break, we had asked everyone to go to the TSA website via our website under Student Resources and look at a few categories that they are excited about to do an entry. In the activity, each person was asked to share the category that caught their eye and why they liked it. This team exercise, helped teammates learn more about each other and might have also helped people who did not choose a category pick one.

After the activity, we started to give thanks to Mr. Taggart. as each team manager shared their thank you speeches. A big thanks to everyone who participated in building the mini robot from altered parts!  The students presented him with a thank you gift and card before the group picture. Mr. Taggart's honoring has touched everyone's heart and we will always be thankful for how he made the McKamy Robotics Club even more successful.

The meeting ended with everyone picking a savory treat and eating it alongside with Mr. Taggart. Mahima then picked up the attendance and name tags.

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A Big thanks to the McKamy Board Members for making all of this possible!

Keep Calm and Robot On!

Mahek Kakkar, MRC Reporter

Click here to check out the McKamy Robotics Booster Club Website

Questions?  Email McKamyRobotics@gmail.com , reply to this email, or cut and paste email address to your email client