I hope everyone had as much fun as I did this summer! Our robotics summer camp program finished last week and I’m planning a lot of new activities for this school year.

As of right now, I have after school programs setup at a couple of locations. I still have Wednesday’s open for one more school. If you know of a school that might be interested in an after school robotics program – either a club or an FLL team – please let me know.

I am also in the process of setting up community FLL and Jr. FLL teams in North and South Tampa and the Brandon/Riverview/Valrico areas. For this, I need your help. We are ready to go right now but we need locations to have our weekly meetings. Essentially, we need a classroom sized space where we can hold the meetings one night per week for several hours. During the week, we’ll need to be able to store the competition field. This is a plywood sheet with 2×4 rails. It’s thin, but is is 4×8 feet in size, so it could be leaned against a wall somewhere out of the way for storage. If you know of a location, PLEASE contact me immediately. This is the last thing I need in place before I can kick off these teams. Likely places that might work would be martial arts or other sports facilities, businesses with a large conference room, churches, and local technical or continuing education schools. If you think your child might be interested in joining one of our teams, please reply back and let me know which area and which program you would like to participate.

Anyone who could sponsor our team(s) with a location would receive promotional consideration as a major sponsor for the team. We’ll put their info on the team shirts and printed materials where they’ll be seen by 300-600 (kids and parents) at the tournaments we attend. We’ll also be sure to publicly thank them anytime we have a media opportunity.

The competition season for FIRST LEGO League officially kicks off on September 2nd but it is important to get started now since we need some lead time to get the teams organized and to order materials from US FIRST. Jr. FLL is now underway and the Snack Attack Challenge has been released.

If you know of someone who is interested in starting their own community teams for FLL or Jr. FLL, I’d be happy to sit down with them over a cup of coffee and help them develop a budget and plan so that their team can start on the right foot. I can point them at a number of great resources for rookie coaches too.

Don’t forget, if you think your child might be interested in joining one of our teams, please contact me and let me know which area and which program you would like to participate. Jr. FLL is for kids aged 6 to 9 (as of August 1st). FLL is for kids aged 9 to 14. Teams will be forming in North Tampa, South Tampa, and the Riverview/Brandon/Valrico area.