Hi ,

Program Updates, Deadlines, & Reminders

Closing Soon! Event Preferencing: The first round of event preferencing closes Thursday, September 28, at 12:00 p.m. noon ET. For more information about event preferencing visit our Event Preference User Guide. Remember, it does not matter when you indicate your preferences within this window, as long as you get your preferences in before the deadline.

Late Registration for First Events: Event Ready teams that miss the first round of preferencing can pick their first event in our late registration period that opens on Friday, September 29, at 12:00 p.m. noon ET.

“Event Ready teams” refers to teams that have two lead mentors (screened for U.S. & Canada only) and no outstanding tasks. This allows teams to select available events for their first event only. To select an event during this window, lead mentors need to log in to the FIRST^® Dashboard, click on their team, and then in far-right column “Team Events”, click on “Event Options” drop down menu, and select “View Team Events.”

Upcoming! Second Event Registration: Second Event Preferencing will open Thursday, October 5, at 12:00 p.m. noon ET, and will close Thursday, October 12, at 12:00 p.m. noon ET.

Closing Soon! NASA Team Grant: The 2023-2024 NASA Team Grant application deadline is September 30, 2023. The grant is open for U.S.-based FIRST^® Robotics Competition rookie teams or 2023 rookie teams who received the grant last season!

FIRST Updates

Help us learn more: As you're preparing for your events - don’t forget to update your Team Contacts screen on your FIRST Dashboard with the number of youth participants on your team (input the number of youth and click 'Update'). This information helps FIRST better understand our community and take action to expand opportunities to more youth. Thank you for helping us learn more about our community!

Community Engagement 

Inspire the Future: FIRST Educators Recognition Program: At FIRST, recognition is not only part of our name, it's core to our ethos. In this spirit, we are proud to launch our third year of the Inspire the Future: FIRST Educators Recognition Program. NEW this year, you may nominate outstanding schools as part of the first annual Inspire the Future: FIRST School Recognition Program. Help us celebrate the FIRST educators and schools who inspire their learning communities and advance the mission of FIRST by submitting a nomination.