Upcoming Important Dates
October 31, 2024
This is a busy time of year for teams and FIRST® staff alike as we are all getting prepared for the upcoming Kickoff of REEFSCAPESM presented by Haas. With all of the preparations going on, we want to take a moment to remind teams that two Kit of Parts related programs launched on November 14th. Pre-Kickoff Donation Vouchers in the Virtual Kit of Parts and FIRST Choice Round 1 are now live for teams to access!
How to access information on the pre-Kickoff Virtual Kit of Parts vouchers
The Virtual Kit of Parts is a program where donated materials and software are available to teams direct from the supplier via Product Donation Vouchers. Details on the Virtual Kit of Parts are available at the Kit of Parts website (Scroll down and expand the “Virtual Kit Details” section by clicking the “+” in the blue box). Some of the vouchers are accessed via dedicated landing pages maintained by each supplier while others have voucher codes accessible to Lead Mentor 1 & 2 in your team’s Dashboard. Please note that teams will only be able to access voucher codes in the dashboard once the team has secured payment for the upcoming season. Some vouchers will not be available until Kickoff, so be sure to check back after Kickoff!
How to Access information on FIRST Choice Round 1
FIRST Choice round 1 is live as well, don’t worry if you missed the launch, teams have until December 2nd to make their priority list choices. For more information on how the program works, please check out the “FIRST Choice Details” section of the Kit of Parts website. To view the round 1 inventory and make your selections please visit the FIRST Choice website. To access your login information for FIRST Choice Website teams will need to get their password which is available to lead mentor 1 & 2 in the team’s FIRST Dashboard. Please note that teams will only be able to access their FIRST Choice password in the dashboard once the team has secured payment for the upcoming season.
Some notes on the FIRST Choice Program
FIRST Choice is structured into several rounds – Round 1 is live now, Round 2 will go live after Kickoff on January 4th, 2025, and open ordering begins on January 24th, 2025. For more details, please visit the Kit of Parts website. Please note that there is a new option this year where teams may elect to receive their round 1 and 2 items in a single shipment after round 2 closes.
Some teams may wonder why and how items are split up into the 2 rounds of FIRST Choice. The two rounds give a balance of a few factors in distributing items to teams for use during the season. The timing of Round 1 lets teams get access to some items that they might want on hand right away when the season kicks off. Round 2, which launches at Kickoff, gives an opportunity to include content that may be game specific or give hints as to the nature of the season’s challenge. Another important reason for including a second round is that it gives more time for our suppliers to get items into inventory. The items you can see available for round 1 represent what items were in inventory prior to launch. Longer lead time items or late donations will become available when round 2 opens on January 4th.
What can you expect this season? We blogged earlier in the year about the choice to add more game pieces to the Season Specific box of the Kickoff Kit rather than include game pieces to FIRST Choice round 2. The round 1 inventory is available now for teams to shop and build their priority lists. Round 2 will include a host of new and exciting items that were not in stock yet for round 1. Don’t worry about saving credits to have some for round 2, teams will be assigned more credits when round 2 goes live! Unspent credits can be used during open ordering after rounds 1 and 2 are complete. Please remember that teams will need to have secured payment for the upcoming season to get access to their FIRST Choice password in the FIRST Dashboard.
Good luck, and we will see you at the competition!