We continue to see growth in the members of Tea Club! We have also come up with an acronym that fits our team name: Students (and mentors) Who Addictively Refill Teacups -Dogs. We’ve found that it is a great way to form and strengthen the bonds within our family, or as others may think of it, our team.

Our robot looks like a robot now! It’s not just a drive base and random parts strewn around our work site. Lots of progress being done, plans are being made for our open house and scrimmage with the other Iowa FRC teams. There are five FRC teams now! A whole 25% increase! We can almost play an actual game of Ultimate Ascent, maybe next year we will have 6 teams! Any suggestions on a name for our Scrimmage? It sure would be nice to have a name for the event since this will be our fourth year hosting it. We’ll keep thinking on that one though.

FTC is hosting a scrimmage of their own before their state competition! They’re following in our footsteps, it’s so nice to see the affect we have had on our FTC team. They’re doing so much already in their rookie year! We’re looking forward to seeing what they’ll accomplish in the future.

Chairman’s is sure coming along, boards laid out for video plans, a script in the works, and hopefully an almost complete essay! Unless Mr. Swartley decides he wants the format completely changed again, but every time he makes a suggestion, it gets better and better!

App will be submitted by the end of the weekend. It works! We’ve had students try to break it, but they have not succeeded yet. Though they sure are trying.

Our main heater broke overnight. But thankfully someone is here to fix it! Warmth is nice. The computer room space heater works though, so all of use working in there are happy, and filled with warm and fuzzy feelings. Also the tea helps to keep us warm from the inside out.

While snow days are usually thought of as a wintry wonderlands of happiness and joy by students, it’s something that we dread. It means another day lost during build season due to weather, though we understand why it must be cancelled. I’ts just too dangerous for students to get out to our site and work. Though do we ever really stop working during build season? No! We’re always brainstorming, contemplating how a prototype will work out, thinking of new ways to reduce weight or somewhere we have yet to visit and spread the message of FIRST that we haven’t. Once you join FIRST, you’re hooked whether in the sand, sun, or snow.

Good luck teams, and stay warm!