[Tried to reword this post to be clearer (again) –

1. Please do not bring a hard copy of the Team Profile Form with you.

2. Do not send any supporting materials in soft copy – anything that the team wants to give  to any judge beyond the Team Profile form  must be physically handed to judges at the time of your judging session.

3. Also do not hand judges a CD/DVD/thumb drive or anything similar.

]

Several teams have asked about the 3 check boxes at the bottom of the Team Profile form.

_  We have provided Robot Design supporting materials
_  We have provided Research Project supporting materials
_  We would like our presentation materials returned to us

The “default” PDF version of the team profile form makes the assumption that you are handing it directly to judges on the day of the tournament.  At NorCal,  we do not want you handing these to the judges but instead, we give them access to a soft copy version.     The soft copy version is much easier for the judges to look at,  easier to reference and doesn’t end up with 48 (or worse 3 * 48) pieces of wasted paper that we just need to throw away.

The checkboxes on the original PDF form are a way to try to note that the team has handed some “extra”  items to the judges that the team wants to get back.  You can safely ignore these checkboxes in Northern California!

If the team does end up handing any additional/supporting items to any of the judges at the tournament that you want back, it is the team’s responsibility to make sure that it is clearly identified that you want it back and how to contact you in case it doesn’t happen before the end of the tournament day.   And recognize that whatever you hand to the judges may not come back at all – there is no way to 100% track these types of things.

Examples of these types of additional materials that teams have handed to judges includes a 1 page summary of their robot design mechanical and software features, a summary of the team’s project presentation and sometimes include additional items including pictures from field trips, feedback received from professionals and others that the team shared their project ideas with and similar.    There is no requirement for these materials  and we don’t recommend that the team just hand a bunch of items or stacks of raw data to the judges – the judges have limited bandwidth and will not read / look at everything (or sometimes even most things) that you hand them.

Some teams hand judges items like candy / buttons and other “team giveaways” that are not intended to be returned.

Also remember, there is no way to have judges view any videos or similar “online” content or play your CD/DVD or load your thumb drive or anything else like that.    Please do not email or provide links to any additional items as there will not be any way to get them to the judges or have anything done with them.