The Board of the New Zealand Robotics Charitable Trust, (Kiwibots), is delighted to advise of the appointment of Michelle Hazeleger-Mollard as our new National Operations Manager, 10th December 2021. Michelle is an educator with a Masters in Educational Leadership, based in Palmerston North. She joins us after her role as a teacher and International Student Academic Manager at St. Peter’s College since 2014. Michelle may be a familiar face to some, having been involved with Kiwibots programmes as a parent and event volunteer for 7+ years. She has also worked all over the world, including Thailand and Japan, as well as time spent living in India working as Deputy Principal at an international school, in Delhi. The Board is extremely excited to be welcoming Michelle into this role as Kiwibots continues to grow. With Nationals fast approaching and previous National Manager, Janet Van Jenkins, now based overseas and supporting from afar, we will do our best to keep things running smoothly for the community in this handover. We would like to thank our incredible Regional Coordinators, volunteers, schools and students for their commitment and support through this period of change. We will be arranging for Michelle to meet with the volunteers, communities and schools throughout the country at the earliest opportunity. We would also like to thank Fisher & Paykel Healthcare for their support with the recruitment process these last months. We look forward to working with you to continue expanding Kiwibots programme across Aotearoa to future-proof Kiwi kids. Mike Hearn Chair New Zealand Robotics Charitable Trust (Kiwibots)

Over the last year and a half, we have had the privilege of running in person and online events for the community as we change between Alert Levels on this pandemic rollercoaster. A huge thanks to all of our community for being so understanding and adapting to the systems we've been putting in place to help prioritise everyone's safety. The new habit of RSVPing and checking in on arrival has helped immensely in the last few lockdowns, allowing us to work directly with MOH to quickly contact trace and communicate with attendees. With the restrictions changing for the current Delta variant, we've updated our protocols to reflect the extra measures we will be implementing to ensure event safety for the Kiwibots community. Please read the information below carefully. Capacity and Registration With indoor events being limited to 50 participants and spectators, RSVP-ing individual attendance via www.kiwibots.co.nz/upcoming-events prior to the event will be mandatory. Entry may be denied to unregistered individuals who walk-in on the day. A volunteer will be at the venue entry point to assist with this checking in too. Many regions may now also host multiple events on a single day by splitting IQ and VRC - so please check our events page carefully so that you register for the correct scrimmage. Read the event details - some events may limit how many teams from an organisation, or how many ākonga/students per team, may attend. If you incorrectly register for an event, please let us know at contact@kiwibots.co.nz or email your Regional Coordinator so we can remove you from the incorrect event and free up a space. Checking in on our system is compulsory and additional to the government issued QR COVID-19 scanning system. This is because we recognise many students may not have their own personal devices and are legally required to keep our own records. Venues Once again, please make sure you read the information on the Kiwibots Events page carefully, as regions may host multiple scrimmages at different venues, different rooms within a venue (e.g. Gym and the Hall), or at different times. As many venues do not allow for events at Level 2, please be prepared that venues may change to those that can host events and visitors at Level 2. If you have already registered to an event and the venue changes, our team will endeavour to let you know with plenty of warning. Venues will have a single entry point to help manage sign-ins and ensure we stay within capacity limits. Event Hygiene and Safety Things are going to look a bit different at Delta 2. Some things stay the same though - do not attend an event if you are showing any cold or flu-like symptoms, get tested and let us know you will not be attending so we can remove you from the RSVP list. Remember to regularly wash your hands, avoid touching your face and sneeze or cough into your elbow. Volunteers Kiwibots event volunteers (Regional Coordinators and any additional volunteers critical to event support, referees, Tournament Manager tech, etc.) will be wearing Kiwibots teal shirts and face masks for all events at Delta 2. Volunteers for events will be staying in a volunteer capacity for the event, and should not be a general supporter that between matches offers to help reset the field and 'change roles'. This is due to event volunteers not coming within the 50 person capacity. If you would like to offer to volunteer for an event, please contact your Regional Coordinator prior to the event. Mask Wearing Mask-wearing is not compulsory at Delta 2 for our attendees (non-volunteers), however in line with the Ministry of Health guidelines, we do strongly recommend them for individuals aged 12 and over given the number of teams from across the region in attendance, and possible difficulties with physical distancing in some venues. Cleaning There will be hand sanitisers available at entry to the venue and at the match fields. Please feel free to bring your own hand sanitiser as well. Shared surfaces such as trestle tables, high-touch areas and Kiwibots devices etc. will undergo a pre- and post- event sanitisation. Please be prepared to assist with this as Regional Coordinators may ask each team to help with wiping down their team's trestle table/workspace at the beginning and end of each event. Teams may wipe down their tables more frequently throughout the event if they wish, simply ask the Regional Coordinator for the sanitising spray. If you have any questions about the updated Delta 2 protocols for events, please feel free to get in touch with us directly at contact@kiwibots.co.nz. Events will not take place at Level 3 or higher, and we are reviewing how new Alert Levels impact our major events, so please do stay tuned as we work through these difficult times. We can't wait to safely put events back on for our Kiwibots kids, and thank you all for being so understanding as we find ways to navigate how to get events back for you all. Kia kaha Aotearoa!

With NZ's tech success story, Rocket Lab, going public yesterday - it's a timely reminder to look at all the incredible successes our students achieve every year on the global stage at the VEX World Championships. Kiwibots kids are absolutely following in the footsteps of changemakers like Peter Beck, and we can't wait for the future with these kids at the helm. With support from The Royal Society, our students competed in the live virtual championships of May this year and snagged a number of top awards for Aotearoa. We are so proud of them as we won an award at every grade too! Ka pai koutou! 👏 It's worth noting in this too that we were lucky enough to run a primarily in-person season for 2020-21, and as such the students had robots designed for the in-person rules. In some ways, our students were disadvantaged heading into the worlds against teams who had spend the last 6-10 months preparing for online challenges with designs specific to those rules, so we are especially proud of how well our tamariki adapted and rose to the challenge. Throw into the mix some very early morning starts for our young'uns as they do their interviews at 6am NZST to meet with judges in the USA. Thanks to all the teachers and parents who supported them through a pretty exhausting week! A massive congratulations to all our teams that represented NZ on the world stage in Live Remote Tournaments and Live Remote Skills - Lynfield College, Rubixcoders, Skywalker Robotics, House of Science Tauranga, NakiBots, TopCat, Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School, and College Street Normal School. 🏆 House of Science Tauranga 8757A - Engineering subdivision champions and Innovate Award winners 🏆 Skywalker Robotics 3168S - Create Award winners 🏆 College Street Normal School 2223E Phoenix - Innovate Award winners 🏆 AURA - VEX Innovators Award 🏆 Craig Yearbury - Inspiration All-Star Award and VEX Hall of Fame

Check out the fantastic write up of VEX Worlds Innovate Award winners, House of Science 8757A!!! https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/269302-tauranga-robotics-team-wins-world-championship.html

Are you planning on joining us at either of our National Championship events in Christchurch or Auckland? This email is for you - please read to make sure you have the latest info! Please forward this email to anyone who may not be on our mailing lists, and we recommend you subscribe to our newsletter to avoid missing out on any important news. CHECK YOUR REGISTRATION This is your final week to make sure you are registered/unregistered for the upcoming Nationals. All teams registered on either event by end of Friday 19th March will be invoiced. Likewise, make sure you're on the list if you are joining us! Please email j.van@kiwibots.co.nz if you need teams updated. Check CHRISTCHURCH Registration List Check AUCKLAND Registration List Spectators and Public Both events in the series are open to the public and spectators are encouraged! We have activities for the whole family - play with VEX GO and VEX IQ, try VR headsets with our various booths, and so much more! In Christchurch, you can check out the activities with Bee Bots and Digital Future Aotearoa, tinker with laptops with Recycle A Device, or have a go with Imagination Station. In Auckland, you can check out all the educational exhibits, as well as try your hand at coding with activities by Xero, awesome VR headsets with VR Voom, , meet some impressive robots from the First Robotics Competition and BattleBots, and see Spot the Boston Dynamics Robot by Rocos! To help us with our contact tracing, we ask that you please register prior to the event you will be attending - even if it's as a supporting parent only in for an hour. At both events we will have ushers patrolling doors to encourage scanning and also adding on attendee details - so registering in advance will help speed this up. Do your part and please register! RSVP to Christchurch Nationals RSVP to Auckland Nationals Volunteers! We won't go on about this one too much, but we need more volunteers in both Christchurch and Auckland. No minimum age, and even just helping out for one day would make a huge difference! What's in it for you? A free shirt, catering and lots of fun! Sign up on the link below. Volunteer at Nationals CONSENT FORMS A final reminder that you MUST have completed this consent form to submit to RECF before Nationals - we will be using this list to make lanyards for the pits. If you do not have a consent form, you will not be given a lanyard and will not have access to the pits. We are keeping the pits as a lanyard only zone this year due to the number of public we expect to attend to help with security of teams' belongings. Lanyards will be given to the team member doing check-in and inspection on Friday and competitors must wear this throughout the competition if they want to access the Pits. Are your cords tested AND tagged? Any electrical items being used in the venue need to be tested and tagged within the last 12 months. This means anything that is going to be plugged in, including battery chargers, laptop chargers, multiboards, extension cables, phone chargers, adapters, etc., MUST be tagged with a valid and current sticker. This applies to both the Christchurch and Auckland event. We will provide a multiboard at each pit for each team in Auckland, and confirming our power availability for Christchurch. Untagged cords that are found to be plugged in will be confiscated for the event and teams will receive a warning. We will not be offering testing and tagging at the Nationals. Please organise this yourself with your school or an appliance testing company before the event. SAFETY GLASSES AND FOOTWEAR It is mandatory that all competitors wear safety glasses (or their own glasses) at the competition fields. Any competitors without these will be asked to leave the competition area (our volunteers will also be wearing them). Please wear covered shoes - jandals, bare feet, or other sandals are not allowed at the competition fields. Keep this in mind for the teams who plan on dressing up. If you don't have any safety glasses - good news is our supply just landed. We have brand new Kiwibots branded safety glasses and selling these for the same price of $3.50 a pair. View on Kiwibots Store Christchurch Schedule Any teams, students and supporters able to help us with set up are encouraged to please stay and assist with set up of pits and fields on Friday evening. Teams not checked in by 6pm Friday 19th will not be able to compete in the Nationals Tournament. Friday 19 March 3:00pm - 6:00pm Check-in and inspection (Note all competitors and associated adults will be issued lanyards on check-in). Only a representative is required for your team for check in, and they will collect all the lanyards for your team. Saturday 20 March 8:30am Doors Open, Final Inspections 8:45am Mihi whakatau, Opening Ceremony and Awards 10:00am - 12:00pm Qualification Matches 12:00pm - 12:30pm LUNCH No skills or matches to take place during lunch. 12:30 - 2:00pm Skills fields open - this will be the only skills slots available 2:00pm - 3:00pm Qualification Matches Finish 3:00pm Alliance Selection 3:15pm - 4:30pm Knock-Out Matches, Awards 4:30pm - 5:30pm Semi Finals and Finals Matches, Awards Ceremony, Event Close AUCKLAND SCHEDULE Friday 2 April 2pm - 5pm Check-in and inspection (Note all competitors and associated adults will be issued lanyards on check-in). Only a representative is required for your team for check in, and they will collect all the lanyards for your team. Teams not checked in by 5pm Friday will not be able to compete in the Nationals Tournament. Saturday 3 April 8:30am Doors Open, Final Inspections 9:00am Opening Ceremony and Awards 10:00am Skills Fields Open 10:00am - 12:30pm Qualification Matches 12:30pm - 1:30pm LUNCH 1:00pm Rocos Demonstration of Spot 1:30pm - 5:00pm Qualification Matches, Day Close Sunday 4 April 8:30am Doors Open 9:00am - 12:00pm Qualification Matches 12:00pm - 1:00pm LUNCH. Skills Fields Close 12:30pm Rocos Demonstration of Spot 1:00pm Alliance Selection 1:00pm - 3:00pm Knock-Out Matches, Awards 3:00pm - 4:30pm Semi Finals and Finals Matches, Awards Ceremony, Event Close Parking and Venue Amenities Christchurch Boys' High School Street parking available on surrounding streets - check out image below for a map of parking areas and where to meet from 8:30am - 8:45am to prepare for the mihi whakatau to open our event. It's going to be a long day, so we've organised for FUSH to have a food truck on site as well as a Coffee Truck! ☕️ The venue is fully accessible and we encourage folks to bring water bottles that can be refilled. Auckland - Vodafone Events Centre Parking will be FREE and available in the Vodafone Events Centre South Carpark through Gate 3 (on the right). Throughout the event, we will also have the venue cafeteria available for food and drink in the main entrance, as well as our STEM Expo exhibitors. Payment at the cafeteria is contactless only - they will not take cash. The venue is fully accessible and we encourage folks to bring water bottles that can be refilled from on site water coolers. PHOTOGRAPHY AT EVENT We will have a number of photographers at the event - the waiver and consent form signed allows for use of these photos by RECF, however we at Kiwibots also respect that some students may not wish to have their photos published and will avoid publishing images of them where possible. If there are any specific minors who do not consent to images being taken of them for the purposes of marketing, please let us know their name by 5pm Thursday 18th March as we will give them a different lanyard so our photographers and exhibitors in the STEM Expo can be notified about not publishing of images with those individuals. Dress up! Have fun with this event - dress up to a theme, show off your team colours, of even bring along a team mascot! We can't wait to see you all and the creative things you Kiwibots kids do. Just make sure you have closed toe footwear 😉 Copyright © 2021 The New Zealand Robotics Charitable Trust. All rights reserved. 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In case you've missed it, the VRC National Championships which were due to take place this weekend have been postponed again due to the latest lockdown. He waka eke noa - we're all in this together, and we have been working on solutions with multiple organisations to make sure that we find the best possible solution for all our tamariki. Third time is the charm, right? Instead of a single major event in Auckland, the VRC Nationals is now a Championship Series, with an event in Auckland and Christchurch. The Auckland event will take place over Easter, from 2nd - 4th April 2021. The Christchurch event will have dates announced sometime this week. What does a National Championship Series actually mean? There will be TWO National Tournament events, both with World Qualification spots available, and both with full sets of awards available (e.g. Design, Think, Innovate, Amaze etc.). Teams may choose to compete at any one of the following events for direct qualification to VEX World Championships 2021: Auckland VRC National Championship – 2-4 April 2021, Vodafone Events Centre In-person event with in-person judging – max. capacity 70 teams 3 World Championship Qualification Spots – Excellence Award, Tournament Champions Christchurch VRC National Championship – Date TBC 2021, St. Andrew’s College In-person event with in-person judging – max capacity 20 teams 1 World Championship Qualification Spot – Excellence Award 2 additional World Qualification Spots announced at conclusion of BOTH events – Robot Skills Highest National Ranking (MS) and Robot Skills Highest National Ranking (HS) Teams do not have to attend the event closest to them - both events are open to all NZ teams, e.g. An Auckland team unable to make the Auckland event may choose to register to compete at the Christchurch event We will aim to run the STEM Expo at the Auckland event Teams may not enter both events - they will need to choose one or the other. However, an organisation may split up their teams if they wish, e.g. 1234A compete at Auckland, and 1234C and 1234E compete at Christchurch. A huge thank you to RECF Regional Support Manager for Australia New Zealand, Jessica McGaffin, who has been liaising across timezones to get this bespoke solution approved for us as NZ is usually seen as a single region with no option to split our awards. A major thanks is also owed to our schools in Christchurch, who have gone above and beyond to try and host this at short notice for us. Registrations and Refunds Once a date has been confirmed for Christchurch, we will announce this and create the event on RobotEvents. Kiwibots will transfer over the teams that have already expressed interest in choosing Christchurch instead of Auckland, and then any other teams wishing to join will need to notify us. Registration fees will remain the same, with $150 for Auckland teams and a financial accessibility discount given to non-Auckland teams. All teams no longer competing at either National event will be eligible for a refund - this can either be issued as store credit to the Kiwibots store, or refunded in full. Please email accounts@kiwibots.co.nz if you wish you process a refund for teams no longer competing. Any teams that do not notify us but remain registered as of Friday 19th March will be charged. New call for volunteers You guessed it - new dates, new volunteer roster. We've set up a new form that will ask you the same questions as last time, but with an additional one - do you want to volunteer in Auckland, Christchurch, or both! Even if you signed up last time, please complete this new form - we're starting clean for this new event series :) If you're able and keen to help out, please register here. This is the same form for folks who want to volunteer at the Christchurch event (once we confirm those dates). KiwiChallenge With the Nationals being pushed out, we are looking at announcing the KiwiChallenge sooner so new organisations and teams can begin working towards something fun before the new season starts in June. Please watch this space for when we release the VRC KiwiChallenge and VIQC KiwiChallenge, which will run until end of May 2021. That's it for now. Thank you for sticking by us, thank you for being patient, and thank you for getting through these massive novels! We can't wait to finish off the season with the fanfare it deserves, and to give these students the chance to show off what they've been working so hard on in a competition with their Kiwibots community.

If you haven't seen in one of our latest newsletters, the VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) National Championship is returning to the Vodafone Events Centre in Auckland on 19-21st February 2021! We are also opening our slots for volunteers - this is our largest event of the year, and we need maximum volunteers to help make it a success. As this event develops, we will be sharing important news like support with accommodation, schedules, design notebook submissions and more. Make sure that anyone who should be receiving this information is subscribed to our mailing list and selects "VRC Events" as a topic of interest. REGISTER NOW FOR NATIONALS The RobotEvents listing for VRC Nationals is now open - thank you to everyone for their patience with this. Register your team for the Nationals by clicking the link below - invoices will be issued to your organisation after registration and due 28th February 2021. A reminder that to compete at the National Championships, your team MUST: Have your team/s registered and paid on RobotEvents (this is charged direct by RECF at $200AUD first team, $130AUD each team thereafter) Register your team for the VIQC National Championship for the event. RECF Consent Forms must be completed for every student. At this stage, it is not necessary to RSVP on the Kiwibots Events page for the VRC Nationals. We are working on an easier solution to contact trace attendees for this event given it covers multiple days and people will be in and out often. Watch this space for info on how we will be managing attendance. Note: RSVPs for regular scrimmages still applies. There is a fee of $150NZD per team to compete at Nationals (unlike our other scrimmages which we put on for free). Your organisation will be invoiced for this - please let us know if you need the invoice urgently (i.e. to pay from 2020 budgets). Call for Volunteers We need your help with making sure this event is a success! If you have a few hours to spare, we'd love for you to join at the event. No experience is required, you can help with queuing, field reset, and more. Sign up to volunteer on this link. There's a job for everyone and anyone, no-one is too young or too old to help out at this (and you get to keep a neat Kiwibots t-shirt at the end of it too!)

Proudly presented by The Wright Family Foundation, the VEX IQ Challenge National Championship for 2020 is returning to Palmerston North Conference and Function Centre this 12-13 December. This is shaping up to be our biggest VIQC Nationals ever - so big that for the first time, we're splitting Elementary and Middle School Grades into separate divisions! This also means more award opportunities too 🙌 Please forward this email to anyone who needs the info, and we recommend you subscribe to our newsletter to avoid missing out on any important news. REGISTERING FOR NATIONALS To compete at the National Championships, your team MUST: Have your team/s registered and paid on RobotEvents (this is charged direct by RECF at $200AUD first team, $130AUD each team thereafter) Register your team for the VIQC National Championship for Elementary School or Middle School Event. RECF Consent Forms must be completed for every student. There are limited spaces, with capacity for 40 Middle School and 30 Elementary School teams. The divisions will be in separate locations at the venue, so please plan adult requirements for your teams accordingly. Registrations for these events are now open, and will close at 6pm Friday 4th December NZST. At this stage, it is not necessary to RSVP on the Kiwibots Events page for the IQ Nationals. We are working on an easier solution to contact trace attendees for this event given it covers multiple days and people will be in and out often. Watch this space for info on how we will be managing attendance. Note: RSVPs for regular scrimmages still applies. If you are unsure whether your team qualifies in Elementary, please check the Game Manual. Note, the oldest member in the team must be born after 1st May 2008 in order for the whole team to qualify as Elementary. If any student in the team is older, the team must play in Middle School. Middle School ages allow you to compete if the student is younger than 15 yrs old on 1st May 2021. There is a fee to compete at Nationals (unlike our other scrimmages which we put on for free), so please read on for information about that. Call for Volunteers All hands on deck - we need your help with making sure this event is a success! If you have a few hours to spare, we'd love for you to join at the event. No experience is required, you can help with queuing, field reset, and more. Sign up to volunteer for the IQ Nationals here. Due to the split of divisions, we will need even more volunteers, so this is a great chance for high school students who are finished with exams to come along and help! Competition Fees To compete at the National Championships, there is a fee of $100NZD per team that goes toward covering the cost of the event. A huge thanks is owed to our generous sponsor, The Wright Family Foundation who have donated funds to se can reduce the per fee team to enable more groups to take part. If your group is able to provide an IQ Field for the Nationals weekend, you will be able to get a further $20 discount per field. This is issued on a first come first serve basis - please email j.van@kiwibots.co.nz or stephan@centralrobotics.org.nz to notify us if you wish to claim this discount. Fees will be invoiced by Kiwibots to your organisation upon registration for the event on RobotEvents, however they will not be due until 20th December 2020 to allow for schools to line this fee up with their accounts. Please email accounts@kiwibots.co.nz if you need to add purchase order details to the invoice. PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEOGRAPHY ALL matches at our Nationals will be LIVESTREAMED via YouTube where drivers will be within shot. The livestream will remain online after the event, so we recommend that any students who do not wish to be videoed are not a driver for their team. To help our photographers out, we will be providing identifying badges/lanyards to students who do not wish to have photos of them publicised. Note that the RECF and VEX Waiver holds the rights for all students to be photographed, and so this extra step is so that our teams in NZ will do our best to prevent images of particular individuals being shared. Nominations for Awards As well as awards for our competing teams, we have awards for Mentor, Teacher and Volunteer of the year. We ask that people take the time to nominate people who have put in the effort to make this season a success - given we're one of the few countries across the world running regular in-person events, we have a lot of people that deserve thanks! You can nominate as many people as you like, just complete the form for each person. Nominations close 9pm Tuesday 1st December 2020. Accommodation for Travelling Teams We are working with a number of schools and Massey University to help secure group booking rates for our teams who are travelling in to Palmerston North. Announcements will be made shortly to confirm these details and the rates available. Note that the event is set for Saturday and Sunday, though an early check-in will be available on the afternoon of Friday 11th for those who can make it to help ease congestion on Saturday morning. SCHEDULE This is a rough guideline of the event to help groups with their planning. Detailed schedules will be published in due course. Exhibitor booths will be open throughout the day, 9am - 5pm. Friday 11 December  3pm - 5pm Early check-in and inspection Saturday 12 December 8:30am Doors Open, Check-in and Inspection 9:30am Opening Ceremony 10:00am - 12:00pm Practise and Teamwork Matches 12:00pm - 1:00pm LUNCH 1:00pm - 5:00pm Teamwork Matches, Day Close Sunday 13 December 8:30am Doors Open 9:00am - 12:00pm Teamwork Matches 12:00pm - 1:00pm LUNCH 1:00pm - 2:00pm Finals Matches 2:00pm - 3:00pm Awards Ceremony, Event Close IMPORTANT DATES Thursday 1st October - RobotEvents VIQC Nationals Events open for registration, Elementary and Middle school split Tuesday 1st December - Nominations for Teacher, Mentor and Volunteer of the Year Award close Monday 4th December - Registrations on RobotEvents close Wednesday 9th December - Ensure all team members attending and competing have their RECF Consent Form signed and uploaded. You cannot compete if these are not submitted, and this will be audited at event check-in. Friday 11th December - Early check-in and inspection available for teams Saturday 12th December - VIQC National Championships begin

If you haven't checked out our latest newsletter, check it out here. It's good to make sure you're subscribed to our newsletter if you haven't received something from us yet this week - we've now also updated our system so that you can customise what you do and don't get news about! Here's a brief summary of the newsletter if you just want the highlights reel. Scrimmages this Sat 17th Oct We are starting off with a bang with three events taking place this Saturday across Auckland, Whanganui and Christchurch. Level 1 means no audience limits, however you must still sign in on arrival (for contact tracing) and COVID-19 QR codes will also be available at the school. Check the newsletter for specific information about each scrimmage! GirlPowered Events October is GirlPowered month (and spot today as #AdaLovelaceDay too!). There are two GirlPowered workshops coming up soon, one in Palmerston North by the team at St. Peters College, and the other up here in partnership with The University of Auckland Faculty of Engineering. The Auckland GirlPowered event is FREE and open to the public! It will be a day with different female engineers sharing their journey through STEM and a hands-on robotics workshop. This event is for Yr 7-9 girls and we encourage parents, guardians or a sibling to come along and get involved too, to find out how much fun robotics is and also meet lots of amazing young women in tech who will be more than happy to talk about their experiences with engineering. Check out the Facebook Event for more info and RSVP on our site. Please get in touch if you have any other questions. VEX IQ National Championships If you haven't already, save the date! The IQ Nationals are taking place at the Palmerston North Conference and Convention Centre on 12-13th December. Early check in will be available on Friday 11th December, and there will be Saturday morning check in available too for teams travelling in. Watch this space as we will release more information soon about volunteering, registering for Nationals, pricing and other key information. VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) Nationals We are so excited to be returning to The Vodafone Events Centre on 19th - 21st February 2021. As one of our largest flagship events of the year, it's important to us as have a space large enough to cater to that, and are thrilled to be back.

Congratulations on all having a fantastic start to the VEX 2020-21 Season so far - it’s hard to believe we’re already halfway through Term 3, and have already run over 10 Kiwibots events since mid-Term 2 when events could start up again. As the organisation grows (and the world continues to adapt to the ongoing curveballs that the pandemic throws at us), we are cleaning up the systems in place to make sure that all our Kiwibots community are able to enjoy the programme safely. We are working hard to keep things transparent to our community, as well as outline expectations of the programme. This following post is filled with important information about our events and these new systems. Please read this information carefully, and note relevant deadlines. If you have not done already, please subscribe to our newsletter and announcements to make sure you don’t miss any important information 😊 Team Registration vs. Event RSVP As you will have heard by now, we now have mandatory team registrations and RSVPs of attendees to all our events so that we can continue to improve our events and ensure the safety and fun for all participants. These are two separate systems, and are outlined in detail below. Thank you for everybody's patience and feedback as we continue developing our platforms – we are pleased to share that we are on our final version of the Kiwibots RSVP system and there should be no further changes. RSVPs of Attendees In light of COVID-19 and as part of good eventing practise, we have introduced mandatory RSVPs for all our events. This is to help ensure that we stay within safe operating levels of the different venues we use, as well as maintaining an auditable contact tracing record of people on site. In cases of emergency, our Regional Coordinators to be able to access emergency contact details for someone, or in case of evacuation be able to know who is on site at any time. To do this, simply head to www.kiwibots.co.nz and click on Events to be taken to our RSVP site (or keep www.kiwibots.co.nz/upcoming-events bookmarked). Every single person attending the event must RSVP so we have an accurate head count of persons on site. Think of this like sending an RSVP to a birthday party, or booking a ticket for a show. Those who have not RSVP’d in advance may be turned away if we are operating at max venue capacity. We recommend RSVPing at least 24hrs prior to the event. This RSVP system applies to everyone, including siblings, spectators, volunteers, and even our own Regional Coordinators. We have made this easier for groups like families, so that one lead parent can enter their own details, and then also add on two guests, one for a competing child part of XYZ team, and another for a spectator sibling. RSVPs should be completed by students and parents themselves, rather than by a teacher, to ensure emergency contact details are personally relevant and that any extra attendees like siblings are captured on the door list. On the day of the event, we will have a number of devices available for you to self check-in quickly, as well as QR codes so you can do so on your own device on arrival. It will be as simple as typing the first and last name, and the system will match it from the door list. If you have not managed to RSVP before the event closes registration, you may be able to RSVP at the door on the day, conditional to available space. Team registration From Term 3 onwards in each season, teams must do the following to compete at VEX scrimmages: Teams must be registered on RobotEvents, and pay the $200AUD fee to RECF (subsequent teams from same organisation, e.g. 1234B and 1234C, are $130AUD each). This is the registration cost for the 2020-21 season and is done once per season. These funds go directly to RECF and do not come to Kiwibots – it helps to fund the banners and trophies for Nationals, the support of our Regional Support Manager Jess McGaffin in AU, use of Tournament Manager, development of games, and other supporting systems that make the entire robotics competition possible. This fee also gets your organisation a Welcome Kit for the season, including a scoring element, Engineering Design Notebook, and license plates for the robot. For each event, registered and paid teams need to reserve their team a spot at the scrimmage via RobotEvents (Robot Competitions > Filter Country to New Zealand). This enters them in the team draw used to create the match schedule – ie it lets the event managers know in advance how many robots plan on competing at that event and once they have turned up and checked in on the day, we can create the match schedule. We recommend that a Team Coach, Teacher, Lead Parent or similar role takes responsibility for this being done prior to scrimmages, as it will need to be the person who also has the RobotEvents login for their team/organisation. Kiwibots Event Participation Form We have received a lot of feedback over the last 10 years regarding the VEX Competition Waiver and its applicability to NZ Law, as well as questions around privacy and responsibilities. We’ve now created a Kiwibots Event Participation Form (attached) that will apply each season (similar to sporting teams) that we will require to be signed to partake in the season. We've tried to keep the language in it as simple as possible so it is clear what the expectations are of anyone taking part in the Kiwibots programme. We ask that these are completed and returned to contact@kiwibots.co.nz prior to Monday 31st August 2020. To help make this easier, we have also made this form available to be signed digitally – it has all the same information, just a different digital format. Anybody under 18 taking part should select “Minor” for the form, and it will require the electronic signature from a parent/guardian at the end. Thank you to all the schools who have already completed their Kiwibots Event Participation Forms and returned these to us. RECF Consent Forms In the same vein as above, RECF still have their consent form which needs to be signed for the season. Previously, we have required these to be signed prior to participation at Nationals. From this season on, RECF has now made these Consent Forms compulsory for participation. This form is also valid for the full season, and must be completed online. Ideally, this should be completed before events, and in future seasons, Kiwibots will be sending out a “Season Welcome” pack that includes our form, a draft timetable, the RECF Consent Form and other pieces so you can receive this information all together. For teams that are going to compete at Nationals, this consent form will be checked to see if it’s been submitted prior to competing at the event. If you have any questions about this waiver, I would suggest getting in touch directly with Jess from RECF with your questions. Hopefully all the above is outlined clearly – if you have any questions about any of the above, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. Our National Manager, Janet, will try and respond in a timely manner as well as looping in your local Regional Coordinator to support as appropriate. Have a fantastic season – we are hugely grateful to be able to run in-person events given the global climate, and looking forward to seeing our Kiwi kids continue to excel in robotics. Ngā mihi nui, The NZ Robotics Charitable Trust

Kia ora koutou - we hope you've all enjoyed the school holidays and are fresh and ready to tackle the upcoming school term. This month's newsletter contains important info about Term 3 scrimmages, Event Participant forms, new stock in the webstore, and what we've been doing this last month. Term 3 Scrimmages The season is now in full swing, thanks to the hard work of all New Zealanders meaning that we can run events and operate as "normal" in our COVID-19 world. VEX Events run by Kiwibots will be more consistent across the country as our team of Regional Coordinators work to put on these amazing events. Below is a quick list of the events coming up in the next couple of weeks - make sure you RSVP to avoid missing out! Sat 25th July - Auckland VRC and VIQC Scrimmage #2 Sat 25th July - Canterbury VRC and VIQC Build and Scrimmage Sat 1st August - Bay of Plenty VRC and VIQC Build Day Sat 1st August - Manawatu-Wanganui (Palmerston North) VRC and VIQC Scrimmage #2 For a full list of our upcoming events, head to our website. Note events after 1st August will open for RSVP closer to the time. Team Registration vs. Event RSVP As you will have heard by now, we now have mandatory team registrations and RSVPs of attendees to all our events so that we can continue to improve our events and ensure the safety and fun for all participants. Our incredible team are working to make these systems as easy to use as possible for everyone, and thank everybody's patience and feedback as we continue developing our platforms. Please note that this is an ongoing development, and we hope to have the final versions in place soon. Some of the community have asked for some clarity around registration, and so we have outlined below what you need to do. What does this mean for me? Students, Parents and Spectators You need to make sure that for every event you would like to attend, you go to www.kiwibots.co.nz and RSVP to the events. Think of it like a birthday RSVP or booking a ticket for a show! Every single person attending the event must RSVP, as this allows us to ensure we are within safe attendance limits and enough equipment is available for everyone. By RSVPing, your name will then appear on the door list at the event so that you can be checked in. This should be completed by the students attending, or the attending guardian who will be responsible for the group at the event. Teachers and Coaches To attend and compete in the VEX scrimmages for the season, teams must do both of the following: 1) Teams must be registered on RobotEvents and pay the $200AUD / $150 AUD fee to RECF.  2) Registered and paid teams need to reserve their team spot at each scrimmage via RobotEvents. This enters them in the team draw used to create the match schedule. We suggest the Team Coach, Teacher, lead parent or similar role takes responsibility for ensuring this is done prior to scrimmages. Event Participation Agreement As the programme grows, we are making sure that our organisation evolves to support it. We now have in place an Event Participation Agreement that we will require students and their guardians to complete. This is similar to agreements that most students will complete to take part in any sports or other extra-curricular activities at school. We've tried to keep the language in it as simple as possible so it is clear what the expectations are of anyone taking part in the Kiwibots programme. This form must be completed and returned to contact@kiwibots.co.nz by Sunday 30th August 2020. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us, and check out our Privacy Policy. Download the Participation Form here --> New webstore stock! As well as all the goodies on sale, we've put up a New Arrivals section on our store where you can find items like the V5 Inertial Sensor, the IQ Pin Tool, and the new Anti-Static VRC Tiles (which come in full field sizes and also sets of 4 tiles for smaller at home/in class use). We've also brought in more V5 Competition Super and Starter Kits after the huge demand for them throughout last term. If there's anything you see on vexrobotics.com that you want in NZ - let us know and we'll try bring it in. Nationwide Season Launches We managed to run season launches across all four of our regions in the final weeks of Term 2, and were blown away by the enthusiasm and number of new and old faces at the events. We want to send out a huge thanks to our Regional Coordinators as well as all the parents, teachers, coaches and students who came along to join in the festivities, ask questions and have a play with the new games. National Manager, Janet Van, was able to attend all the launches and loved the opportunity to meet those who attended and see the passion shared for robotics across the country. Accelerating Aotearoa Kiwibots partners with a number of incredible organisations, including the amazing folks at Accelerating Aotearoa who provide opportunities to disadvantaged youth aged 5-18yrs in Otāra. One of the highlights of the Geek Camp for our National Manager, Janet, was meeting a 6 year old who realised her Engineering potential, and said "I want to be a fixer like you". A huge thanks to the team at Accelerating Aotearoa for having Kiwibots involved with the camp. University of Auckland - Enginuity Day We were absolutely delighted to be involved with The University of Auckland's Enginuity Day where over 400 young women attended to look at a future in Engineering. Kiwibots were invited to showcase the opportunities available to engineers and share what we do, as well as the amazing number of Kiwibots alumni that find themselves in STEM careers. Thank you to The University of Auckland Faculty of Engineering for having us and inviting us to present alongside Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, WPS, Xero and McKinsey & Company. Regional Coordinators Summit This year has seen a huge shift in our team, and so at the beginning of July we brought our Regional Coordinators up to Auckland for a weekend of workshops and celebrations. The team all got to know each other more and learn about how we can work together more across our regions to continue growing Kiwibots into an amazing organisation for New Zealand. A huge thanks to the Kiwibots Board of Trustees and RECF Australia who helped make this event possible, as well as our amazing Regional Coordinators who volunteered their time and energy to attend this Summit and plan for an amazing 2020-21 season! As you can see, it's been a busy couple of months and with Term 3 kicking off, we are excited to build up momentum as we work towards the National Championships!  Planning has started for the VIQC Nationals (12-13th December 2020) and the VRC Nationals 2021, as well as a number of new exciting projects, partnerships and initiatives. Make sure you're following us on social media and part of the Kiwibots Forum, to be up to date with all our latest news and announcements.  Until next time - keep up the amazing robotics work and feel free to share with us your designs by tagging @kiwibotsnz and #kiwibots! Kiwibots  The NZ Robotics Charitable Trust

Congratulations New Zealand! By sticking to protocols and working together, we're doing well in the battle against COVID-19 in NZ and are fortunate enough to see that events can now have gatherings of up to 100 people! Please read the information below carefully, as these protocols will be what the new normal looks like for our events as we work to the government rules. Events will be slowly ramped up as we check where we can host our events and do so safely. Capacity Events will be a maximum of 100 people. To help us maintain the correct numbers, we want everyone to RSVP that they will be attending at www.kiwibots.co.nz/upcoming-events - a platform we have set up specifically to help keep these numbers under control. Every person planning on attending the event must RSVP, even if you're in the same team or bubble - an RSVP is not for the whole team. This means parents, teachers, and anyone else that plans on coming along as a supporter. You can register on the day at the door, however if the maximum is already reached, you will not be able to enter the venue. We recommend registering at least 24hrs before the event. The platform website is also our contact tracing form - on the day of the event, you will need to Sign In once you are at the venue to timestamp when you enter. Luckily, it's as easy as entering your first and last name, then hitting "Sign in" :) Some venues are smaller meaning that to maintain appropriate social distancing for groups, our Regional Coordinators will lower the capacities below 100 people. So it's super important you RSVP! (Note, in regions where there are large numbers of teams and we expect more than 100, we will run a randomised lottery to select which teams can attend to keep it fair so everyone gets a chance to attend and compete at the scrimmage.) Venues To ensure sign in and out for contact tracing, we will restrict entry to a venue to just one point (usually the main door). Give yourself a little extra time to arrive if you are new or unfamiliar with the venue to find your way around - we are working on increasing our signage to help with this in future. We are working with schools to try and get a normal season going, however for Term 2 many schools are still not allowing other groups on premises. We will keep working on other ways to have have mixed school events - please keep checking our Events tab to know whats scheduled to be on. Cleaning and New Hygiene Practises We're sure it's old news to you now, so we won't harp on - just remember to keep washing your hands and keep sneezes and coughs in your elbows. Avoid touching your face as much as you can - especially as teams will be working closely and may be sharing items. As we head into winter, sniffles and colds are going to start coming into play. If you are sick, have a sore throat or showing any other signs of illness, please do not come to an event. Feel free to familiarise yourself with the Ministry of Health guidelines for tips on staying safe. Our Regional Coordinators will be implementing a new cleaning schedule where shared surfaces like door handles, tables etc will be wiped down. This is quite a big task as we adjust to this new way of running scrimmages and it may slow down scrimmages, so we ask everyone to please be patient and help out where appropriate or if asked by a Regional Coordinator. We will have spray bottles for teams to wipe down their pit tables and any shared items such as controllers etc.. We will be providing some hand sanitiser at our events at key points like the entrance and at the fields. To help this last, we do encourage that those with their own sanitiser also bring it for themselves. Those who wish to wear masks may do so, to help limit the risks of asymptomatic transmission. Volunteers For all the amazing volunteers who help us with scrimmages, setting up fields, running the day etc., we are very conscious that you will be most privy to touching shared surfaces. We will provide cleaning sprays to use at the main IT hub where you are based, as well as disposable gloves that you can use for setting up of gear etc. if you so wish to use. Volunteers will be helping our Regional Coordinators with the cleaning protocols to help keep things running smoothly - as we are all responsible for each others' safety, please let a Regional Coordinator know if you are concerned about anything or have ideas and feedback.