Has it only been a month since the last update? It feels like it's been a whole year! In this month's newsletter we cover what's been going on since our last email, as well as important information about upcoming events and scrimmages, giveaways and things to look forward to. Check it all out below! Operating at Alert Level 2 As part of uniting against COVID-19, we are following all the recommendations of NZ Government as well as working with groups to make sure our events feel safe. While the 10 person restriction is in place, we will not be operating any scrimmages, however are still going ahead with planning for events so we can run them as soon as the restrictions are eased (fingers crossed that happens next Monday!). In the meantime, we are working on the finishing touches of a system to support easy contact tracing and event RSVP's, all appropriately encrypted and set up to make sure your data is securely stored and making sure our events are kept within capacities to allow for social distancing and easy contact tracing. For a full update, check out this link >> Read more Game Rules and Strategies VEX recently held a webinar with Global Competition Manager, Grant Cox to go through tips and tricks of the new IQ and VRC games.  With scrimmages postponed so far in NZ, we are running our first nationwide live game chat, hosted by our very own George Gillard. This is an opportunity to chat rules, strategies and have a Q&A with us on all things about the game. No need to register, just head to the link in the calendar invite below! Details Sunday 24th May at 5:00PM NZST  |  https://bit.ly/VEXGamesWebinar2020 Add to calendar Kiwibots Store Upgrade It's great to see so many of you using the new store and providing helpful feedback about some of the features and placing orders as you begin building. One of the main things to point out is that you must make a new account. When we moved from our old store, we completely changed platforms to update your experience meaning your login from the old kiwibots.nz store will not work here. Note that the store account is different to your account for the forum on our website (the store is actually a completely separate website despite the URL!) We're sorry for any confusion caused so far of people who have not had any success logging in with old accounts. Do feel free to reach out as well if you have any other issues. Check it out here if you haven't already! Regional Coordinators Our programme is growing and so is the team - we are so excited to welcome on our new Regional Coordinators to the team - George Gillard (AKL), Hamish Carr (BOP), Garry Venman (BOP), and Andy Kerrison (CHC). Many of you may have seen them at scrimmages and Nationals - make sure you say hi to them when we're up and running as they take their volunteering to the next level. Giveaways! The last couple of months have definitely been strange and saddening for many as we find ourselves physically distanced from our teammates. It's not quite the way we would've wanted to start our season, so here at Kiwibots we've been thinking about ways to keep up the excitement even if we can't run scrimmages just yet. Keep an eye out on our forum, Facebook and Instagram for announcements of mini competitions that we'll be running with great prizes! Follow us if you haven't already to make sure you don't miss out. Awesome Alumni! Have you seen the latest from the amazing Mikayla Stokes? Alumna of the Kiwibots programme, she is one of the Young 25 Women to watch featured on Stuff and The Spinoff. We are so proud to see what she's achieved and what robotics opened up for her - check her work out on the links above!

We hope that everyone is finding their way around this new normal as NZ continues its fight against COVID-19. With the new game out and plenty of game and robot kits already shipped out across the country, I can only imagine what fantastic designs everyone is working on! As many of you may know, the current stage of Level 2 restricts us from groups of greater than 10 people, and the government is actively working with sporting groups and schools to see how events can take place. While not a sport, our gatherings still generally garner more than 10 people, and so even in a public space like a museum, we cannot have more than 10 people and restricted to 2hrs. This means that while NZ is still requiring 10 person limits, we will not be hosting scrimmages or season launches. That said, you may hear from us (and the Regional Coordinators) about the events we have planned should the limits be lifted in time for them to go ahead. If limits are not lifted by the date of the event, the event will be cancelled and we will do our best to inform you in advance. Going forward, things are going to look a wee bit different for a while as we all unite against COVID. We hope that we can make this gradual re-introduction as smooth as possible for you all and get this season going soon! Things to expect: RSVP requirements for events (we've built a new system specifically for this, more soon!) Digital check in on arrival at an event Capped numbers to ensure we can maintain social distancing More cleaning More comms from us 😊😊 Check out our Events tab for our upcoming scrimmages that we (hopefully) will be able to run as scheduled!

In light of the global COVID-19 situation, VEX Robotics and the REC Foundation have been hard at work finding ways that we can celebrate the achievements of all the teams across the world who would have been attending the VEX World Championships later this month in Louisville, Kentucky. As a result - the first ever VEX Robotics Virtual World Celebration has been organised, and will take place Sunday 26th April NZST. Set your alarms for an early start... the VRC Celebration begins at 3:00am and the VIQC Celebration begins at 4:30am. The exciting celebration includes: Season Highlights New Product Announcement 2020-2021 VEX IQ Challenge and VEX Robotics Competition Games Unveiled Celebration of Online Challenges and Inspiration All Stars Winners Fantasy Robotics Tournament simulation Awards Fantasy Robotics Tournament Using past match results of all 2020 VEX Worlds Qualified teams, the VEX IQ Challenge Squared Away and VEX Robotics Competition Tower Takeover World Championships are getting simulated. This tournament is just for FUN and no action is needed on any teams’ part except to follow along with our updates and watch the event from home on April 25 (26th NZST) to celebrate the season! All teams that qualified for the 2020 VEX Robotics World Championship are included in the simulated Fantasy Robotics Tournament with the winners of the tournament recognised during our VEX Virtual Worlds Celebration. Team Selection Criteria This is just for FUN, and is a simulated Tournament. No action is required, just WATCH LIVE and follow social distancing guidelines (DO NOT get your team together physically to watch the celebration). VIRTUAL VIEWING PARTIES only! There is no registration fee. If you want to find out more information, check out the link below: https://www.roboticseducation.org/vex-robotics-virtual-world-celebration/

COVID-19 Update for our community Kia ora koutou, The impact of COVID-19 on New Zealanders and our community has created a lot of uncertainty as things change daily. It has been a particularly difficult week for our community with the sad news that World Championships have been cancelled. Our top priorities are your wellbeing and enjoyment of robotics. We are doing our best to find a balance of providing events to encourage engagement in robotics, while keeping everybody safe. Guided by the Ministry of Health, we are implementing tighter policies around how our scrimmages are run during this time. All planned scrimmages before 30th April will be postponed or cancelled until beginning of May (start of Term 2). Scrimmages at the start of Term 2 will be limited in size – participants, supporting staff and parents will be required to RSVP with Kiwibots to ensure the total capacity is manageable for venue and less than 500 people total. We aim to provide hand sanitiser at scrimmages We ask that all students choosing to work on KiwiChallenge robots practise exceptional hygiene during this time - extra steps with cleaning and hygiene are one of the best preventative measures we can take. If anyone is feeling unwell, please do not meet with your team, stay at home, and contact Healthline or your GP. If the Ministry of Education or government requires students to move to remote learning or a temporary closure of schools, we recommend teams do not meet up during that time to protect our students as much as possible. Planning is currently underway for how we can provide scrimmages at the beginning of Term 2 as safely as possible. We will still be supplying VEX equipment as usual throughout this time, and our new webstore is due to launch shortly. We are regularly reviewing our action plans as developments continue, and a formal review will be done on April 24th 2020 to assess if scrimmages can begin in Term 2. Thank you again for your understanding and co-operation. Ngā mihi nui, Janet Van National Manager, Kiwibots – NZ Robotics Charitable Trust

With recent developments and rising concerns around COVID-19, we have been keeping a close eye on information being released around international travel and the REC Foundation's options with regard to the VEX World Championships for 2020. With guidance from the World Health Organisation, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and local and state health officials, the REC Foundation and VEX Robotics have made the decision to cancel the 2020 VEX Robotics World Championship due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. This is devastating news for many of our students who had worked so hard to earn their World Qualification spot and made fantastic representatives for New Zealand on the global stage. Our hearts go out to those teams, their teachers, coaches, families and supporters. There is no indication yet how announcement of the new 2020-21 game will occur, however at this stage it looks like there are many options for how this will be done and should not affect the timeline of the 2020-21 season. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to develop, Kiwibots are actively updating our event plans to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all those in our community at our future events, including KiwiChallenge and the new season's scrimmages. Updates will be shared with any significant changes. In the meantime, please continue to follow the advice of CDC and the Ministry of Health to protect yourself and protect others.

🎉 Winner winner! 🎉 Check out the VRC Nationals full award list below. Congratulations to you all! 🤖🤖🤖 Worlds Qualifiers: Excellence Award (Middle School) - SPCBots Team 3204A Excellence Award (High School) - 8757C, House of Science Tauranga Robotics Tournament Champions - 2976A Christchurch Boys' High School and 2915Z Lynfield College Robotics Tournament Finalists - 2921X Free Range Robotics and 4067X Burnside College Design Award - 5606A, Feilding High School Robotics Robot Skills Champion - 2919S, Kristin School Amaze Award - 2915D, Lynfield College Build Award - 70591B, Michael Park School Create Award - 45964A Tauranga Boys' College Energy Award - 45964A Tauranga Boys' College Innovate Award - 2921X, Free Range Robotics Judges Award - 97255A, Glenfield Intermediate School Think Award - 2918H, Glenfield College Official Community Award - 2921F, Free Range Robotics Promote Award - SPCBots Team 3204E Volunteer of the Year - Grun Wua Wong Teacher of the Year - Craig Yearbury Mentor of the Year - John Ovens Partner of the Year - Glidepath Photo credit Eu-Lee Teh Photography, Peter Jennings and David Smith FPSNZ

Volunteer registration for 2020 EDR Nationals closes on the 7th of February (for those looking for one of the sought after tees) so get in quick! Register to volunteer here: https://forms.gle/msGiJp5Hgn484y6T8 🤖🤖🤖

The Board of the New Zealand Robotics Charitable Trust, (Kiwibots), is delighted to advise of the appointment of Janet Van as our new National Manager, effective 21 January 2020. Janet has a BCom/BE(Hons) Conjoint - Mechatronics Engineering; double major Economics and Commercial Law form the University of Auckland and she comes to us following two and half years as Creative Operations Engineer for Nanogirl Labs. The Board would like to thank our incredible event partners, volunteers, schools and students for their commitment and support in keeping Kiwibots going following Chris Hamling’s departure last year. With the Nationals fast approaching, we will be arranging for Janet to meet with event partners, volunteers and schools throughout the country at the earliest opportunity. We look forward to working with you to continue to grow the Kiwibots programme in New Zealand and to inspire the problem solvers of tomorrow through the use of education robotic solutions. Mike Hearn Chair New Zealand Robotics Charitable Trust (Kiwibots)

Good Afternoon Everyone, A busy six weeks of IQ activities ahead. If you visit robotevents.com and go to Robot competitions and select VEX IQ and then down to Area and select New Zealand you will see scrimmages in Tauranga, Palmerston North and Auckland. the first 4 are: 2 November has an Auckland one at Lynfield College 9 November one in Tauranga 16 November one in Palmerston North and also one in Auckland. These have all been set up for you to practice for our upcoming NZ VEX IQ Nationals being held in Palmerston North, 6-8 December. I know that at each of the Auckland Scrimmages there will be a VRC field for teams to informally practice on as well. Registrations for the VEX IQ nationals are completed on the robotevents.com website and there are 50 places up for grabs. Each team registration is $150. It is an amazing event run by enthusiastic volunteers. Organise your teams for the trip now.