Written By: Karl M and Audrey T
Monday
Today, we received a shipment of steel tubing and C-channel as resources for the Tower, a field element that the robot is intended to climb at the end of each match. We also received 3d printer filament and a large bag of KitKats for the awesome sauce box at the end of the Tuesday team meeting. Sadly, our shipment of required materials for our robot is still in Kansas, after its journey to Arizona and back. Hopefully, the shipping information is correct, and it will arrive tomorrow, although with the previous claims in mind, that seems doubtful.
In our media meeting, we discussed the results of the feedback form and decided to change the blog post schedule to divide up people based on the different topics (e.g., build/business) rather than day-by-day. This should increase individual responsibility, but since I have no recruits to help me, it also means I get to write all of the blog posts for this week!!!!!!
In our outreach meeting, we discussed our future events, such as the REBUILT game info night on Feb 27, where we will allow the drive team to practice while showcasing the robot to prospective future team members. We also talked about possibly bringing the robot to the CMS science fair on March 14th. Aside from planning events, the meeting was relatively chill, and we all had a good time.
Back in the room, we finished up work on the front half of the Tower. We will work on fabricating the aft section tomorrow, as it was exorbitantly overpriced to buy with the kit.
Tuesday
Alas, our shipping information lied again, as there are no packages today. The truck has moved a grand total of 10 miles towards us in the past 24 hours. Hopefully, we can get our robot parts later this week and finally get back to work on the robot; however, in the meantime, we can focus more on the business side of things.
Our media subteam lead brought out bracelets, so some of our team members started working on those. We set up the field for the FTC team, and they tested out their robot for the upcoming state championships.
In our Awards meeting, we discussed and edited our Impact essay, working on some finer changes. There are many parts that seem too ‘fluffy,’ so we will work on making the essay more concise and as strong as possible!
In the Sponsorship meeting, we worked on the 2026 Rock Club Presentation and the Jan/Feb Newsletter. We made a whole lot of progress and are looking forward to posting the newsletter later this month!
Wednesday
We had room on Wednesday of this week, despite typically not having it. The reason? Our very important package had decided to go on an Odyssey. As you read earlier, they went to Kansas. Kansas is not Minnesota.
Finally, after a long wait, the packages arrived at our school. This meant we could build our robot, and we were only six days behind schedule! Thanks to some quick thinking by our build leadership and lovely support by our wonderful mentors, a plan was made to get us back on track! It is now crunch time, the robot’s coming together.
There was another crunch time today; we needed to get our IMPACT materials submitted. So much work had been put into them, we didn’t want to risk not being able to turn them in after all of that. Keep an eye out for our IMPACT video, releasing soon!
Inclusivity had its meeting today as well! We talked about Womens Panel, we’re trying something a little new this year, and it’s shaping up to be amazing! FIRST Ladies was another topic on the agenda, with us delegating who will be working on what to get us all set up with them.
Thursday
WE HAVE OUR PARTS!!!! ROBOT IS BEING WORKED ON!! WOOOOO!! While we are still in crunch time (hence this blog post very likely being a tad late), we’ve been making some great progress. In my personal experience, I encountered a segment of hex shaft that simply refused to be tapped. It did not impact anything, but it was odd.
In addition to our robot progress, we got a lot of work done on the business side of our team. Our amazing, talented, spectacular media lead (who is totally not writing today’s blog) got all the sponsorship information updated on our site. Check it out! This included shouting out our team partons, one of whom submitted a lovely name to be recognized by. King Popalopalus, you icon.
Friday
We had our bracelet team builder on Friday! We like to give out friendship bracelets to other teams in the pits at the competition. This requires that we make a LOT of bracelets as they are very popular at competitions. While we built a ton of team community and made quite a few bracelets, the important part was the movie. Phineas and Ferb: Into the Second Dimension was the entertainment for the night. Despite the wise words of Dr. Doofenshmirtz, we did not add a self-destruct button to our robot.
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