Congratulations to Claxton's 2012 FLL teams!

We have the final list of students back from the selection committee and it looks like we will have great teams. Below are the important details we want you to know now, and we have a Parent Meeting planned for 5:00 on August 13th (the Monday before school starts) at school. We really need you there!

Key details:

• Practices will be Monday and Friday from 2:45 to 4:00. Students are expected to participate in all practices! The first practice will be Monday, August 20^th.
• There will be research and other tasks that the kids have to complete at home between practices. Teams depend on these tasks being completed to move forward, so we need a high level of commitment from each participant.
• We CANNOT make this work without parent involvement. We will have a volunteer schedule for signing up for the things that work best for you. You don't need to be an expert to be a critical success factor in supporting the teams. We need helping hands to keep kids on task, to wrangle siblings while practice happens, to provide snacks, etc. Of course, for those with skills to share in programming, design or with particular expertise related to the "Senior Solutions" theme, we appreciate those too!
• The tournament is Saturday, November 3rd at UNCA. It's an ALL DAY event and every kid needs to be there!
• Communication is a key factor in making this work. We have created a blog for the teams with resource links, and will be posting progress, assignments and other information there. We will ask parents to register to receive email updates from that site and to read and review new posts with your kids.
• There is a registration fee of $45 per participant. This is a small increase over last year. If it poses a hardship for anyone, please, please let us know and we'll make it work!

Between now and the first practice, we would like the kids to take a look at the Senior Solutions Challenge description. They should find one person to talk with about the issues and challenges aging people face. This means they can talk with an older family member or neighbor, they can talk to someone who works with the aging, or they can talk with you, their parents, about friends or relatives you know who deal with or have dealt with the challenges of getting old. This exercise will help teams establish a foundation for brainstorming when the time comes to start choosing what they will investigate for their research project.

We will be following this email with a phone call to make sure everyone is in the loop, knows about the parent meeting, knows what to expect and understands the commitment we need for the kids to be successful. If you have any questions, please let us know and we'll do our level best to get them answered.

We're looking forward to a fantastic and frenetic FLL season!