Communicating with Teams Registered for Your Event

Teams learn a lot about your events from what you post on events.vex.com. It can also be helpful to communicate reminders and additional information to teams directly to help ensure everyone knows what to expect at your event. 

This article covers how to get team email contacts for your event, recommendations on timing your communications to coaches, and guidance for what you can communicate around your event. This article is written for Event Partners.

Getting Registered Teams' Emails

You can pull a list of email contacts for teams registered for your event from the event listing on events.vex.com. Follow the steps below to download that list. 

Timing Your Communications

How you group information into messages is up to you. What matters is that information arrives while there is time for coaches and teams to act on it.

A rhythm that works for many Event Partners:

• Upon registering. A welcome, plus basic event reminders. Teams receive an automated confirmation when they register, so you do not need to recreate that information.
• One to two weeks before. Everything teams need to bring or prepare.
• A few days before. Arrival and check-in details, the shape of the day, and how to reach you. Keep this one short and easy to forward.
• Within a week after. Your thank-you.

A few considerations:

• Allow time for coaches to pass information along. Coaches are rarely the ones packing lunches, arranging rides, or decorating pits — students and families are, and they only hear from you when the coach forwards your message. Communicate with enough time for coaches to pass the information along, and give families time to act on it.
• Make the shareable parts easy to forward. Write anything families need in a form a coach can pass along without rewriting, and you can say plainly that it is meant to be shared. How much a coach relays depends on the team: elementary and middle school families generally need details directly, while high school students can often be expected to follow through themselves.
• Anything requiring money, a purchase, or a build goes early. A school purchase order generally needs more lead time than a family does.
• Group related topics into a single message rather than sending each one separately. Coaches manage a great deal of email, and a message covering several things briefly is easier to act on than five that each cover one at length. Any reminders you are giving should point back to the original message, not re-explain it.
• Shift earlier as needed. If your event is large or teams are traveling, everything shifts earlier.

What to Communicate to Teams

Your event posting can handle a lot of communication for you, and the information you include can be edited after your initial posting. Make sure that anything you send out in an email does not contradict what is in the event posting. It can be a good habit to add the information in your email to your event posting, to make sure that event details are consistent. 

Your emails to teams are a good place to add onto event posting information, send reminders, and generally just open up a line of communication with coaches attending your event. The following is a list of topics that can be helpful to coaches to have emailed directly to them. You know your event and your community, and can adapt your communications to best fit your teams' needs.

Event Logistics and Contact Info

Reminders about times and locations of things are often helpful for coaches to easily reference and share with families. This can include: 

• When doors open, and which entrance to use.
• Parking. Where to park and anything the venue restricts.
• A venue map, if you have one, or a brief description of the layout.
• Check-in requires an adult. A student cannot check a team in, and a team arriving with only students will be stuck at your check-in table.
• What to bring to check-in, including notebooks if you are collecting them physically.
• Lodging or travel notes, if teams are coming from far enough away to need them.
• The shape of the day: Rough start, lunch, and end times.
• When spaces are open: Open times for Inspection, Robot Skills, and Practice Fields are helpful as teams plan their event day.
• Your day-of contact information: This can be text, cell phone, or finding you at a specific table — whatever works for you. Coaches should know how to easily reach you on the event day, and be sure the contact you share is one you will be able to easily answer that morning, rather than an office phone number that will not have anyone beside it.

What Teams Need to Bring or Prepare

Everything here takes time, money, or a trip to the store, so it needs real lead time.

• Food: Say what is available and what is not, and say it either way. If you have concessions, note roughly what they serve and when they are open. If you do not, tell teams to bring their own. Include any venue rules about outside food.
• Supplies your venue does not provide: Extension cords, power strips, spare parts, etc. A coach can only pack what they know about.
• Pit expectations: Pit size, whether power is available, and whether decorating is allowed. Decorating is a project families often organize over time, so mention it early.
• Engineering Notebook submissions: Coaches look for this early, because submission logistics are set by you and vary from event to event. Remind them how you want notebooks submitted — an online upload link, a physical handoff at check-in, or something else — and by when. Remind teams to complete their notebook Summaries, and point them to the Global Robotics and Science Foundation Library for specifics rather than restating them.

A Call for Volunteers

Teams are one of the best sources of volunteers at a local event, and family members who are already planning to attend are often willing to help. 

• Point coaches to your volunteer sign-up and let them share it rather than making the full ask yourself. See Recruiting Volunteers for Events for guidance on the ask.

If you still have open roles as the event gets closer, mention it again. A coach who passed over the first ask may reconsider when the event feels real.

Thank-Yous and Feedback Requests

After your event, contact teams again to wrap up.

• Thank teams for attending: If possible, tie the message to the event itself. Referencing something from that day — a close final match, a packed Skills queue, the weather everyone drove through — makes your message to the whole team list read like it came from your event rather than a template.

• Optional feedback: If you want feedback, ask two or three questions and make it clearly optional. Coaches see your event from a perspective you cannot, and will often tell you about something small that would have made the day easier.

Talk It Through with Your Program Support Team

Your Program Support Team has seen how other Event Partners in your region communicate with teams, and can tell you what tends to work locally. Reach out if you need additional support, are running your first event, or are looking to try something new.