[2017 ARML] Practice on Sunday!

Hi everyone,

Our next practice will be this Sunday, 2pm-5pm, at room A2, Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto. You can find more information about practice at the practice website: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2017ARML/.

Practice materials from past practices can also be found there, with the following username and password: 

Username: sfba

Password: arml

You can submit your notarized permission slips at practice.

In related news, t-shirt design submissions are due very soon! Please see http://sfbaarml2017.blogspot.com/2017/04/arml-update-practices-flights-and-more.html for a description of what's required in a t-shirt design. :)

See you tomorrow!

Best,

Moor

[2017 ARML] New flights and first wave of elite team members

Okay everyone, our priority deadline has passed, and the coaches have selected our first wave of 15 students for the A1/A2 teams.  Please note that we will be finalizing our team selection within the next week-ish, so if you have not yet paid for ARML there is still time to join the team officially, but you need to do it soon.  We should be able to accept onto the team anyone who completes payment by May 1, but after that we cannot guarantee any spots on any teams.  Obviously there are fewer spots available now on the elite teams, but that does not mean it is impossible to make it onto one of the elite teams.  In fact, if we get enough superstars on the roster, we are thinking of making a competitively-selected A3 team as well!  So spread the word to your friends who haven't signed up yet.  We are particularly looking for USAMO and USAJMO qualifiers who aren't signed up yet; with enough solid recruiting, the Holy Grail (a second place A2 team) could be within our grasp this year!  Help Us Win Second Place This Year (tm).

In other news, we are opening up a Sacramento flight and a San Jose flight to go along with the SFO and OAK flights we approved earlier.  Same deal:  For any student who purchases one of these EXACT round trips and sends us confirmation at arml@mathleague.org by midnight on April 30, we will refund $100 of your ARML fee because we will likely be able to sell your seat on the bus to someone else.

SACRAMENTO

Southwest 1941, June 2

SMF-LAS, 5:35-6:55am

Southwest 5371, June 3

LAS-SMF, 7:35-9:00pm

SAN JOSE

Southwest 1551, June 2

SJC-LAS, 6:30-7:50am

Southwest 5601/4372, June 3

LAS-LAX-SJC, 6:00-9:35pm

Anyway, here are the 15 students we've selected for the elite teams so far.  I can promise you that not all of these students will be on A1, but I can also promise that they will all be on either A1 or A2 even if we open up a third elite team.

Jack Albright

Anton Cao

Freya Edholm

Arav Karighattam

Matthew Guo

Jonathan Huang

Austin Lei

Kevin Li

Jeffery Li

Andrew Lin (Lynbrook)

Ishika Shah

Daniel Shen

Vittal Thirumalai

Stanley Wang

Sammy Zhang

[2017 ARML] -- Practice update, ARML Local on Sunday

Hi everyone,

Our next practice will be this Sunday, April 23, 2pm-6pm, at Room A2, Cubberley Community Center, in Palo Alto. You can find information about this and subsequent practices at the practice website: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2017ARML/.

We will be participating in ARML Local at this practice. This is an official ARML-style competition written by ARML. Since this is an official contest, please ensure that you arrive on time (and budget some time to park). Additionally, note that this practice is longer than usual in order for us to have sufficient time to complete the contest.

Simon will be in charge of assembling teams for the ARML Local competition. For anyone wanting to be placed onto an elite team for ARML Local, you need to check in with Simon outside of room A2 by 2:00pm sharp. People who arrive after team selection is complete will be assigned to teams in the order of when they arrive. Note: these teams are just for ARML Local and have no relation to future team selection for the ARML contest.

As a reminder, if you can't make it to practice on a particular day, fill out the Practice Absence Form on the website before that practice, with a good reason. In particular, there is no need to email me about missing a practice, and I do not accept practice excuses over email. Unexcused absences may negatively affect placement on elite teams.

I am posting all materials (problems and solutions) used at practices on the practice website. In order to view this material, use username=sfba and password=arml.

If you ever miss any announcements, you can view our email archive.

Let me know if you have any questions. See you on Sunday! :)

Best,
Moor

[2017 ARML] - Practice on Saturday, and other updates

Hi everyone,

Welcome to another year of ARML! I am organizing our team's practices for this year. Practices will be held weekly until ARML, on a mix of Saturday and Sunday afternoons. All information can be found at our practice website: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2017ARML/.

Our first practice will be this Saturday, April 15, 2pm-5pm, at 251 Dwinelle Hall in UC Berkeley. You can find information about this and subsequent practices at the practice website.

ARML is a team activity, and as such, it is really important that everyone come to practice whenever possible -- the team depends on everybody's active participation. If you can't make it to practice on a particular day, fill out the Practice Absence Form on the website before that practice, with a good reason. Unexcused absences may negatively affect placement on elite teams.

I've heard that traveling to practices can be a challenge, so we've set up a Carpool Form on the website to assist you in setting up carpools. You can fill out that form to express interest in carpooling. The form responses are public, so you can view responses and contact each other to set up carpooling.

If you ever miss any announcements, you can view our email archive.

One more thing: Join the SFBA ARML facebook page! If you're not in the group, request to be added and I'll add you. :)

Again, all information about practices can be found at https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2017ARML/... check there if you have any questions! If you have a question that's not answered on the website, let me know and I'll be happy to help. :)

Best,
Moor

ARML update - practices, flights and more

Hi Everyone,

Here are a few notes you should be aware of. Please read this entire email.

PRACTICES

Our first practice will be this Saturday, April 15, at UC Berkeley. Please see https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2017ARML/ for more details. Practice dates and locations will be updated on Moor's site as they are confirmed. If your school is able to host a practice, please contact us so we can follow up with you.

The following weekend we will take the ARML Local contest at practice, so watch for more details on that as well.

FLIGHTS

We are starting to coordinate transportation for ARML this year, and we're ready to open up the first two flight options. Here they are:

SAN FRANCISCO
Southwest 1900, June 2
SFO-LAS, 6:05-7:35am
Southwest 404, June 3
LAS-SFO, 6:15-7:45pm

OAKLAND
Southwest 1096, June 2
OAK-LAS, 5:55-7:20am
Southwest 2479, June 3
LAS-OAK, 6:35-8:00pm

For any student who purchases one of these EXACT round trips and sends us confirmation at arml@mathleague.org by midnight on April 30, we will refund $100 of your ARML fee because we will likely be able to sell your seat on the bus to someone else. Please note that the fares are likely to go up as people start buying tickets, so purchase them early if you're planning to fly. Also note that this $100 refund will not necessarily apply to other flights we open up or to purchases made after April 30; if we approve new flights or extend the deadline for claiming refunds I will post details, but DO NOT ask about other Bay Area flights for now. Any students who are interested in flying out of Sacramento should contact us to see about flight options. Remember, NO student goes to ARML unless it is on the bus or one of the flights we approve, as we need adult supervision at all times on the trip.

For parents interested in going to Las Vegas, you may feel free to book any flight you choose and to make your own arrangements for accommodations in Las Vegas. If you are traveling independently to Las Vegas, we'd still like to know your transportation details so we can coordinate various aspects of the trip with you (for instance, we may be able to assist you with ground transportation, or we may ask you to volunteer to chaperone one of the flights if you are taking one of the approved flights). Any parents interested in riding the bus or staying in the dorms on campus should contact us for more details regarding cost and availability.

T-SHIRTS

We need a team t-shirt for ARML -- and you have a chance to design it! Any student who wishes to submit a design is very welcome to do so; we will vote on the designs in in mid-May.

The deadline for submissions is Monday, May 4th. Voting will begin on Tuesday May 5th and run for one week. Once the voting begins, we will not be able to add late submissions.

Here are the ground rules -- please read them carefully, even the ones at the end!

Include the words "SFBA" or "San Francisco Bay Area" or both
Include the words "NorCal" or "Northern California" or both
Include the words "ARML" or "American Regions Mathematics League" or both
Include at least the year (2017). You *could* also include the specific days (June 2-3), and/or "UNLV" or "Las Vegas, Nevada" or "University of Nevada, Las Vegas" or some variant of this.
Do NOT include anything that might be considered offensive to other students, parents, teachers, or, well, anyone. This has never been a problem in the past, but we do explicitly reserve the right to censor submissions that fail to meet this criterion.
Do NOT use copyrighted material, unless you own the copyright!
Also, please be realistic about what your design will look like on a t-shirt

Use a maximum of 4 colors (and different shades count as different colors! This will be silk-screened, so subtle blending and mixing of these 4 colors is out; On the other hand, half-tones are ok.) Front and back count separately -- that is, you could have 2 colors on each side, or 3 on one side and 1 on the other, or simply have JUST front artwork with 4 colors. You don't need to count the background color of the shirt

It would be helpful if you can produce your design in a high-resolution version (preferably TIFF, PSD, or EPS formats, the sort of thing you can do with Photoshop, GIMP, or Paint.NET, etc.) for the printers. Low-resolution designs do NOT look good on t-shirts! If you don't have the tools to do this, our t-shirt printing company will have their art staff redo your design in a higher-resolution format if you can't, but there's no guarantee it will be exactly the same.

Email us (arml@mathleague.org) your files, the names of those who worked on the design, and a name for the design for the voting.

TEAM SELECTION

We have decided to extend the priority deadline for elite team selection to April 22 in order to give students attending the state championship a chance to claim the discounted fee (see our website for details on that) without compromising their eligibility for elite teams. Please get those payments in (or bring a check to the state meet) by the 22nd. If you have already submitted payment but want to claim the state meet discount, just email us at arml@mathleague.org and we'll help you out.

Also, be sure to spread word to your friends about ARML; we'd love to bring as many students as possible this year, and with 15% of all USAMO and USAJMO qualifiers nationally coming from Northern California this year, with your help this could be the year we place first and second at ARML! :)