Friday, April 27, 2018

[2018 ARML] - Practice on *Saturday*!

Hi everyone,

Our next practice will be this Saturday, 2pm-5pm in Pleasanton, at Sun Flower Academy, 6693 Owens Dr, Pleasanton, CA 94588. You can find more information about practice at the practice website: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2018ARML/. Please note that for this week, parents should not stay at the practice location (unless helping out with practice) due to space constraints.

At the practice website, you can also find a spreadsheet that I've set up to help organize carpools to practice. You can post your information there, and contact others who might want to carpool to practice. 

Practice materials from past practices can also be found at the practice website, with the following username and password:
Username: sfba
Password: arml

As always, if you need to miss a practice, please make sure that you fill out the Practice Absence Form on the practice website *before* practice, with a good reason.

As an additional reminder, you can submit your notarized permission slips at practice.

See you on Saturday! :)

Best,
Moor

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Re: [2018 ARML] - Travel logistics and next wave of A1/A2 qualifiers

[deleted - duplicate post]

[2018 ARML] - Travel logistics and next wave of A1/A2 qualifiers

TRAVEL LOGISTICS

The bus on Thursday will be leaving earlier this year.  We will load at 8:30 AM on Thursday, May 31st, and depart at 9 AM from the San Jose Caltrain station.  This change will better accommodate our driver's schedule, as well as allow everyone a little more free time on Thursday night.  We will make a lunch stop along the way and arrive in Las Vegas early enough for you to get dinner.

We are looking for parents to chaperone the official flights mentioned in our previous email (early Friday morning and Saturday evening between SFO/SJC and Las Vegas).  If you are a parent and planning to travel to ARML on one of the flights I mentioned last week, we would like to invite you to be a flight chaperone for us. You may make your own hotel arrangements in Las Vegas, but we will provide lodging in the UNLV dorm for flight chaperones who are also willing to take on proctoring/grading and supervision responsibilities.  If you are available to be a flight chaperone (regardless of whether you plan to stay in the dorms or at a hotel), please fill out the information sheet and contact the coaching staff.

For students who will be traveling to ARML with your parents independently of the team (i.e. not on the bus or on approved flights), you will need to arrive on campus with your parents either between 8:30 and 9:30 PM Thursday evening, or between 8:30 and 9:30 AM on Friday.  These are the only times when staff will be available to check you into the dorms, so book your flights accordingly.  Note that all students MUST be supervised during travel, so a parent must be with you when you check in.

If you will be traveling home from ARML with your parents, we will have instructions for you later on how to check out.  Pickup times are flexible, but students will not be able to leave before about 4:30 PM on Saturday.



ELITE TEAMS

This week we have selected another ten 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.  We are also planning to field a JV team this year, consisting exclusively of students in grade 10 and below. Selection for the JV team will occur at the same time as for the non-elite teams.

Anyway, here are the ten students we've selected for the elite teams this week.  Once again 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.

[redacted]

Saturday, April 21, 2018

[2018 ARML] - ARML Local on Sunday!

Hi everyone,

Our next practice will be this Sunday, April 22, 2pm-6pm, at El Palo Alto Room, Mitchell Park Community Center, in Palo Alto. You can find information about this and subsequent practices at the practice website: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2018ARML/.

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 at the entrance of El Palo Alto Room 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.

This may also be a good time to review the ARML math conventions: http://www.arml2.com/arml_2018/public_documents_all_sites/ARML_Conventions_2014.pdf, including sections about formatting your answers.

For any parents who are thinking about coming with us to ARML, this practice can be a good opportunity to come help out with some proctoring and see what the experience of volunteering at ARML is like.

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

Friday, April 20, 2018

[2018 ARML] - ARML update - flights, t-shirts, and elite teams

Hi Everyone,

Here are a few notes you should be aware of. Please read this entire email. You should also have received Moor's email with details about this Sunday's practice; if you didn't see that one, it's on the website.


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 1747, June 1
SFO-LAS, 6:20-7:55am 
Southwest 4696, June 2
LAS-SFO, 6:10-7:45pm

SAN JOSE
Southwest 1192, June 1
SJC-LAS, 6:35-8:00am 
Southwest 3223, June 2
LAS-SJC, 7:30-8:50pm

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 or pre-approved travel with their parents, as we need adult supervision at all times on the trip. Refunds will be issued after ARML is over.

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 7th. Voting will begin on Tuesday May 8th 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 (2018). You *could* also include the specific days (June 1-2), 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 are ready to announce the first ten students selected for elite teams. Each of these students will be on either the A1 or A2 team; exact placement will be determined later. We expect to announce another wave of elite team students next week, so if you haven't gotten your payment in yet, be sure to send that through our website or hand Moor a check on Sunday. We do not select anyone for an elite team until we have received their payment. Here are the first ten students:

[redacted]

Also, be sure to spread word to your friends about ARML; we'd love to bring as many students as possible this year, and it's not too late to join the team!

Sunday, April 15, 2018

[2018 ARML] - Practice materials from first practice

Hi all,

It was great to see everyone at our first ARML practice today. 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.

Our next practice will be on Sunday, April 22, 2pm-6pm, at Mitchell Park Community Center in Palo Alto. You can find information about this and subsequent practices at the practice website: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2018ARML/. We will be participating in ARML Local at this practice. This is an official ARML-style competition written by ARML. Note that this practice is longer than usual in order for us to have sufficient time to complete the 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.

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

Let me know if you have any questions! :)

Best,
Moor

Friday, April 13, 2018

[2018 ARML] - First ARML Practice on Sunday!

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/2018ARML/.

Our first practice will be this Sunday, April 15, 2pm-5pm, at Room G4, Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto. 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/2018ARML/... 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