Re: [2019 ARML] - Bus arrival in San Jose

Update: looks more like 7:00pm. Also, I got volunteers for both of the requests... thanks! 

By the way, please don't stop in the caltrain driveway, but in a parking lot instead. Thanks! 

On Sun, Jun 2, 2019, 16:17 Moor Xu <moorxu@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi parents,

If you're picking up someone arriving on the bus, Google is estimating arrival at San Jose Diridon Caltrain station at 6:50pm. Bus will arrive at the same parking spot as on Thursday... see my earlier email for a map.

Two requests: Tim's speaker system is on the bus... would anyone be able to pick it up at the bus and store it for the summer? Tim would pick it up in the fall. It's the size of a large suitcase, and it's most convenient for him if it stays near San Jose instead of going back to Berkeley with me.

Also, could I hitch a ride from San Jose to any BART station? Thanks! :)

Best, 

Moor

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[2019 ARML] - Bus arrival in San Jose

Hi parents,

If you're picking up someone arriving on the bus, Google is estimating arrival at San Jose Diridon Caltrain station at 6:50pm. Bus will arrive at the same parking spot as on Thursday... see my earlier email for a map.

Two requests: Tim's speaker system is on the bus... would anyone be able to pick it up at the bus and store it for the summer? Tim would pick it up in the fall. It's the size of a large suitcase, and it's most convenient for him if it stays near San Jose instead of going back to Berkeley with me.

Also, could I hitch a ride from San Jose to any BART station? Thanks! :)

Best, 

Moor

[2019 ARML] - Oakland flight

Dear all,

Tomorrow morning's Oakland flight has been cancelled. We have rebooked everyone on a similar flight.  One of us will be in touch shortly with everyone to let you know the new details. 

You do not need to take any action now, nor should you. DO NOT rebook yourself unless we tell you otherwise. 

The new flight will allow everyone to travel together with a chaperone and arrive on time tomorrow morning. 

--Silas

[2019 ARML] - Friday night at ARML

Hey everyone, I'm looking forward to seeing you all at ARML this week. Have a safe trip!

I want to encourage all of you to come out to our Friday night activity this year, which is a joint production of the Northern Nevada, Wild Wild West, and SFBA/NorCal coaches. We have a bunch of activity stations and events that you can check out, and this is where you go to get your pizza as well. You'll want to head to the south side of the student union immediately after the power question on Friday. You can find out more details at http://mathleague.org/unlv

[2019 ARML] - ARML Bus Information

Hi everyone,

This is important information about the ARML bus. (If you're flying to ARML, feel free to disregard this email.)

The bus will load at the San Jose Diridon (Caltrain) Station. Once you're there, look for bus loading spot #3 near the entrance to the train station. Here's a map: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2019ARML/documents/busmap.png
The spot labeled X1 is our bus loading location. Please do not park in the parking spots labeled "Caltrain Employee Parking", marked on the map with yellow and black X's. If needed, you can stop briefly in the parking lot labeled X2 on the map to unload. If you have trouble finding the bus, please call me at 541-206-7651.

All students should arrive for bus loading at 8:30am on Thursday. Do not be late. Once the bus is loaded, it will leave without you if you are not there. 

You may wish to bring games and movies for the bus. We will only have movies if someone brings them! Also, feel free to coordinate games, movies, etc on the SFBA ARML facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/groups/bayareaarml/ If you're not in the group, request to be added and we'll add you. It's a good idea to bring a (refillable) water bottle, and you may want to bring a pillow/blanket if you're planning to sleep on the bus.

We have a team tradition of wearing our oldest ARML t-shirts on the bus. I will wear a shirt from 2008, and I'm excited to see your ARML shirts from past years.

If you have any questions about the bus, please ask! See you soon!

Best,
Moor

[2019 ARML] - SFBA ARML 2019 Itinerary

Dear all,

Attached is the detailed itinerary for ARML 2019.  If you have any questions, you can email me, or ask at the team meeting after tomorrow's practice.  I'm also going to highlight a few things below.

Of course, there's lots more information in the itinerary, including a (rough) map of campus on the last page.  The highlights below are mostly things that have either changed from last year, or things you might have questions about if you're new this year. 

Dorm: We are staying in Williams Hall.  We have most of the building to ourselves, but we share the 4th floor with Wild Wild West.  Please be respectful about sharing the 4th floor common spaces.  No, I cannot tell you anything about roommate assignments as of now.

Meeting times: You and your team will agree on meeting times for Friday afternoon and Saturday morning at your team meeting on Friday.

Friday night: Activities are still being planned for Friday night.  We will let you know what's going on at your team meeting on Friday.  I do know that ARML will be providing pizza, as usual, so you won't need to worry about dinner on Friday.

Stratosphere: As usual, we'll organize an optional outing to the Stratosphere tower on Saturday evening.  If you're going, you'll need to be ready to go immediately after the final team meeting.  Anyone flying out Saturday night cannot go, as you will not return in time to go to the airport.  We'll discuss any further details at your team meetings on Friday.

Chaperones: There are a few extra things on your schedule.  I will be sending you an expanded itinerary later today.

Parent dropoffs and pickups: I will send you information, including driving directions, separately.

Again, feel free to send any questions to me, or bring them to the team meeting after practice tomorrow.  ARML is almost here, so get excited and I'll see you next week!

--Silas

[2019 ARML] - Reminder: final practice on Sunday!

Hi everyone,

Our next (and final) practice will be this Sunday 12:00pm-3:30pm in the basement of building 380 at Stanford. (See the website https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2019ARML/ for more info, including parking information.) Please note the unusual time, and please make an extra effort to come to practice (on time) for this final weekend before ARML.

This is a longer practice than usual. During the final 15-30 minutes of practice, we'll stop doing math and have a team meeting about the trip. This is also your chance to ask questions about whatever is on your mind. :)

You can find practice materials from past practices online on the practice website. As usual, username=sfba and password=arml. You may wish to see the practice notes page for each week on what we covered that week.

Best,
Moor

[2019 ARML] - Want Extra T-shirts?

Hi Everyone,

We're down to the last two weeks before ARML! Thanks for all your hard work at practice so far. For those of you who haven't turned in permission slips yet, expect to start getting increasingly urgent emails from Kendra about turning them in. Saturday is the last date that we can accept permission slips at practice, so if your permission slips are not turned in by Saturday they will need to be mailed to the address on the website.

As for t-shirts, the group has decided on the Medieval design. If you are interested in purchasing extra shirts, you must purchase them online by May 19. You can go to http://mathleague.org/armlshirts.php to place your order. Remember that these are adult sizes. You will be issued one t-shirt corresponding to your team assignment and the size you indicated when you signed up for ARML, but if you think you may have given us an incorrect size (or not realized they were adult sizes rather than youth sizes), feel free to email us to clarify. Any additional shirts you want to purchase can be ordered through the link above; t-shirts will be distributed after ARML so we don't have a bunch of people running around in tie-dyed shirts impersonating coaches. :D

While I'm on the subject of t-shirts (and in case I forget later), remember that you are required to wear your 2019 team t-shirt on Saturday. Tradition dictates that you wear the oldest ARML shirt you have on the day you travel to Las Vegas; this is not a requirement, but it's, you know, fun. :)

[2019 ARML] - Practice on Saturday

Hi all,

It's that time of week again... this is your reminder that this weekend we'll have practice on Saturday 5/18, 2pm-5pm, at Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto. This is the same place and time as last week. (See the website https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2019ARML/ for more info.) 

As always, if you need to miss a practice for any (good) reason, please make sure you fill out the form on the website before practice. Also, I've uploaded some of the practice materials from past practices to the practice website. As before, the username is sfba and the password is arml.

Note that this practice is your last opportunity to hand in a permission form in person -- we cannot accept permission forms at the final practice. If you have not yet turned in a permission form, please bring your (notarized) form to this weekend's practice and hand it to me.

See you this weekend!

Best,

Moor

[2019 ARML] - Chaperone list and information for parents

Dear all,

This email is primarily for parents; students can ignore it.  I'm still sending it to everyone, just to make sure everyone who needs it sees it.

First, we have finalized our chaperone roster for this year.  The following people will be chaperoning:

Tasnim Aslam

Kendra Brashear

Manoj Das

Thinula De Silva

Freya Edholm

Ali Gurel

Mehmet Kaysi

Kavita Karighattam

Vasan Karighattam

Silas Johnson

Atul Mathur

Simon Rubinstein-Salzedo

Tim Sanders

Jeff Soesbe

Ernisyah Tarigan

Nathan Wong

Moor Xu

If you signed up to chaperone but are not on this list, we appreciate your volunteering, and we hope you will do so again in the future.

If you are a parent traveling to Las Vegas but not chaperoning, below is some information for you.

We will not be able to house you in the dorms.  However, if you would like to coordinate lodging with other parents, please let us know as soon as possible, and we will put you in touch with any other parents who are similarly interested.

Most of ARML is closed to the public, but parents are welcome at the awards ceremony after lunch on Saturday.  It is usually scheduled to begin around 1:45pm, but this time is subject to change.  We will also hold a team meeting, at which we will present additional awards and recognition, later on Saturday afternoon (probably around 3:30), and we would love to have you at that as well.  Both times may change at the last minute, so you should have your student contact you with updates.

If you are interested in volunteering for the ARML competition itself on Friday night and Saturday morning, contact us as soon as possible; we may be able to bring some additional volunteers, but we will need to provide their names to ARML well in advance.

Lastly, due to rules imposed on us by UNLV as well as the need to provide effective supervision of the students, there are a few rules that parents must abide by:

• All students must stay in the dorm on Friday night, even if their parents are in town.
• Parents (except registered chaperones) are not allowed in the dorm buildings at any time.  If you are dropping your student off, we are happy to show them to their room and help them get settled.
• Students must remain under the supervision of coaches at all times.  Students may not leave campus unless accompanied by a coach on a planned excursion; having a parent in town does not provide an exception to this rule, and parents may not "check out" students to leave campus.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about any of this.

--Silas

[2019 ARML] - Practice on *Saturday* this weekend, ARML Local results

Hi everyone!

This weekend we will have practice on Saturday 5/11, 2pm-5pm, at Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto. (See the website https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2019ARML/ for more info.) Please note the Saturday date -- we like to have practice on a mix of Saturdays and Sundays, and we especially wanted to make sure to leave Mother's Day open for everyone. :)

The practice absence form is also updated with more dates. Fill it out *before* practice if you need to miss practice, but please make sure to provide a good reason... your team needs you to come in order to have effective practices. :) 

Quick reminder for anyone who hasn't yet turned in permission forms: you can do this at practice, and you can find information about it here: http://mathleague.org/armljoin.php. Deadlines are approaching, so please make every effort to get your permission form in this week. (There are notaries open in Palo Alto on Saturday if you really need one.)

One more thing... the official announcement from ARML about the ARML Local results is included at the end of this email. Congratulations to our winning team! This marks the 8th consecutive year that an SFBA or A-Star team has won ARML Local. :)

Best,

Moor

----------------------------------------

Congratulations to SFBA-NorCal / A-Star: BetaStar Academy Air for winning ARML Local in 2019 with a score of 117. BCA GASSS placed second with a score of 116. Each team member of the first and second place teams will receive a $50 and $25 Amazon giftcard, respectively, provided courtesy of Star League. The complete results of the competition will be posted at this page soon, along with the contest materials.

Howard Halim of University of Toronto Schools 1 was the sole student to answer all ten individual questions correctly, so he will receive a $100 Amazon giftcard. We would also like to recognize the students who scored 9 on the individual round: Derek Liu (San Diego Math Circle A), Espen Slettnes (SFBA-NorCal / A-Star: BetaStar Academy Air), Charles Ming (BCA $\widetilde{BCA}$), Sean Li and Wentinn Liao (SFBA-NorCal / A-Star: Roses are red, spring will arrive, my AMC B score is 91.5), with Derek Liu correctly answering the tiebreaker the fastest across all students (in 84 seconds).

We hope students and coaches alike enjoyed ARML Local 2019. The date of ARML Local 2020 will be announced later this year.

[2019 ARML] - t-shirt voting and roster

Okay, our t-shirt designs are in and voting is up. Deadline to vote is midnight Thursday.  You can see the designs and vote at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7TKDSQ9. We will let you know at Saturday's practice which design we will be going with. Please spend some time (no more than 5 minutes) at practice Saturday trying to come to a consensus within your teams as to what color you want your team's shirt to be, and what your backup color will be if another team wants the same color. A1 and A2 are guaranteed pink and black respectively if they want those colors, so if A1 picks pink or A2 picks black they do not need to pick a backup color. 

For reference, here is our roster as it currently stands. Please make sure your name is here if you think you are going to ARML. Note that there are more than 15 students on A5 and A6; we do expect some reshuffling as we determine who are the alternates (want to make sure you aren't an alternate? come to practices!).

[redacted]

[2019 ARML] - Team roster, and flight deadline extended

Hi everyone,

Here's where things stand for ARML at this point: We have six teams from Northern California (yay!) including the A1 and A2 teams we've been selecting students for, an A3 team we will designate as our JV team, an A4 team consisting entirely of students from the Sacramento area, and A5 and A6 teams from the Bay Area. The coaches have assigned everyone to their respective teams, and teams will be announced at practice on Sunday, which gives us time to make any last-minute corrections. To that end, I have included a list below of everyone we believe has signed up and paid to go to ARML, along with what we believe are your transportation plans. If your name does not appear on this list but you are planning to go to ARML, you must notify us by 6pm Saturday evening (the 4th) or risk being placed on an alternate team. Please let us know as well if your transportation plans do not match up with what we have recorded. At this point, no one who has not paid is guaranteed a spot on the team, so check with us before submitting payment so we can confirm whether we can take you onto the team.

Also, we are still looking for a few students to fly to ARML to balance out the bus-versus-flying numbers, so I am extending the rebate deadline to midnight Sunday. If you are interested in claiming a $100 rebate for taking the approved flights I mentioned in the previous email, book your flights and send us confirmation by midnight Sunday. You can find the approved flights in the email archives on the team web page.

Finally, since some of you are likely to be interested, I wanted to announce that mathleague.org is recruiting for our internship program next school year. Those of you who are graduating this year or have recently graduated are invited to apply, so I'm mostly talking to seniors and coaches here. You can find out more information at http://mathleague.org/InternshipInfo.pdf and the application at http://mathleague.org/InternshipApplication.pdf. Application deadline is June 10, and I am happy to answer any questions at practice or at ARML. 

-Tim

List of students who have signed up and paid for ARML this year, along with their transportation details:

[redacted]

[2019 ARML] - Practice on Sunday!

Hi everyone,

Our next practice will be this Sunday, 2pm-5pm in Pleasanton, at Shengmeng Education Center, 6691 Owens Dr, Pleasanton, CA 94588. You can find more information about practice at the practice website: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2019ARML/.

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 Sunday! :)

Best,

Moor

[2019 ARML] - Reminder: Flying to ARML

Dear all,

I'm writing to remind you about the option of flying to ARML, and that the deadline to book those flights is tomorrow night.  I've copied the relevant information from Tim's original email below, particularly for anyone who wasn't on the email list at the time.

Note in particular that the refund (a) only applies to students who take approved flights both ways, and take a Friday morning flight down, and (b) requires that you purchase tickets and forward the airline's confirmation email to arml@mathleague.org by midnight on April 30th, unless you hear from Tim that the deadline is extended.

If you are going to fly to ARML, please do yourself and us a favor and make your plans now.  Every year, a handful of students change their plans at the last minute, which results in needless waste of money on housing and travel arrangements.  We'd much rather save those costs and pass it on to you via the flight rebate.

--Silas

_____________________________________________

(3) Fly to ARML on approved flights

Students flying to ARML without their parents must travel on one of our approved flights, each of which will have one of our coaches as a chaperone. Chaperones will be in touch with students and their families the week of ARML to coordinate meeting at the airport. Here are the flight options:

SACRAMENTO

Southwest 591, May 31

SMF-LAS, 6:00-7:15am

Southwest 5047, June 1

LAS-SMF, 7:40-9:10pm

OAKLAND

Southwest 1456, May 31

OAK-LAS, 5:30-7:00am

Southwest 5136, June 1

LAS-OAK, 8:00-9:30pm

SAN FRANCISCO 

Southwest 1078, May 31

SFO-LAS, 5:10-6:35am 

Southwest 3308, June 1

LAS-SFO, 6:45-8:20pm

SAN JOSE
Southwest 2063, May 30 (THURSDAY)
SJC-LAS, 10:00-11:15pm 
Southwest 6874, June 1
LAS-SJC, 8:00-9:25pm

For any student who purchases one of the May 31 flights and one of the June 1 flights and sends us confirmation at arml@mathleague.org by midnight on April 30, we will rebate $100 of the ARML fee you have paid. Please note that the Thursday night flight out of San Jose is currently NOT eligible for the $100 rebate as we are strongly encouraging students to fly in on Friday if they are not taking the bus. 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.

[2019 ARML] - Next wave of elite team members

Hi Everyone,

I've got another ten students to announce for the elite teams; I'll place those at the bottom of this email. As usual, all ten of these students are guaranteed a spot on A1 or A2, and we expect final team placements to be ready by next Sunday's practice. For those of you keeping score, this means there are still ten spots left on A1 or A2 that we will announce in about a week. Remember no one is eligible to be placed on one of these teams until we have their registration and payment. I will be at practice today and can collect any checks or permission slips you have to turn in.

In other news, we do not have any financial aid to distribute to team members this year, so those of you who inquired about financial aid will still need to pay the full fee in order to participate. Also, please keep in mind our May 1 deadline for t-shirt design submissions; see my last email for details.

Here are the ten additional students we have selected for A1 or A2:

[redacted]

[2019 ARML] - ARML Local on Sunday + Ice Cream Social!

Hi everyone,

Our next practice will be this Sunday, April 28, 2pm-6pm, at the College of San Mateo. You can find information about this and subsequent practices at the practice website: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2019ARML/. Note that this is in a neighboring building to the one we met in two weeks ago, not the same building.

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 to ensure that we have sufficient time to complete the contest.

Note: You do not need to be registered for ARML to compete in ARML Local. Even if you can't come to ARML this year, you're still welcome to come to ARML Local. Also feel free to invite any friends who might not be on this email list. :)

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 Room 18-308 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.

We will also have an ice cream social at the end of practice, approximately 5:30pm-6:00pm, and we hope that everyone uses this opportunity to get to know others on the team.

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

-------------------------------------------

Some tips from Freya (selected from her post in our Facebook group):

ARML Local is an official contest; it can be likened to a mini-ARML of sorts. Like the real ARML, ARML Local contains team, individual, and relay rounds (sorry, no power round). However, there are some key differences between ARML Local and ARML, which I will highlight below:

- ARML Local teams contain 6 people, not 15. Thus, the teams tend to be more close-knit and able to interact with one another more closely over individual problems than at the actual ARML. Use this opportunity as a bonding experience; your teammates at ARML Local often end up being on your actual ARML team :) (and if not, this is your chance to meet new friends outside the team as well!).

- Because of the smaller size of the ARML Local teams, the team round contains 15 problems to be solved in 45 minutes rather than 10 problems to be solved in 20 minutes.

- The individual rounds for ARML Local and ARML have the same format; just as in the real ARML, we will read the ARML Local questions aloud before you can start writing (and before the timer starts). We just don't read the questions aloud during other practices in order to save time.

- There are 3 sets of relays in ARML Local: (1) the team splits into 3 groups of 2 to solve 2-question relay sets (submit at 3 and 6 minutes); (2) the team splits into 2 groups of 3 to solve 3-question relay sets (submit at 4 and 8 minutes); and (3) the team as a whole goes through one 6-question relay set (submit at 5 and 10 minutes). Like at the real ARML, the team earns more points for faster submissions.

Now, some tips:

- Teams will not have access to whiteboards at ARML Local. However, one person (the "boardmaster") should use a piece of scratch paper (NOT the official answer sheet!) to keep track of everyone's work and answers for the team round, but everyone can (and should) write on the paper to indicate what they are working on and what answers they get. Just like during ARML, if there is any conflict of answers, it must be brought to everyone's attention immediately.

- When selecting problems at the beginning of the team round, make sure that each person is working on a different problem since there are more problems than students this time around. However, by the end of the team round, every problem attempted should have been solved by at least 2 people.

- If a problem on the team round seems impossible for everyone on the team (even with collaboration), just skip it. Time is of the essence; make sure you correctly solve the problems you can solve.

- Remember that team round answers must be recorded *on the provided answer sheet* to be graded. Thus, at the 1-minute warning, the boardmaster should copy down all answers on that sheet for grading. (If the boardmaster forgets, it is the responsibility of the rest of the team to remind them or copy down the answers themselves.) In addition, have at least one other team member VERIFY that the answers on the answer sheet have been copied down correctly. It'd be a shame to miss problems due to mistranscription!

- Make sure to sanity-check your answers. For example, if a problem asks for an integer mod 45, 100000 or 1/2 will definitely not be correct (it fails the sanity check; the answer should be an integer between 0 and 44).

- Just like at ARML, do NOT submit the same relay answer at the half- and full-time marks. You are only graded based on your latest submission. So, if you submit the same (correct) answer that you submitted earlier, you will cost your team points. Don't do that.

[2019 ARML] - Additional travel info to/from ARML

Dear ARML students and parents,

For those of you who are new this year, I'm one of the assistant coaches.  You haven't seen me at practices, because I actually live in St. Louis; I first got involved with the team when I was a Stanford student about 10 years ago.  Now that I've moved away, I handle mostly logistics, communication, and planning for the team.  I will be in Las Vegas, though, helping the actual trip run smoothly.

As a result, you'll be hearing from me only occasionally until mid-May, but at that point I'll have lots of information to send you about things like detailed schedules, travel logistics, packing lists, and that sort of thing.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to what's looking like a really exciting ARML season!

For now, I have two brief updates about travel planning, as some of you are starting to book air tickets.

Parent chaperones

If you are a parent interested in serving as a chaperone for the trip, please sign up immediately.  Follow the instructions on the website; there's no commitment yet, I just need to know who's thinking about it.  We'll be finalizing our chaperone roster in the next week or two, so time is of the essence.

If you have already signed up, I'll be in touch with you soon (probably today) with more information.

Dropping students off (and picking up) at ARML

This part is for anyone thinking about travel option #2 in Tim's itinerary, in which your parents drop you off and pick you up in Las Vegas.  As Tim mentioned, we won't know the exact dropoff and pickup location until the week before ARML, although it'll be somewhere on UNLV's campus (it depends on what dorm we're staying in).

However, we do have the dropoff and pickup times worked out.  If you are not traveling to ARML on either the bus or an "official" flight, you must be dropped off and picked up by a parent or legal guardian in one of these time windows.  Do not book air travel that is inconsistent with these times.

Dropoff:

Thursday night: 10:30-11:00 PM

Friday morning: 7:30-8:00 AM (this window is preferred)

Pickup:

Saturday afternoon: At the team meeting, roughly 3:30-4:30 PM (this is preferred, see below)

Sunday morning: 7:30-8:00 AM

We will hold a team meeting on Saturday after the contest is over to celebrate the conclusion of the season and recognize our students and coaches.  This meeting is scheduled for 3:30 and should be done by 4:30.  If you are picking a student up, you should plan to attend this meeting and check your student out afterwards.  If you are not picking a student up but are in Las Vegas, we encourage you to attend the meeting anyway!

That's all for now.  Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any more questions, particularly about travel logistics.  We'd rather have you ask first than wind up paying change fees for your flights.

--Silas

[2019 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 tomorrow's practice; if you didn't see that one, it's on the website.

TRANSPORTATION

We are starting to coordinate transportation for ARML this year, and all students attending ARML will need to get there using one of the following three options:

(1) Ride the bus

This is the default option, and the one most students will use. The bus will leave from San Jose on Thursday morning, May 30, and will return to San Jose on Sunday evening, June 2. If you are planning not to take the bus both ways, you must let us know which of the following two options you plan to use.

(2) Parents bring you to ARML

If your parents are coming to Las Vegas, you may arrange your own transportation with them. If you choose this option, your parents must check you in and/or out at the designated checkpoint at UNLV. We will let you know the week of ARML where and when these checkpoints will be.

(3) Fly to ARML on approved flights

Students flying to ARML without their parents must travel on one of our approved flights, each of which will have one of our coaches as a chaperone. Chaperones will be in touch with students and their families the week of ARML to coordinate meeting at the airport. Here are the flight options:

SACRAMENTO

Southwest 591, May 31

SMF-LAS, 6:00-7:15am

Southwest 5047, June 1

LAS-SMF, 7:40-9:10pm

OAKLAND

Southwest 1456, May 31

OAK-LAS, 5:30-7:00am

Southwest 5136, June 1

LAS-OAK, 8:00-9:30pm

SAN FRANCISCO 

Southwest 1078, May 31

SFO-LAS, 5:10-6:35am 

Southwest 3308, June 1

LAS-SFO, 6:45-8:20pm

SAN JOSE
Southwest 2063, May 30 (THURSDAY)
SJC-LAS, 10:00-11:15pm 
Southwest 6874, June 1
LAS-SJC, 8:00-9:25pm

For any student who purchases one of the May 31 flights and one of the June 1 flights and sends us confirmation at arml@mathleague.org by midnight on April 30, we will rebate $100 of the ARML fee you have paid. Please note that the Thursday night flight out of San Jose is currently NOT eligible for the $100 rebate as we are strongly encouraging students to fly in on Friday if they are not taking the bus. 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.

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. Flight rebates 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).

T-SHIRTS

One of the great traditions of ARML is for teams to design matching t-shirts to wear on the day of the competition.  We invite you to submit a design for this year's SFBA/NorCal team t-shirt!  After designs are submitted, the full team will vote on their favorite.

Designs should consist of a front design and a back design.  To keep screen-printing costs low, you can use either (a) three colors on one side and one color on the other, or (b) two colors on each side.  Keep in mind that we traditionally get different-colored shirts for each team, so it's best if your design works with a variety of background colors.  We generally can't use different design colors for different background colors.

When submitting your design, send an email to arml@mathleague.org with exactly four files:

A .png file (.jpeg is okay in a pinch) of the front design, preferably superimposed on a t-shirt shape to show how it's positioned

A .png file of the back design (like the above)

A vector-graphics file (such as .tif) of the front design

A vector-graphics file of the back design

The .png files will be used on the ballot for voting on designs, while the vector-graphics files will be sent to the printer if your design is chosen.

Designs generally identify the team as "SFBA/NorCal", "Bay Area/Northern California", or similar.  You might also want to include "ARML", "2019", or other such things.  None of these are mandatory.  Please do not include anything offensive in the design; coaching staff reserve the right to censor or edit as necessary.

The deadline to submit designs is May 1st.

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 Tim a check at the beginning of practice tomorrow. We do not select anyone for an elite team until we have received their payment. Here are the first ten students:

[redacted]

For reference, below is a complete list of students who have paid their ARML fees up to this point. 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!

[redacted]

[2019 ARML] - Practice on *Saturday* this weekend!

Hi everyone,

Our next practice will be this Saturday, 2pm-5pm in Palo Alto, at Room H1, Cubberley Community Center. You can find more information about practice at the practice website: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2019ARML/.

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.

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

Finally, Freya has written up some tips from last practice, and I've included them below. :) 

Best,
Moor

---------------------------------------------

Lastly, here are some pointers based on what I saw last practice. I know I only got the chance to work with some of you then, but I'm posting the tips here because they apply to everyone, not just my group :)

- When selecting problems at the beginning of the team round, make sure that every problem has AT LEAST ONE PERSON working on it, especially if that problem is in the first half of the test. In general, it's good to have 1-2 people working on each problem from the beginning. 

- As soon as there are conflicting answers to a team round problem, the boardmaster (who records the answers on the board) should IMMEDIATELY and LOUDLY call out the conflict and make sure the people who came up with the conflicting answers work together to resolve the conflict. A conflict should not be sitting on the board for more than a few seconds before it is getting resolved. If the boardmaster has not called out the conflict, one of the other team members should check the board and call it out (so everyone should be monitoring the board throughout the test, not just the boardmaster).

- When you call out a problem to work on, make sure the boardmaster has recorded your *correct* initials on the *correct* problem. If your initials are not recorded or recorded incorrectly after a few seconds, CALL THEM OUT AGAIN LOUDLY. Do NOT wait until you got your answer for the boardmaster to record what you've been working on. It is crucial that the team knows what you're working on at all times.

- Remember that team round answers must be recorded *on a separate sheet of paper* to be graded. Thus, at the 1-minute warning, the boardmaster should copy down all answers ON A SEPARATE SHEET OF PAPER for grading. (If the boardmaster forgets, it is the responsibility of the rest of the team to remind them or copy down the answers themselves.) In addition, have at least one other team member VERIFY that the answers on the separate sheet of paper have been copied down correctly. It'd be a shame to miss problems due to mistranscription!

- This should go without saying, but NO TALKING DURING THE RELAYS. The team will get disqualified for talking during the relays (and individual round). While this has never been a problem during the contest, it has been a recurrent problem during practices, and we should practice in the same way that we would in the real contest.

- DO NOT SUBMIT THE SAME RELAY ANSWER TWICE AT THE 3- AND 6-MINUTE MARKS. You are only graded based on your latest submission. So, if you submit the same (correct) answer that you submitted at 3 minutes at 6 minutes, you will cost your team 2 points. Don't do that.

- That said, ALWAYS SUBMIT SOMETHING AT 3 MINUTES, even if you are almost certain it's wrong. There's no penalty for submitting an answer at 3 minutes, so submit something; there's a chance that any answer you submit might be correct, but there's no chance that a blank (or lack of) submission is correct!

[2019 ARML] - Practice materials from first practice

Hi everyone, 

It was great to see everyone at our first ARML practice today. I have posted all materials (problems and solutions) used at practice on the practice website, and I will continue to do this after each practice. In order to view this material, use username=sfba and password=arml.

Our next practice will be on *Saturday*, April 20, 2pm-5pm, at Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto. You can find information about this and subsequent practices at the practice website: https://math.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2019ARML/.

As a reminder, if you can't make it to practice on a particular day, fill out the Practice Absence Form on the practice 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.

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. In particular, the ARML coaches really appreciate getting rides from BART stations in the East Bay. :)

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

Let me know if you have any questions! :)

Best,

Moor

[2019 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/2019ARML/.

Our first practice will be this Sunday, April 14, 2pm-5pm, at the College of San Mateo, Room 16-209. You can find information about this and subsequent practices at the practice website. I've posted some information there about driving to practice and parking.

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.

As a reminder, Sunday April 14 is also the registration and payment deadline for priority consideration for spots on elite teams. I will be able to collect checks (and permission slips) at practice, and I'll be happy to accept any paperwork that you bring.

I've heard that traveling to practices can be a challenge, so I'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.

One request: We have a number of coaches who need rides to practice... they're mostly coming from Berkeley but can meet a carpool at any BART station. Would you be able to help? If so, please reply to this email and let me know. Thanks!

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/2019ARML/... 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

[2018 ARML] - ARML 2019

Hi Everyone, ARML 2019 registrations are officially open. If you are receiving this email because you were on the team last year, this is the only email you'll be sent on this list unless you register for this year. Go to http://mathleague.org/armlsfba.php for information about this year's trip. We'd love to have you back this year - if you're a returning student, please join the team again; if you've graduated, please consider joining our coaching staff!