SFBA ARML Information: April 2022

Friday, April 29, 2022

ARML Registration Confirmation, Flight Info, and Other Logistics

Hi everyone,

ARML Local

We won ARML Local! Congratulations to SFBA Persimmon on their victory, and to SFBA Pineapple and SFBA Pear for placing in the top 10. Congratulations also to Eric Shen for winning with the highest tiebreaker time, as well as to Aaron Chen, Angela Liu, Raymond Feng, Mason Fang, and Rohan Das for their perfect scores on the individual round. We had a total of 9 teams participate in ARML Local this year, and you can check out the full results.

Registration Confirmation

At the bottom of this email is a list of students who are registered and paid and have confirmed spots on our team as of 7:30am this morning. If you believe that you have registered and submitted payment, please scroll to the bottom and make sure your name is on that list. If you do not see yourself on this list, please get in touch with us immediately, as we are finalizing our roster imminently.

If you still want to go to ARML and haven't paid, let us know and we'll see if we can add you.

Travel / Flights

We will be organizing three different chaperoned flight groups to and from ARML, flying out of San Francisco, San Jose, and Sacramento. If you would like to join one of these groups rather than take the bus/van, here's what you need to do:

Book the flight yourself. Make sure to book the exact flights listed below. It is okay to mix and match (for example, fly out of SFO and return to SJC). Your parents do not need to travel with you; we will provide a chaperone.
Forward the confirmation email for your flights to arml-info@lists.berkeley.edu.

If you do both of these things by Sunday night (May 1st), we will be able to give you a $110 rebate of your ARML fee to help with the cost of the flight. Rebates will be sent out after ARML.

If we do not have your confirmation by Sunday night, you may still book the flight and travel with the group (and must still forward us the confirmation when you book it). However, we may have to make financial commitments on travel and housing as soon as Monday morning that would preclude any rebate after that time. You are also welcome to take the bus one way and fly the other way, but we will not be able to offer a rebate in this case.

Here are the three flight options on the way there:

From SFO: Southwest 1663 on Friday, June 3rd. Departs 5:25am, arrives 6:55am.
From SJC: Southwest 909 on Friday, June 3rd. Departs 7:15am, arrives 8:40am.
From SMF: Southwest 2048 on Thursday, June 2nd [note date]. Departs 7:25pm, arrives 8:45pm.

And the three on the way home:

To SFO: Southwest 3019 on Saturday, June 4th. Departs 7:05pm, arrives 8:40pm.
To SJC: Southwest 5076 on Saturday, June 4th. Departs 7:35pm, arrives 9:35pm.
To SMF: Southwest 3390 on Saturday, June 4th. Departs 7:00pm, arrives 8:35pm.

Roommate preferences

We're opening a limited-time opportunity for you to re-request roommate preferences. Please submit this form by end of day today. Note that students under 18 cannot room with students over 18, genders must match (obviously), and roommates must be staying the same nights (i.e. arriving and departing the same day; it's okay if they end up on different flights). Given these requirements, you may wish to take some time to quickly coordinate travel plans with friends and reevaluate your roommate choices. Feel free to discuss on Discord or elsewhere. We will try to fulfill requests but make no guarantees. Note that requests must be mutual - both parties need to request each other.

https://forms.gle/u9SidTLYdEsozwLM6

Discord server (for students only)

Students may join the Discord server here: [redacted on the email blog]. Parents, please keep this as a space for students to connect, and do not join.

Practices

Our first SFBA practice will be on May 7, generously hosted by AlphaStar Academy in Santa Clara, from 10am to 5pm. Practice information can be found at https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2022ARML/, and more information will be posted soon. Files from past practices (and tryouts) can be found there as well, use username=sfba and password=arml to access them. For those of you in the Sacramento area, please contact sacramento.math@gmail.com for information about practices hosted at UC Davis.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with us at arml-info@lists.berkeley.edu. Looking forward to a great ARML season!

– The SFBA ARML coaches

Roster as of 7:30am Pacific time 4/29:

[redacted on the email blog]

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Urgent: ARML registration closes Wednesday April 27

Hi everyone,

Registration and Payment Deadline

This is a reminder that if you're planning to join the SFBA / NorCal ARML team this season, you MUST complete your registration by tomorrow. This includes completing the information sheet AND paying for ARML - your payment is your commitment to join the team. The information sheet and payment portal can be found at https://mathleague.org/armlsfba.php.

We sent out a payment confirmation email at around 3pm today to all students who we believe are fully registered and paid as of this morning. If you did not receive this email, we do not have a record of your payment. If you believe that you have paid but did not receive this email, please get in touch with us immediately.

For information about the coming ARML season, including slides and a recording from our info sessions, visit https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2022ARML/. If you have any questions, please contact us at arml-info@lists.berkeley.edu.

T-Shirt Design Information

In a venerable ARML tradition, we'll be designing a distinctive team t-shirt. You are invited to submit design ideas, and we will put them to a vote in about two weeks. Here are the rules:

T-shirt designs must be submitted by April 27th.
All designs MUST be submitted in a vector-graphics format such as .svg or .ai. (Inkscape is free software that can create such files and is decently easy to use.)
Designs consist of a front and a back (make a separate file for each).
To keep printing costs low, you may use at most four colors of ink TOTAL between the front and the back: either 4 colors on one side and the other side blank, 3 colors on one side and 1 on the other, or 2 colors on each side. You are not required to use four colors; some past designs have just been simple white line art on each side.
The design will most likely be printed on shirts of several different fabric colors. It is best if you design something that works against a variety of background colors.
Do not use anything offensive or anyone else's copyrighted material.

If you are planning to submit a design but will not be able to do so by the 27th, please contact the staff and let us know to expect your design, and we'll be in touch about whether or not we can accept it late.

Logistics and Travel Information

We will send out an update in the near future with more information about logistics and travel. In particular, if you are interested in flying to ARML, watch your email, as we may have an announcement about flights later this week that requires very quick action.

Practices

We intend to start practices on May 7, and will send out more information about practices in the near future. The latest schedule will always be available at https://ocf.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2022ARML. If you have any leads on practice venues (for example, if your school or local community center is able to host a practice), please get in touch with us.

Please let us know at arml-info@lists.berkeley.edu if you have any questions!

– The SFBA / NorCal ARML coaches

Urgent: ARML registration closes Wednesday April 27

Hi everyone,

Registration and Payment Deadline

T-Shirt Design Information

In a venerable ARML tradition, we'll be designing a distinctive team t-shirt. You are invited to submit design ideas, and we will put them to a vote in about two weeks. Here are the rules:

T-shirt designs must be submitted by April 27th.
All designs MUST be submitted in a vector-graphics format such as .svg or .ai. (Inkscape is free software that can create such files and is decently easy to use.)
Designs consist of a front and a back (make a separate file for each).
To keep printing costs low, you may use at most four colors of ink TOTAL between the front and the back: either 4 colors on one side and the other side blank, 3 colors on one side and 1 on the other, or 2 colors on each side. You are not required to use four colors; some past designs have just been simple white line art on each side.
The design will most likely be printed on shirts of several different fabric colors. It is best if you design something that works against a variety of background colors.
Do not use anything offensive or anyone else's copyrighted material.

Logistics and Travel Information

Practices

Please let us know at arml-info@lists.berkeley.edu if you have any questions!

– The SFBA / NorCal ARML coaches

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Welcome to ARML 2022, Registration, Info Sessions, Tryouts, ARML Local

Dear SFBA/NorCal ARML team,

We're ready to kick off the 2022 ARML season! This email contains a lot of information about our activities over the next few weeks. Please read through it and let us know if you have any questions!

Registering for ARML

If you have not yet done so, it's time to register for the new ARML season! This ensures that you're on our new mailing list for 2022 (this email has gone out to both our 2021 and 2022 mailing lists). To register, visit https://mathleague.org/armlsfba.php and fill out the information sheet.

In order to reserve a spot on the team, you must complete the information sheet and pay the contest fee ($440). See the above link for details. This year, we need to receive your registration and payment by April 27 (next Wednesday) in order to reserve your spot on the team. For our planning with the compressed timeframe this year, we greatly appreciate if you can submit your information sheet and payment as soon as possible, well in advance of the deadline.

Info Sessions

We will hold two online info sessions over the next week, on Friday (4/22) and Monday (4/25), both from 6-7 PM Pacific. These info sessions are intended for students new to ARML. Each info session will feature a short presentation about ARML, a Q&A session, and a practice team round. To register for the info sessions, please visit the following links:

Experienced students who have participated in ARML in the past will likely not find the info sessions useful and are not expected to attend. However, if you'd like to help us introduce the ARML experience to new students, please reach out to us.

Tryouts

We will hold two online tryouts over the next week, on Friday, 4/22, and Monday, 4/25, both from 7-8 PM (immediately after the info sessions). While everyone who's interested in ARML is able to participate, we plan to select multiple elite teams of top students who will be ranked against the top teams from other regions. While attending a tryout is not required to be selected for an elite team, it is highly encouraged. Even if you aren't interested in elite team selection, we still recommend attending (both) tryouts for extra practice! If you're new to ARML, the tryouts are also an opportunity to get a sense of what ARML questions are like. To register for the tryouts, please visit the following links (same as above):

ARML Local

We will participate in ARML Local online on Saturday, 4/23, 5-8 PM Pacific. (This will be after BmMT, and students will be able to participate in both events.) This is a competition written by ARML for teams to participate in their local regions, and we will also consider the ARML Local individual round to be an elite team tryout opportunity. Sacramento-area students will have an additional opportunity to participate in ARML Local online on Sunday, 4/24, and should contact sacramento.math@gmail.com for more information.

ARML Local is free for students who participate with our team, and all of you are encouraged to participate, even if you are not able to join the team this year. In order to help us plan, if you're planning to participate (non-binding / no obligation required), please fill out this form, which will also give you access to the Zoom link: https://mit.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYlc-CqqDgsGt3V6vJRJGthiystWTIaA9aW.

Sacramento

If you live in the Sacramento area, there are already weekly in-person practices in your region at UC Davis. Please contact sacramento.math@gmail.com for more information about those practices.

How to help

ARML is more fun with friends. Reach out to your friends, classmates, math team members, etc., and recruit them to join the team with you!
For any parents, coaches, proctors, or graduated alums on this email list: We're looking for proctors for ARML Local! If you're able to proctor, please reach out to us at arml-info@lists.berkeley.edu.
We are looking for practice locations for our practices in mid-May. Can your school or community organization host a practice? Do you have any leads? Please reach out to us at arml-info@lists.berkeley.edu.

For more information

Logistical information: https://mathleague.org/armlsfba.php
Practice information: https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~moorxu/2022ARML
Questions: Email arml-info@lists.berkeley.edu

Best,

Freya, Moor, and the SFBA/NorCal ARML coaches

Friday, April 15, 2022

ARML 2022 information

Dear ARML Team,

Welcome to ARML 2022! This email is going out to everyone who participated in the SFBA/NorCal ARML Team last year, as well as anyone else we think might be interested in joining the team for 2022. It contains a LOT of information about the logistics, timing, and details of this year's ARML competition, as well as several action items for you.

ARML is Back On-Site!

After reviewing the survey responses, we've decided to participate in ARML on-site at UNLV in Las Vegas on June 3-4. While some team members expressed a preference for off-site participation, we believe that the in-person experience is a core part of ARML, and most of our coaches, student leaders, and long-time team members were in support of traveling to participate on-site this year.

We understand that some team members will be unable to participate in ARML as a result of this decision. If this applies to you, we are sorry. We still encourage you to participate in ARML Local with us online on April 23, which does not require registration, payment, or travel. If possible, we'll try to plan alumni events in the future, and you would of course be invited to those activities.

How to Sign Up

If you're planning on going to ARML this year, you'll need to complete three steps (one more than last year). Those steps are laid out on our website at https://mathleague.org/armljoin.php, but to summarize: First, fill out the information sheet–you can do this even if you're not sure you want to go to UNLV; it just gets you on our email list so you can stay informed. Second, once you're sure you're going, pay the fee. And finally, fill out the permission slip, have it notarized, and get it mailed in so it's received by May 23rd. All the details you need about ARML this year can be found at https://mathleague.org/armlsfba.php.

Practice Schedule

We have redesigned the practice and tryout schedule this year. This new schedule will allow us to have more focused practice time with our teams in May, while simultaneously making practices more social, more interactive, and more fun.

Over the next two weeks, we plan to hold two info sessions for those new to ARML, as well as two elite team tryouts (all online). While attending these activities is optional, we highly encourage attending at least one tryout for anyone interested in being selected for an elite team.

In addition, we will hold ARML Local, likely online in the evening of April 23, and we will also consider ARML Local to be a tryout opportunity. More details about ARML Local will be announced soon.

We will begin practices in early May, and hold 3 long practices over 3 weekends. Each practice will include time to work in teams, as well as some fun math activities for everyone to get to know each other.

Coaching Changes

A message from Tim: After 15 years as the head coach of both the SFBA/NorCal and Wild Wild West ARML teams, the time has come for me to start stepping back from my duties as head coach of this team so I can focus more on building up the Wild Wild West team. In my three decades of involvement with ARML I have always measured my success by how well I can prepare my successors to take over and make the team even better, and I am happy to report that the SFBA/NorCal team will be in excellent hands with the admin team we have in place moving forward. I will remain in the position of nominal head coach through this ARML season, but Moor, Silas, and Simon will be taking over most of the responsibilities of leading the team this year while I help with some background details and assist with the leadership transition.

I appreciate everyone who has worked so hard to make our team such a success over the years - coaches, parents, and students. Our A1 team has won several national championships and has never placed lower than 6th on my watch. Our A2 team has placed in the top 15 several times and has established itself as a perennial peer to some of the best A1 teams in the country. And last year we placed three teams in the top 15 for the first time ever. But even more importantly, we have built a mathematical community that sets an example for every other team in the country. Over the last 15 years we have probably sent more students to ARML than any other organization in the country, and when ARML was canceled in 2020 we mobilized to keep the flame alive and welcomed hundreds of students from all over the country to our online practices and live FARML event. I have every confidence that the team will achieve even greater success in the coming years as I work to develop something similar with the Wild Wild West team. You all will still see me around at ARML, and I look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible to Las Vegas this year!

Communications

We have a new email address this year that you'll use to contact the coaching staff: please send all questions to arml-info@lists.berkeley.edu, and that will make sure whoever knows the answer will see it.

Also, if you'd like to continue receiving emails and information about ARML 2022, make sure you fill out the information sheet to get added to this year's email list. All further communications after this one will go to this year's list.

T-Shirt Design Information

In a venerable ARML tradition, we'll be designing a distinctive team t-shirt. You are invited to submit design ideas, and we will put them to a vote in about two weeks. Here are the rules:

T-shirt designs must be submitted by April 27th.
All designs MUST be submitted in a vector-graphics format such as .svg or .ai. (Inkscape is free software that can create such files and is decently easy to use.)
Designs consist of a front and a back (make a separate file for each).
To keep printing costs low, you may use at most four colors of ink TOTAL between the front and the back: either 4 colors on one side and the other side blank, 3 colors on one side and 1 on the other, or 2 colors on each side. You are not required to use four colors; some past designs have just been simple white line art on each side.
The design will most likely be printed on shirts of several different fabric colors. It is best if you design something that works against a variety of background colors.
Do not use anything offensive or anyone else's copyrighted material.

Send your designs to arml-info@lists.berkeley.edu by April 27th. If you would like help with your design, send it in at least a week early, and Silas will do his best to help improve it.

Action Items

To summarize, here's what you should do right now if you're going to ARML this year:

Sign up for ARML! Fill out the information sheet and pay the fee by April 27th, and your spot on the team will be guaranteed.
Get your permission slip turned in.
Make plans to attend practices.
Make sure you are using the correct email address (arml-info@lists.berkeley.edu) to communicate with us.
If you want to submit a t-shirt design, start working on it and submit that by April 27th too.

We're looking forward to seeing you all for another fantastic year of ARML!

–Moor, Silas, Simon, Tim, and the rest of the SFBA/NorCal coaching staff