Today was our first meeting of the season! We went over everything from meeting the leadership team, mentors, and coaches. We also went over our various subdivisions our team has to show students the opportunities available to them. We then informed students about the merch store and that it will be closing November 20th. We will be using Direct To Transfer printing this year. Our team has four core values; Service, Pride, Unity, and Dedication. Today we practiced the Pride and Unity core value by splitting students into groups to do a spaghetti and marshmallows team bonding exercise. Next weeks meeting: Tuesday November 12: Safety & Room tour Meeting, our team takes safety very seriously and requires all students to take attend a safety meeting to use our tools. Purchase Merch here: (Order by November 20th)   https://anderson-designs.com/shop/ols/categories/big-lake-robotics Purchase our 2024 season banner here: https://chrislommelphotography.shootproof.com/gallery/PanoPrints PLEASE NOTE: Current team banners are located in the "School Year 2024-2025" gallery.

Our teams competition is going on this weekend. We just finished up some practice matches and have already made some improvements to the robot to get it read for Qualification Matches for Saturday and Sunday. Below is the schedule for our matches. If you would like to stop by and watch some matches We are very excited for this competition, just a couple of weeks ago we finished up our Duluth Lake Superior Regional and got ranked 17/55. If you'd like to check us out, we are at the St. Cloud River's Edge Convention Center. You can also watch live at: https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires7

On Friday our team had the opportunity to host the hub meeting which is one of the first times our team has ever hosted something like this. We have recapped the stuff that happened in the hub in this post. Recap Video: Our team has been posting content weekly and here is our most recent video that recaps what happened at the hub meeting on Friday. https://youtu.be/2_XdSMMRDzs?si=x2DEZGywsSh0ps1k What is the Hub? Central Minnesota Robotics Hub website states, "The Central Minnesota Robotics Hub is made up of 16 FRC teams from around the Central Minnesota area that work together to strengthen the FRC community. We not only work to make each of our teams better, we are striving to become a beacon for FIRST in Minnesota and the midwest." The Central Minnesota Robotics Hub was created in 2015 by Becker's C.I.S. 4607 head coach, Alex Jurek and Elk River's Stark Industries 3023, head coach, Mark Durand. So how did it go? Well, our team received many compliments from different teams mentors & students. Lots of teams where surprised that a high school could have such an amazing space for different STEM and PLTW learning environments. Our team went through 12 boxes of pizza and 72 cans of pop for the +70 people that went to this meeting. Two different coaches reached out after the hub meeting to say what a great time and experience they had, and informed our coaches that "You should be proud of the fast turn around you're are making as a team," followed by, "It's the first time in a long time they are seeing a new and much improved 6709 SPUDinc. Robotics team." Special Thanks Thanks to Miranda Forgey, 6709 SPUDinc.'s previous head coach, for laying the ground work for our team to begin to see this success. Thank you to Robert Dockendorf, Big Lake High Schools Principal, for helping with our team in all ways you can, and helping to design the "Collaborative Center" and "Exploration Labs." Thanks to Jacob Klingelhutz, Big Lake High Schools Dean of Students, for helping our team find space to put our materials. Thank you to the Big lake School Board for green lighting this project and seeing the possibilities of STEM, it means a lot to our team. With our two amazing new coaches and a refreshed leadership formation, our team has seen tremendous growth and many positive changes, and we are just getting started. "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney, a quote that summarizes our teams current mindset For questions: Coaches email: robotics@biglakeschools.org Team email: biglakerobotics@gmail.com Blog Post Writer: Isaac Berger

Our History We began in 2017 with the help of team 4607(C.I.S.), only 7 people strong and full of determination. Since then, we have continued to grow and create, inspiring the next generation of problem solvers. This is our story. 2017 Steamworks We got off to a great start! Our team ranked 5th place at the MN 10,00 Lakes Regional and formed an alliance with team 3007(Robotitans ) and team 2581(Spartan Robotics ). We later ranked 16th place at the MSHSL FIRST State Robotics Championship. 2018 Power Up Our team powered up our robot for our second season with several new additions to the team. Now a team of 15 students strong, we ranked 25th at the Medtronic Foundation Regional in Minneapolis. 2019 Destination: Deep Space We blasted off this season by growing to 25 students this year, and celebrated by investing in several large equipment upgrades. Our team ranked 46th in the Great Northern Regional and 56th in the Minnesota 10,000 Lakes Regional. 2020 Infinite Recharge 2020 greeted a team recharge, as the majority of our members joined this year. Unfortunately, this season was cut short and we did not have the chance to participate in any regionals. 2021 Infinite Recharge 2021 found our team participating in an online robotics challenge rather than an in-person competition. Only students that lettered the previous year were allowed to take part due to safety concerns, leaving only a few members on the team. 2022 Rapid React In 2022 we took off with Darth Tater and ranked 42nd at the Great Northern Regional during Week 4. This year was a lot of students first competition due the prior years being online, our team took notice of this and made this a growing year. 2023 Charged Up The electrical energy and positive charge this season powered our robot, Waffle Fry , and marked another great season. At the North Star Regional in LaCrosse, we ranked 38th out of 39 teams. After a short recovery period, we participated in the 10,000 Lakes Regional and ranked 18th out of 61 teams. In addition, teams 7850(C.A.R.D.S.) and 4664(Butler Bots) chose us as alliance partners. 2024 Crescendo Our robot, Tater Swift , raised the volume of our performance to the next level. We ranked 17th at the Lake Superior Regional, then participated in St. Cloud’s very first Granite City Regional, ranking 15th place and joining teams 6749(tERAbytes ) and 2549(Millerbots ) in an alliance. 2025 Reefscape This our current year. Our team will be competing at the Duluth Lake Superior Regional and St. Cloud Granite City Regional.

Events Below you can see all of our Fundraisers and Community events. Come see us and ask questions about our team. We appreciate everyone that has helped support us by visiting us at these events. Conference Championship Our team will be hosting the annual Conference Championship Date: October 12 Location: Big Lake High School

6709 S.P.U.D. INC 6709 S.P.U.D. INC 6709 S.P.U.D. INC Merchandise New merch and logo out now! Our team works with Anderson Designs, a women owned company, to create amazing merchandise with DTS printing and Vinyl. Go to Store> Banner picture Order our banner picture with the link below! Order Banner> Lean More about us Want to learn more about 6709 S.P.U.D. INC? Check out our history to see what we've accomplished! Learn more> Join Our first meeting is on November 4th. The meeting will take place in the Big Lake High school Exploration Labs. From 3:30-5:30 More> HUB MEETING January 17th 6:00-7:00 - Social Hour 7:00-8:00 - Meeting Time BLHS Expo. Labs Calendar COMPETITIONS 1 Lake Superior Regional Located in Duluth, MN in the DECC Arena February 26 - March 1 2025 Teams attending: 52 2 Granite City Regional Located in St. Cloud Mn, in the Rivers Edge Convention Center April 2 - April 5 Teams attending: 44 ABOUT US We are 6709 SPUDinc, a high school robotics team from Big Lake, Minnesota, that participates in the FIRST Robotics Competition. Our team name and robots are inspired by our town’s annual SpudFest, a celebration of potatoes. Our mission is to inspire young students to pursue STEM careers through hands-on learning and mentorship. READ MORE Our Sponsors: 1/1