The Logistics of Organizing A FIRST LEGO League Season

Organizing the yearly FIRST LEGO League program requires hundreds of skilled persons, thousands of volunteers and millions of euros. Organizers must travel around the world to receive necessary training, and keep up to date on FLL organizational methods. Below is a quick over view of what it takes to produce a FLL season.

At The International Level

New Theme Development (2 - 3 years before the theme is launched)

• Brainstorming leading to identification of an internationally relevant scientific issue.
• Bringing together a team of subject experts to identify important scientific background on the topic; explore possible missions and recommend project topics, useful resources and organizations involved in the year’s theme

Finalizing The Theme and Designing The FLL Missions (1 year before launch)

• Refining missions, designing mission models, the game mat and project resource material and the project assignment for FLL
• Testing the game in FIRST Place
• Developing logos, posters and artwork for the annual FLL Challenge

Preparing The FLL Partners (6 months before launch)

• Develop and preform training sessions for FLL Partners in North American, Europe, and Asia.
• Distribute early versions of guides and instructions for translations to begin.

At The National Level

Preparing The Guides And Support Material (6 months before launch)

• Start translation of all guides.
• Check translation, type setting and formats.

Fund-raising And Promotion (Year round)

• Prepare presentations for potential sponsors.
• Contact and develop relationships with potential sponsors.
• Promote the FLL in activities, via news media, and any other way that we can.
• Develop FLL website for our local country.

Recruiting FLL Teams (Year round)

• Creating and distributing publicity to schools and directly to the public.
• Participating in forums, events and other methods of education the public about the FLL program.
• Building, editing, translating and maintenance on the national website.

Supporting The Teams (All FLL Season)

• Developing and providing training and support for coaches and teams.
• Translating and distributing guides and other documents to teams in local languages.

Organizing The National FLL Tournament (About 1 year before the tournament)

• Purchase all trophies, FLL competition tables, building sets + mats, and other essential equipment.
• Search for a location, choose one and convince them to host a tournament.
• Prepare all of the guides, score cards, posters, advertisements, etc. in local languages.
• Recruit, train and retain volunteers (about 2 per team) to act as referees, coaches, and general volunteers.
• Deliver and setup all equipment on location before the tournament begins.
• Oversee the tournament day event.
• Disassemble and remove all equipment at location after the tournament ends.
• Review the years events and make a tournament postmortem.