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Season Calendar & Cadence

Yearly cadence with suggested deadlines and priorities. Adjust dates to your regional event schedule.

Owner & review​

  • Owner: Operations Lead
  • Last Updated: 2025-11-27
  • Review Cadence: Preseason (Sept) and after event selection

Calendar (U.S. FRC typical)​

  • July–August (Offseason): Team reset, leadership selection, budget planning, offseason events, driver practice.
  • September–October (Preseason 1): Recruitment, onboarding, safety training, role paths (100/200), fall workshops, prototype practice projects.
  • November–December (Preseason 2): Advanced training, drivetrain bring-up, controls/sim practice, media/branding updates, event registration and travel planning.
  • Early January (Kickoff): Game reveal (first Saturday). Week 1–2: strategy, requirements, architecture locked by end of Week 2.
  • Mid/Late January (Weeks 3–4): Subsystem prototypes finalized; CAD release for drivetrain and critical mechanisms; long-lead orders placed.
  • Late January–Early February (Weeks 4–5): Fabrication and wiring; controls integration; first full-bot assembly target.
  • Mid February (Weeks 6–7): System integration, software tuning (autos, vision), reliability testing; inspection checklist; driver practice.
  • Late February–March (Events): Competition events; postmortems within 72 hours; implement fixes between events.
  • April (Champs/Wrap): Final event; season postmortem; archive logs/CAD/code; update standards.
  • May–June (Transition): Offboarding/onboarding, documentation updates, fundraising/outreach.

Prioritization by phase​

  • Preseason: training, safety, repeatable infrastructure (drivetrain, wiring standards, CI).
  • Week 1–2: strategy → requirements → architecture; decide drivetrain and key mechanisms.
  • Week 3–4: finish prototypes; lock CAD for critical subsystems; order long-leads.
  • Week 4–5: fab/wire; early integration; start driver practice with mule/partial bot.
  • Week 6–7: reliability, autos/vision tuning, inspection readiness, spares planning.
  • Event gaps: address top failures from logs/postmortems; re-run inspection; validate autos.

Deadlines (suggested checkpoints)​

  • Strategy/requirements locked: end of Week 2 (post-kickoff).
  • Drivetrain CAD/fab start: by Week 3; drive base rolling by Week 4.
  • Primary mechanisms CAD release: by Week 4; parts ordered same week.
  • Full bot wired & driving: by Week 5.
  • Autos + vision baseline: by Week 6.
  • Inspection checklist pass + spares list: by Week 7.
  • Post-event reviews: within 72 hours of each event.

Data-driven scheduling​

  • Use historical logs to set buffer for integration (at least 1–2 weeks of practice).
  • Track burn-down of defects from logs; stop adding features when reliability lags.
  • Use postmortem “top failures” to drive between-event sprints.

Maintaining this calendar​

  1. Update dates when events are announced.
  2. Publish key checkpoints to the team and review weekly in build season.
  3. After each event, adjust the calendar based on postmortem findings.

See also: