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Participant Release Form

The Participant Release Form is a legally binding contract between the participant, the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (RECF), and VEX Robotics to acknowledge that there may be some risks associated with attending and/or participating in an event, and which requires the participant to willingly assume those risks. All team participants (players, coaches, mentors, and parent volunteers) must complete a Participant Release Form before participating in an official RECF event. 

Participants who are age 18 or older should complete and submit the Participation Release form as described in the steps below. For participants under the age of 18, the form should be completed and signed by a parent or guardian.

The form can be completed online or as a hardcopy that is uploaded by the coach to the team profile on RobotEvents.com. Once a team participant completes the form, it is applied automatically to every official RECF event the team registers for during the current season, and shared with the Event Partners for those events. Each time a team registers for an event, the consent forms uploaded for that team will be automatically applied to the event registration.

If a participant switches teams or completes the Participant Release Form incorrectly, a new form must be completed with the correct information and/or team number. Participation Release forms are not editable or transferrable once submitted.

Teams will not be allowed to turn in hardcopy forms at events. All Participant Release forms must be completed online or submitted via hardcopies uploaded by the coach

Instructions for Participants

Completing the Pre-Filled Online Participant Release Form

  1. Obtain the link from the coach to the pre-filled form.
  2. Copy/paste the link in your internet browser to navigate to the RECF Smartwaiver form.
  3. Ensure that the pre-filled team number and team letter are correct. If either is incorrect, do not complete the form. Reach out to your coach for an updated link.
  4. Select either Adult Consent Form (age 18+) or Minor Consent Form (under 18).
  5. Ensure that the listed emergency phone number can be reached at any time, especially on the weekends and in the evening.
  6. In the "Team Information" section, the form will have the team number and letter pre-filled in the first field. In the second field, be sure to select the correct program for the team from the dropdown menu. If you do not know your program, reach out to your coach for the correct information.
  7. Follow all onscreen instructions to complete the form.

Completing the Smartwaiver Form

  1. Obtain the team’s program, team number, and team letter from the coach. Examples: Program: V5RC, Team number & letter: 404C; or Program: VIQRC, Team number & letter: 2468D.
  2. In a browser window, navigate to the RECF Smartwaiver form. Alternatively, navigate to the Spanish language version.
  3. Follow all onscreen instructions and complete the form.
  4. Select either Adult Consent Form (age 18+), Minor Consent Form (under 18), or Adult and a Minor.
  5. Ensure that the listed emergency phone number can be reached at any time, especially on the weekends and in the evening.
  6. Be sure to select the correct program and to enter the EXACT team number & letter (or, for VURC, letter & number) without additional spaces or characters. (Not acceptable: '404 C',  '404', '404C ',  or  '404A/404B').
  7. If a mentor, coach, or parent volunteer needs to complete a form for more than one team, the form should be submitted separately for each team. In other words, only one team number/letter can be on each form. 

Completing a Hardcopy

  1. Obtain the team’s program, team number, and team letter from your coach. Example: Program: V5RC, Team number & letter: 404C.
  2. In a browser window, navigate to the English- or Spanish-language version of the hardcopy Participant Release Form.
  3. Print one copy of the Participant Release Form for each participant.
  4. Complete the following steps on the printed consent form:
    1. Initial page 1
    2. Add all of the information on page 2
    3. Sign page 2
  5. Submit the completed hardcopy form to your coach.

Instructions for Team Contacts

The team’s registered Primary Coach, Secondary Coach, Financial Contact, and Administrative Contact can access a link to the pre-filled Participation Release Form and upload hardcopy consent forms through their RobotEvents.com account after a team has been registered for the season.

The most efficient method is to utilize the pre-filled link. Scanning and uploading hardcopies of the Participant Release Form is only recommended if participants do not have access to the internet or are not able to complete the pre-filled form.

Instructions for accessing the pre-filled form

  1. Log into your RobotEvents.com account.
  2. Click on My Account in the upper right menu.
  3. In the “Registered Teams” section, locate the team that you want to access.
  4. Click the “Consent Forms” button on the right side.
  5. Click the blue “Copy link to Online Consent Form with prefilled Team Number” button. The button will change to green, and automatically copy the link to your clipboard.
  6. Use your computer’s paste function to insert the text into your chosen messaging system.

Instructions for uploading hard copies

  1. Gather all hardcopies from students, parents, and mentors.
  2. Scan or take a high-quality picture of each completed form and save them on your computer.
    1. The forms can be submitted as image files such as .JPG or .PNG, or as Adobe Acrobat .PDF files.
    2. Each release form must be saved to a separate file. For example, if you have 4 team members and 1 coach there should be 5 image files or PDF documents, one for each participant.
  3. Login to your Robotevents.com account.
  4. Click on "My Account“ in the upper-right menu.
  5. In the "Registered Teams" section, locate the team that you want to access.
  6. Click the "Consent Forms" button on the right side.
  7. Enter the participant’s first name and last initial.
  8. Click “Choose File”, then locate and select the participant’s form on your computer and click “Open”.
  9. Click “Upload” to submit the selected participant’s form.
  10. Repeat for each team participant.
  11. If you have multiple teams, go back to "My Account" and repeat for each team.