Privacy

Who runs this site

This website and registration platform is owned and operated by Vonk Design Studio for the Texas program team at FIRST, which delivers FIRST programs in the state. Vonk owns the platform — the software and the hosting. FIRST owns the information that comes into it — the team roster, contacts, event selections and everything people write here — and Vonk holds that information on behalf of FIRST and uses it only to run the platform. In this notice, “we” means Vonk.

FIRST itself has its own privacy policy covering registration with FIRST HQ, which is separate from this one: firstinspires.org/privacy-policy.

What Vonk holds

We do not hold student information. The platform is built so that it cannot: there are no student rosters, no birthdates and no student contact details anywhere in it. Teams are identified by their FIRST HQ team number.

• Coaches, volunteers and staff — name, email address, job title, and the teams and regions you are connected to. We do not hold phone numbers. Most of this is imported from the team roster FIRST HQ provides to the Texas program team.
• Event selections — which events a team holds a place at, when that was decided and by whom, and whether the local event fee is marked paid.
• Things you write here — messages, help requests, suggestions, and posts if you are staff. See Messages below.
• Sign-in records — the email address you sign in with and when. Sign-in is by emailed link or a one-time code; we never store a password because there are none.
• Newsletter — your email address, if you subscribed, until you unsubscribe.
• An activity log — who changed what and when, for the things that matter (assigning a team, removing a coach, editing an event), with the network address and browser each change came from. This is deliberately append-only.

We do not use advertising trackers or third-party analytics cookies. The only cookies are the ones that keep you signed in and remember which organization you are viewing.

Event pages show the venue on a Google map. It loads as you scroll down to it, and when it does your browser contacts Google, which may set its own cookies under Google’s privacy policy. Two other things load from outside this site in the same way: the events calendar map draws its tiles from OpenStreetMap, and a video in a post shows its thumbnail from YouTube. In each case your browser sends that service its usual request information, including your IP address.

“Use my location” on the events map and the Assignment Board asks your browser for your position only when you press it, and your browser asks you first. It is used on the page to sort events by distance, and it is never sent to us or stored. Without it, the board sorts from your team’s ZIP code, which is already on the team’s FIRST HQ record.

Messages

Messages between coaches, Regional Program Administrators, event directors and staff are kept on the platform as a record, and administrators on the Texas program team can read them. That is said on the messages screen itself, before you write anything, and it is the honest position for a channel that exists to run public youth events.

• Since 30 September 2026, an administrator opening a conversation they are not part of is recorded in the activity log — the fact of it, never the words.
• We never put the contents of a message in an email. A notification says only that something is waiting and links you back here.
• Conversations are deleted 24 months after the last message.

Messages are not the place for a concern about a young person. Anything to do with a student’s safety or wellbeing should go to FIRST Youth Protection at safety@firstinspires.org, which has people trained for it and a process this platform is not part of.

Who else sees it

We do not sell anything to anybody. The services below hold data because the site needs them to work:

Supabase

Database, sign-in and file storage. United States (Ohio).

Netlify

Hosting and delivery of the site itself.

Postmark

Sending email — sign-in links, notices, reminders. Keeps a delivery log, including the recipient, for 45 days. We don’t track whether you open our emails or click their links. (Resend is configured as a fallback and carries the same mail if it is ever used.)

Sentry

Error reports when something breaks. Configured not to send personal data.

GitHub

Source code, and encrypted nightly backups of the database.

We also share what you would expect us to: your team’s event selections are visible to the Texas program team at FIRST, to the Regional Program Administrator for your region and to the director of the event you are attending.

How long we keep it

Messages

24 months after the last message in the conversation.

Team and contact records

While the team is active with FIRST HQ. The roster is re-imported, not accumulated.

Help requests and suggestions

Kept, so the history of a decision survives.

Activity log

Kept. It is the accountability record and cannot be edited.

Backups

Encrypted, 30 days, then destroyed.

Newsletter

Until you unsubscribe.

Your choices

• See what we hold about you. Ask and we will tell you.
• Correct it. Most of it comes from your FIRST HQ registration, so the fastest fix is usually there — but tell us and we will put it right here too.
• Ask for deletion. We will do it where we can. We may have to keep a record of event participation and the activity log, which exists precisely so that it cannot be quietly rewritten.
• Turn off email. Every conversation has its own switch, and email is off by default. The newsletter has an unsubscribe link in every issue.

Children

This platform is for adults — coaches, volunteers, event staff and administrators. It is not intended for children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has created an account or sent us information, tell us and we will remove it.

Asking us something

Signed in, the quickest route is the Help button in your account menu — it opens a numbered request somebody works through. Otherwise write to info@firsttx.org.

See also our terms of use.