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View Full Version : Team 3992 gets a new home!


ksafin
26-11-2012, 20:05
Hey CD!

Our team just got a new place to call home and we just wanted to share it!
http://i49.tinypic.com/6737fm.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2fwlg7hav1um1eg/2012-11-26%2015.20.15.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xz0sydid6xwuhne/2012-11-26%2015.20.45.jpg

And of course a huge thanks to ICS, Inc (http://icsrealestate.com/), our sponsor which provides us this awesome space.

What do you guys think??

JB987
26-11-2012, 20:12
Looks like room for a full field and a place above to keep all of your previous years robots for many years to come:) So many teams would be envious!

CalTran
26-11-2012, 20:28
Hot diggity I want. That looks like an amazing space. I also notice a nice garage doors which means a trailer may be able to fit inside this place (or at least back up to the door for loading.

ksafin
26-11-2012, 20:29
Hot diggity I want. That looks like an amazing space. I also notice a nice garage doors which means a trailer may be able to fit inside this place (or at least back up to the door for loading.

There's actually three of them; two on the back wall and one at the front.

And yes, certainly it can fit a trailer. I think it was something like 8 feet wide and 10 feet tall

dcarr
26-11-2012, 20:41
You're blessed to have such a wonderful sponsor and a great facility! Congratulations and good luck with the move in!

Hallry
26-11-2012, 21:23
Wow...give me the name of your closest airport and I'll book a flight tonight!

That looks like an AMAZING build space, congrats! We would absolutely love to have that. There seems to be plenty of room for different parts of your team to work, storage, and a practice field. Good luck, and please take more pictures once your all settled in and set up! :)

ksafin
26-11-2012, 22:39
Haha, well, to be honest, we don't even know where to start..

We're having trouble thinking of ways to fill all of this space xD

Hallry
26-11-2012, 22:40
Haha, well, to be honest, we don't even know where to start..

We're having trouble thinking of ways to fill all of this space xD

Ohhh now you're just rubbing it in our faces :] :cool: :p

Butttttt, on a more serious note, what extend of machines do you have? And do you have any other tables, chairs, computers, workspaces to use as well? Also, do you have any sort of practice field? Even if you have extra space, thats' never a bad thing. I PROMISE it will be fileld up later, just wait an see. Remember, organization is key. Lastly, try hanging posters or banners on the walls as well; that might make it feel not as big, and more home-ier. =)

DonRotolo
26-11-2012, 22:42
Pity it's so small...:rolleyes:

Oh, don't worry about filling it, that'll happen soon enough.
Some planning as to where large tools should go (often dictated by where power is), workspaces, and storage will go a long way here. "Dirty" machining tools in one place, "loud" tools in another, "clean" work over there....

dcarr
26-11-2012, 22:53
Having a permanent practice field will be amazing. I can't begin to imagine how many hours we waste setting up and taking down our practice field (in a back parking lot at our school). It's impressive that as a second year team you've been able to establish yourselves and garner such awesome support!

ksafin
26-11-2012, 23:04
Ohhh now you're just rubbing it in our faces :] :cool: :p

Butttttt, on a more serious note, what extend of machines do you have? And do you have any other tables, chairs, computers, workspaces to use as well? Also, do you have any sort of practice field? Even if you have extra space, thats' never a bad thing. I PROMISE it will be fileld up later, just wait an see. Remember, organization is key. Lastly, try hanging posters or banners on the walls as well; that might make it feel not as big, and more home-ier. =)

Not many machines. We have a 10" Miter Saw, a bench grinder, and a benchtop mini drill press. That's the extent of our really "big" tools. We were considering getting some other tools but didn't see the necessity; I'd love to be proven wrong though.

Yes, we have all of those, however, if you look at the pic, there's like, a huge enclosure in the middle of the warehouse. This has like, 6 rooms, 2 offices, 2 cubicles, 2 restrooms, conference room, etc. Most non-mechanical stuff will be held in there.

Well not as of now, although building the field perimeter wouldn't hurt I suppose. We have an FTC field already since we have two FTC teams.

And yep! Getting banners printed :D

Pity it's so small...

Oh, don't worry about filling it, that'll happen soon enough.
Some planning as to where large tools should go (often dictated by where power is), workspaces, and storage will go a long way here. "Dirty" machining tools in one place, "loud" tools in another, "clean" work over there....

Large tools are minutely large at best xD. Mechanical workspaces yes, I suppose, since almost everything non-mech is filtered into that enclosure. And yeah I get what you're saying.


Having a permanent practice field will be amazing. I can't begin to imagine how many hours we waste setting up and taking down our practice field (in a back parking lot at our school). It's impressive that as a second year team you've been able to establish yourselves and garner such awesome support!

Sounds like it certainly would.. I can't imagine doing that, major props. And thank you. We're the only FRC team in our city, and I don't think there's more than 5 or so in our county (I could be wrong). I started the FTC & FRC programs/teams in our school, and I want to set the teams on stable footing and a solid direction before I graduate (2014).

CalTran
26-11-2012, 23:08
Sounds like if you set up a practice field, you could get some support from teams in your area and have a community practice field.

ksafin
26-11-2012, 23:11
Sounds like if you set up a practice field, you could get some support from teams in your area and have a community practice field.

Well my initial thought was to host a scrimmage towards the end of the season, kind of like 179 did during last season for our local teams.

Akash Rastogi
26-11-2012, 23:42
You're blessed to have such a wonderful sponsor and a great facility! Congratulations and good luck with the move in!

Definitely keep your real estate firm happy. We also used connections to real estate last season for a small space.

dcarr
26-11-2012, 23:49
Definitely keep your real estate firm happy. We also used connections to real estate last season for a small space.

This is very good advice and not something I've thought of...we'll keep our ears out. That said our long term hope is to have a better workspace on campus.

ksafin
26-11-2012, 23:51
This is very good advice and not something I've thought of...we'll keep our ears out. That said our long term hope is to have a better workspace on campus.

Yeah.. I don't know how it is in your school or your school district, but the bureaucracy, regulation, and slow and poor communication within our schools/district is enough to put off most teams from working in their schools. If your school/district isn't like this, that's phenomenal, and I'm jealous :)

SenorZ
27-11-2012, 11:25
Totally jealous for the space... not for the huge "what do we do now?" feeling.

I'm just happy to have secured a 12'x12' office at my school for our team to put tools, equipment.

dcarr
27-11-2012, 11:49
Yeah.. I don't know how it is in your school or your school district, but the bureaucracy, regulation, and slow and poor communication within our schools/district is enough to put off most teams from working in their schools. If your school/district isn't like this, that's phenomenal, and I'm jealous :)

We are a private school (actually, three private schools, but we meet at one) so not exactly the same arrangement. The administration is supportive but has stated they won't be able to provide us with those kind of resources unless we can establish robotics as an academic program. Which is exactly what we're going to do :) I don't think we'll ever get a warehouse-sized crib though.

MARS_James
27-11-2012, 12:04
Well my initial thought was to host a scrimmage towards the end of the season, kind of like 179 did during last season for our local teams.

Just FYI 179 hosts the scrimmage every year the last Saturday before build ends (February 16th this season) if you want more teams to come (including 179) you might want to pick a date other than the 16th

ksafin
27-11-2012, 18:19
We are a private school (actually, three private schools, but we meet at one) so not exactly the same arrangement. The administration is supportive but has stated they won't be able to provide us with those kind of resources unless we can establish robotics as an academic program. Which is exactly what we're going to do :) I don't think we'll ever get a warehouse-sized crib though.

Ah, I see.

Well, why not? Are there no industrial parks in this area? Are the schools not okay with you meeting off campus?

Just FYI 179 hosts the scrimmage every year the last Saturday before build ends (February 16th this season) if you want more teams to come (including 179) you might want to pick a date other than the 16th

I'll keep that in mind. If we do it, I'd love to see 1523 there!

dcarr
27-11-2012, 18:32
Ah, I see.

Well, why not? Are there no industrial parks in this area? Are the schools not okay with you meeting off campus?



It's not something we've looked at closely because we feel the team has a future on-campus as part of an academic program. In addition, the school is in stage 1 of 5 of an expansion/reconstruction campaign, and we hope if we move quickly enough, we can get some new facilities as part of that. But we are always open to new ideas and it's great to see what you've been able to do!

How do your team members handle getting to and from the new location?

ksafin
27-11-2012, 19:33
It's not something we've looked at closely because we feel the team has a future on-campus as part of an academic program. In addition, the school is in stage 1 of 5 of an expansion/reconstruction campaign, and we hope if we move quickly enough, we can get some new facilities as part of that. But we are always open to new ideas and it's great to see what you've been able to do!

Oh, understood. That sounds rather fantastic! I hope all goes well in that endeavor and FIRST Robotics is embraced as a core academic program!

It makes sense though: You have a school where it can be made critical and embraced, and therefore have no need for a warehouse off campus like us. Meanwhile we have a school where this isn't likely, so we look for off campus spots.

How do your team members handle getting to and from the new location?

Generally most of our Juniors/Seniors have a car and drive to school, so as soon as school ends (2:50 PM), most sophomores & freshman hook a ride with the upperclassmen and we take them to the warehouse. Otherwise, we've had parents come to school and pick kids up to take them to the warehouse. We struck lucky because it's just less than 10 minutes away from our school.

dcarr
27-11-2012, 19:41
Generally most of our Juniors/Seniors have a car and drive to school, so as soon as school ends (2:50 PM), most sophomores & freshman hook a ride with the upperclassmen and we take them to the warehouse. Otherwise, we've had parents come to school and pick kids up to take them to the warehouse. We struck lucky because it's just less than 10 minutes away from our school.

That sounds like it works out well, and I suspect it's similar for other teams with an off-campus location. For us, about 40% of our team has to do this right now anyway (we haven't broken the 50% female barrier yet! The team is based at an all-guys school so the girls come over from the two sister schools).

ksafin
27-11-2012, 20:07
That sounds like it works out well, and I suspect it's similar for other teams with an off-campus location. For us, about 40% of our team has to do this right now anyway (we haven't broken the 50% female barrier yet! The team is based at an all-guys school so the girls come over from the two sister schools).

Probably so. And ah, I see. Well you seem to have your own challenges to tackle with the way you've set things up! Glad it's working out well though :)

That's still a great female ratio, we're much poorer xD

ksafin
28-11-2012, 18:50
Here's an update with a few pictures of our move in :)

Just FTC stuff so far, so not too much going on.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/j1m4h6xmgefkgvj/2012-11-28%2015.46.19.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o17gvkhwylgghk6/2012-11-28%2015.46.33.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8r6szfhw6uyc8lk/2012-11-28%2016.42.19.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sjixfeczv4ep5hc/2012-11-28%2016.57.19.jpg


And we parked a car inside because.. why not?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ft5cfyetabc14ng/2012-11-28%2016.12.53.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ohcrd7fpecyqh6/2012-11-28%2016.13.15.jpg

Littleboy
28-11-2012, 19:00
Thats a great idea. I'll park my vehicle in our "home" so that there won't be snow on it every night. Thanks.

CalTran
28-11-2012, 19:41
That sounds like it works out well, and I suspect it's similar for other teams with an off-campus location. For us, about 40% of our team has to do this right now anyway (we haven't broken the 50% female barrier yet! The team is based at an all-guys school so the girls come over from the two sister schools).

Our team holds it's meetings at an "off campus" location from the high schools, as we are an all district team. What we instead do is meet at 6-8 Tuesdays and Thursdays right now, and then 6-9 everyday plus Saturdays in season. This allows students the ability to ride the bus home if needed and some time to complete homework, get food, and then a ride from their parents or arrange for a ride to our facility.