a club for college FIRST-a-holics

[Ken Leung]

Was talking to a few college FIRSTers about having something like a club, or organization, for all the college FIRST participates, and I am wondering how many will be interested in joining.

It would be something easy to do, just a website, and a e-mail list... The goal is to get all the college FIRSTers to know who else are doing FIRST while attend school after they graduated high school, and share the experience.

We could do something like "top advices to keep you from burning out", and "how to handle a lab report and two papers while designing a 2 speed transmission", and share stories about the whole experience. Or how about a list of AIM/yahoo/icq/msn screen names? Maybe even an index of which college the students are at? We can even arrange meetings or getting dinner together at competitions.

The most important part of this is to make people understand "we are not alone out there... there are a lot of people like me struggling through midterms while attending robotics competition with teams". Then the second most important part of this is building up a network of college FIRSTers, and maybe do something more than just helping teams with your experience.

Then of course, we are doing this for fun. The less work it take, the happier we all are.

Let me know if anyone is interested.

For all you high school students out there... don't forget, you will graduate one day, and you might find the urge to find yourself a FIRST team at your college, maybe even the passion to start up a new team just because there isn't one around the school you are going to, despite how many classes you are taking and how many minor degrees you are working for.

I am absolutely positively not kidding, getting addicted to FIRST is worse than anything I've ever seen, including breathing air or getting sleep or sanity. Some might even give up some of those addiction just so they can satisfy their need for FIRST, while getting new addictions to things like caffine and donuts.


So... I guess I am just suggesting that us addicts should come together so:

1. More students can be like us, and
2. have fun sharing the experience

[melitami]

I think that's a great idea! It's infringing on Buzz territory a little, but from what I've heard, their site hasn't been up much lately.

I completely agree, FIRST is addicting. And it gets very frustrating when you're in college and you can't find a way to do FIRST. Just ask my roommates from last year.:D

I'm definitely in! Just for info purposes, I'm a sophomore biomedical engineering major at Drexel, who's at home in Richmond, VA on co-op, and has been at almost every build session for her high school's team this season;)

[Kristina]

I tried to get UCLA group to mentor but all of the engineering groups already planned out year-long schedules and from purely being mangement it would have been hard to start a team from scratch. But I would still love to be more involoved in first (i'm helping out at the SCRFF scrimmage next week) so I think this idea to keep us all in touch is a great idea.

[MisterX]

As a future grad, I for one am all for it! I am so stoked that the college I hope to get into helps sponsor ther own FIRST team.

*HOKIE HOKIE HY! TECH! TECH! VPI!!!!!*

P.S At nationals I supported 2 teams, mine with our ornage jumpsuits and HOKIES! with my orange VT hat, I was so shocked VT had their own team there!

[Wetzel]

Or how about a list of AIM/yahoo/icq/msn screen names? Maybe even an index of which college the students are at? We can even arrange meetings or getting dinner together at competitions.

Aye, good idea Ken.


Wetzel
~~~~~~~~~
Time for Pump

[AdamT]

Originally posted by MisterX
As a future grad, I for one am all for it! I am so stoked that the college I hope to get into helps sponsor ther own FIRST team.

*HOKIE HOKIE HY! TECH! TECH! VPI!!!!!*

P.S At nationals I supported 2 teams, mine with our ornage jumpsuits and HOKIES! with my orange VT hat, I was so shocked VT had their own team there!

Yup, we're here! We've been competing since 2000 when I was one of the High School students on a rookie team with no funding and 5 college kids running the team! In 2001 we were regional and division finalists.

We hope to see you next year *if I'm there*

Ken, good idea, I'll be part of it...

[Shana]

As a person in college I am totally stoked for this idea. It would be awesome if we all got together via internet, count me in! It could also help future grads be able to come together to start a team at their college if it doesn't already have one:)

[George1902]

once again, ken... you rock!

great idea. i'm *SO* in!

heh... i'm a bit happy... our bot works...

[Todd Derbyshire]

Hey I'm in I'll represent the Northeast.

[WakeZero]

U of A WildCat here all for it ;)

[R2K2D2]

hey i am totally in for this, great idea. it would be great to get to know other college FIRSTers around the country on different teams. count me in. it would be awesome to see a website go up or at least a chat/discussion and AIM/YAHOO list go up w. names and schools of people!

-Raj-

[JVN]

Ken...
Of course I'm in...
:D

[LizJJury]

I will be in college next year and was wondering what i will do since i want to continue with FIRST in some way. so this is a good idea. it is even better since i will be over 2 hours away from team 902's home base. GO ROBOHAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this would be an excellent idea. hope it works out. oh and GO GVSU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[David Kelly]

im too addicted to not be in this.:]

[Joe Ross]

Any club with Ken in it is cool :)

[Matthew_H]

The Ubergeeks have started a FIRST webring that might be a good starting point for the FIRST club. You can sign-up and grab the code at http://firstubergeeks.com/webring/ (http://firstubergeeks.com/webring) I am hoping everyone with a FIRST website will join this new webring.

[Jeremy Roberts]

I'd love to join. I'll pass this on the the rest of the team here at Tech. We have a group of about 15 FIRSTers still active from high school to college (and growing...). We have quite a few of the high schools students from the teams we mentor moving up and joining us next year.

[Ken Leung]

Great to hear everyone so enthusiastic about it!

Lee offered his webspace to us already, so all we need is a web master *cough* sunny *cough*...

Also, I would like to hear some suggestions from people about what else you want to do in a College FIRST-a-holic club, as long as it takes very little work. All the ones I suggested only take a website to do, and they are still fun.

[Amanda Morrison]

There certainly aren't enough resources FIRST-wise for college students! Count me in. :D

[BionicAlumni]

I am down for it. Any club with Ken has to be cool.

[WakeZero]

Lol, hooray for Sunny :D

[Matt Leese]

Given I was part of this when we tried to do it before, I don't see why I wouldn't be willing to do it now. :) I just hope it works out better this time.

Matt

[Jferrante]

Woohoo! Go Hokies!

I'm up for any organization that lets me still do FIRST in college. :) Of course, i'm sure many of us have found ways to do so without one, it would be better if we had one. I'm currently helping several teams including the VT team and my old high school team 506 back in New York.

[Ken Leung]

Originally posted by Matt Leese
Given I was part of this when we tried to do it before, I don't see why I wouldn't be willing to do it now. :) I just hope it works out better this time.

Matt

Its a little different from the Society of College FIRST-a-holics, because we aren't going to do any of the hard work we planned for SCF, at the beginning anyway. Just planning to do something fun for all of us college students, and build a network for all the college FIRST-a-holic out there.

If people choose to do what SCF planned to do a while ago, then they can make use of this network, and get people interested and start SCF again.

As I said, the less work the better. And I know SCF is going to take a lot of work.

[Erin Rapacki]

I think it's a great idea... I'll definatley participate in this! And think... if this works, not only will it help as a social thing right now, but when we graduate college... we'll all have more contacts for jobs in the future too. It's always good to have friends working for/with you.

Well... because I am an overburdoned college student right now; I'm off to study! fun fun!

ByE

erin

[Chris]

Whenever you get around to forming the list i'd love to be included.

AIM: Whitelancer07
Email: Cjc113083@yahoo.com

Chris
151: 00-02
229: 03-?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friendly Neighborhood Strategy Head
Clarkson University
FIRST Robotics - Team 229
"Division By Zero"

[Ken Leung]

Talked to Sunny last night, and he's willing to help us out and do the website for us. For those of you who don't know him, he was the one (with the help of Nate Smith) who created www.pitnews.org a long with some very professional looking site.

For now, the first thing we are going to have is a place for people to come in and enter their into. Then they can go to a table, like the members list of CD forum, and look up people by sorting different info like team number, location, school, attending which competition, etc.

Then the second thing is something like slashdot.com , where people can go in and submit stories, depending what people are interested in, or doing many other things like I suggested earlier in the first post. Maybe even a forum for our own, and our own irc channel, etc.

But the key is we need to know what you want in the website. After all, this "club" is for all of you out there struggling with school and FIRST at the same time. So, either reply in the forum, or I will be IMing each of you about this and see what you guys want to do with this club. It can be as little or as many as you want.

[gilachick]

I am all for it. I would love to know how to kick sleep.

[Anne Shade]

I'd be more than happy to join too. There's more of us from Georgia Tech over here, some don't check chiefdelphi though. Once the site is up, I'll let them know.

[LaurenH]

I'm sure the students helping out from MSOE could go for something like this. At MSOE most people get burnt out the first day of classes ever.

PM on this site when you get things started

[SpaceOsc]

This great.. i just got out of high school and im the first returinig memeber on team 702 and id love to join with this group....

Just wonderinfg how i would go about it.. or at lease help getting it started.... i dont know how muhc i could but im more than willing to help out the cause.... im sure that with enoguh of us it all be great and i read all the post and it seems theres alot of true blue dedicated folk to the FIRST NATION

Just tell me how and well c:D

-0scar-

[Sunny Thaper]

Alright, I seem to be really bad at answering/starting some of this stuff lately but never fear, I am still interested in the project. This message was just to let those of you out there that were interested in this that I still am interested in helping with the design of the site. Ken, if you could, msg me next time you see me on.

[Ken Leung]

Thanks Sunny. Will do.

[patrickrd]

Hey Ken,

Sounds like a good idea, count me in.

- Patrick

[Greg Needel]

saw this a while ago and didn't post so now seems like the time to say "I'm in"

[Team238-aholic]

I'm totally in Ken....GREAT IDEA :)

[The Lucas]

I am in to represent UD and the Miracle Workerz. I can't get away from FIRST and I will probaly mentor my team for many more years to come since they are only a half hour from campus.

[Rich Wong]

Originally posted by Ken L
Was talking to a few college FIRSTers about having something like a club, or organization, for all the college FIRST participates, and I am wondering how many will be interested in joining.

I am absolutely positively not kidding, getting addicted to FIRST is worse than anything I've ever seen,

Great idea-

I'm an Alumni member of the PloyBots Club at Polytechnic University located in Brooklyn, NYC. This year they mentored and supported 11 NYC FRC teams, FRC Kickoff and State Regional Lego League. Obviously the 15+ PolyBot members are addicted to FIRST too, so count us IN.

:D

[DaveO'B365]

hey, sorry that i missed this one like a month and a half ago, but i'm definitely interested... i live for this crap. i was working miracles for my team while i was in highschool and i still help them out a bit, keep me posted, i'm not sure if i missed something, i went over this thread really quickly, but djo161@psu.edu should work for ya'll, and i definitely think this is an awesome idea... i'm at penn state university park, state college, for those of you who are familiar... Mechanical engineering major, and i, like the lucas plan to mentor and such. thanks, ken...

[Melancholy]

count me in!!! awesome idea, dude

[Nick Seidl]

I am currently a high school senior, who went to their final competition ever two weeks ago. Already, I'm freaking out trying to figure out how to fill this massive void in my life. If I go to Michigan Tech next year, I plan on mentoring the team they sponsor. However, if I go to Purdue or Notre Dame, I plan on coming home on the weekends to mentor my old high school team. I think that this organization is a great idea. Not only does it provide a think tank for college FIRSTers, but in a way it also acts as an alumni association, in that it helps keep FIRSTers connected even after they leave high school. Keep me posted as to what develops, or if you want some assistance in organizing this!

[Beast314]

Count me in. I'm glad my college has a team here, but you can't get enough of FIRST.

[Powers]

I will be graduating this year, count me in as a representative of the University of Texas - Austin... good idea.

[Etbitmydog]

This is a really great idea. At UCF, there is no robotics ANYTHING anymore so I'm trying to get together some friends to start a new robotics club from scratch. Since there are quite a few FIRST teams in the area we were thinking our first project could be to mentor the area teams. On an engineering student's schedule I know this is going to be hard, so something like what you're suggesting would be great to keeping our sanity. :)

[Mike375]

sounds like a great idea to me. I'm going to cooper union next fall, and have been pondering how to fill my FIRST void. I'll probably end up working with my old team between semesters, but i'd be interested in mentoring others as well.

[Ken Leung]

I am glad tons of people are interested :). Let's figure something out after the regionals are over.

[Greg Needel]

I was just curious how many people who want to join will be at nationals cause we should plan meet up or something

[Matt Leese]

For the past two years, we've had a meet-up of college students. I organized it the first year and Christina organized it the second year. Given she won't be at nationals, I suppose it's up to me to organize it again this year. What we normally did was go to Pleasure Island for the night. Given that we're not at Disney World, this makes it rather hard. So if anyone has any ideas of what to do in Houston for a group of college students at night, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Matt

[Elgin Clock]

Ken.. I'm in! Let's plan a meeting for all interested in this to occur during Nats. Maybe during lunch one day??



Originally posted by Matt Leese
For the past two years, we've had a meet-up of college students. I organized it the first year and Christina organized it the second year. Given she won't be at nationals, I suppose it's up to me to organize it again this year. What we normally did was go to Pleasure Island for the night. Given that we're not at Disney World, this makes it rather hard. So if anyone has any ideas of what to do in Houston for a group of college students at night, suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Matt

Hehehehe... Yeah college night on Pleasure Island.. Ahhh.. good times!! The memories.. or lack there of.

I think we need to talk with someone who actually lives in or near Houston for this event to be successful this year. I have no idea where we could go nor do I want to guess. We need an insider.. Any takers???

[Ken Leung]

I am pretty sure I won't be free during any of the lunches, so how about making the meeting the night of meet-up? Or you could do it without me ;P.

[DaveO'B365]

sorry, i dunno if it really matters, but i'm not gonna be at nats, it's expensive, and i have classes that i don't want to fail. i dunno how many of the other alumni are not going to nats, but i wish i could

[Ken Leung]

Ok. Just want to bring this thread up, and see if any of the up-coming-college-FIRST-a-holics are interested in joining this.

Also, most importantly, I am looking for a webmaster willing to do some work for this. I have been talking to Sunny about it, but he seems to be pretty busy already.

[Jeff Waegelin]

I'd be interested in joining.

[Ashley Weed]

as a new college FIRST-aholic I would deff. like to stay in touch with the world... keep me updated on what becomes of a 'college-network'

[JasonStern]

Sounds good! I'm in, if I count since I only started in college.........

[Freddy Schurr]

I knew this is an old thread, but is it still happening, because I would like to join

[Leon Machado IV]

I'm curious if college alumni can join up? I'm graduated and basically have no involvement anymore.

[Amanda Morrison]

Instead of burdening Brandon Martus further, or until someone can make an individual website, I can help out with this.

The CollegiateFIRST.org website is currently looking for information about students to post underneath the colleges involved in FIRST. We can later expand this further, but for the time being, if your college has a team, we can put your contact information in the general field of the college.

If you are interested, please PM or email (ammorrison at gmail) me the following:
Your name, first and last
Your year in school (Junior, etc.)
Your expected graduation year
Your major and minor, if any
An email you'd like to be contacted at
An instant messenger name (AOL only please), if you'd like to be contacted

That's the best I can do for now. Perhaps I can rope my trusty webmasters Jtosh and David into helping me create, support, and maintain an individual website.

Thanks,
Amanda

[Josh Hambright]

Well this sounds like a very interesting idea.

And maybe in the next few months another FIRST related website will emerge into the world and maybe it will have to do with college age FIRST-A-Holics...we'll see ;)