New Team to be (Possibly) Started at Cal Poly Pomona

[A. Leese]

I never thought that I would be doing this but..I'm highly considering starting a team at Cal Poly Pomona. I'm currently a student at UF but will be transferring schools and start at Cal Poly in the fall. This past weekend I was at the Finger Lakes Regional and working briefly with teams 1405 and 340 really reminded me what FIRST is all about.

Is there anyone who is a veteran who currently attends CPP? Any engineers work/live near Pomona who wish to help? Anyone have suggestions for schools to talk to about creating a team? Any and all help is welcome.

Thanks,

Angela

[sanddrag]

SWEEEEEETTTT! First of all, let me say WELCOME TO THE WEST! I am a first year student at Cal Poly Pomona and I really like it. If you have any questions about the school, I'd be glad to try to answer them.

Currently, I am still a member of team 696.

At Cal Poly there are a couple real fantastic Cal Poly students, Travis Covingtion and Kirk (last name?) who started team 968 in West Covina, real close by to CPP. I don't want to speak for them but I believe they are looking to get more CPP-FIRST partnership/linkage. You might want to talk to them. At least Travis comes around these boards quite often.

Personally, I would definitely be in support of anything good like FIRST that comes to Cal Poly. Let us know what your plans are.

:)

[A. Leese]

Yay! Someone else! I would really like to start a new team out there and could use all of the help I can get. Very soon I'll need help in getting through the paperwork for starting a student organization at CPP.

Oh, as a point of information, I will be in the LA area for my internship in mid-May. If anyone wants to meet with me this summer, let me know!

- Angela

[Travis Covington]

Haha, this is funny.

Actually, yes, there are a good number of us from Cal Poly who are FIRST veterans.

We actually just created a partnership this year with Cal Poly and team 968 (West Covina High School).

Kirk Oden and myself helped start the team back in 2002, but just recently were able to establish an official partnership.

We would LOVE to have some more help, and even help you start another team if that is your goal. Our current goal is to create a sustainable partnership between Cal Poly and West Covina, and then move forward from there. Currently, WCHS is not mentoring any teams, but would love to get a few more going in the area.

Drop me a line anytime, I would love to let you know about what we have going and hear what your plans are.

I will PM you my phone number, but my e-mail should be linked through CD.

[sanddrag]

And likewise, hit my username to send me an e-mail anytime.

Does anyone have any specific high schools in the area in mind? Afterall, by the rules it does take at least two high school students for a team to play the game (driver and HP) :D

The biggest challenge I think is going to be getting the "responsible adults" who are committed to the program as I don't believe us college students are suited for the task. There needs to be a committed high school teacher who is willing to "open shop" and supervise. And as previously stated, engineers would be nice, however don't underestimate us crazy college guys. :D

[A. Leese]

Did you all ever consider working with I-poly High School? This seems like something that would be perfect for them. I don't know all that much about them but it's just an idea. Let me know.

[Bill Gold]

Please, please be careful if you’re thinking of starting a new team. In California we’ve had problems before with starting new teams and there not being enough funding in a given area to support the veteran and rookie teams in that area. I would actually advise against starting a new team in that area, and suggest an alternative which would be to get new schools involved in an existing team. Then, in a year or two (when you’re absolutely sure there’s enough funding for all teams in the area to survive amicably) you can spin off a rookie team or two (this way the rookies aren’t exactly rookies, and can be more competitive than the typical rookie team, too). I would be very disappointed to see one or more teams in the Cal Poly Pomona area fold due to the introduction of a rookie or more than one rookie team. Please think about this option and the possible effects (local and global in FIRST) of starting a rookie team before you fully commit to starting a one.

-Bill

[ChrisH]

Please, please be careful if you’re thinking of starting a new team. In California we’ve had problems before with starting new teams and there not being enough funding in a given area to support the veteran and rookie teams in that area. I would actually advise against starting a new team in that area, and suggest an alternative which would be to get new schools involved in an existing team. Then, in a year or two (when you’re absolutely sure there’s enough funding for all teams in the area to survive amicably) you can spin off a rookie team or two (this way the rookies aren’t exactly rookies, and can be more competitive than the typical rookie team, too). I would be very disappointed to see one or more teams in the Cal Poly Pomona area fold due to the introduction of a rookie or more than one rookie team. Please think about this option and the possible effects (local and global in FIRST) of starting a rookie team before you fully commit to starting a one.

-Bill

Cal Poly Pomona is in LA County and part of a major urban area. There are plenty of untapped potential sponsors in the area. If they were talking about Cal Poly SLO, it would be a different story.

For the past three years, the LA Regional committee has focused on keeping the LA Regional alive. Thankfully, due to the hard work of the development committee, we appear to have reached a point where the Regional is sustainable for the long term. So now we can start thinking about actively recruiting schools to join the FIRST family. Next year we are planning to do some substantial recruiting. The area around Pomona could certainly use a new team or two. Bill's points are good ones, but in this case Angela would probably have the blessings of the Regional Committee.

Of course I think she would be welcome supporting the BeachBots too (I know she'd get my vote and probably Joe Ross' as well among others) but the commute between school and our shop would be a killer.

[Mike Hendricks]

If they were talking about Cal Poly SLO, it would be a different story.

Heh. Speaking of CP SLO .. there are 2 teams within 15 min of CP SLO, 973 and 1388, both teams are exploring the possibilites to create 2 new teams in the area .. the funding isnt as great as it could be, but there are companies out there willling to donate money and machine time for FRC teams.

Not to hijack the thread .. but if there are any CP SLO students in the area (besides "Crazy Nick") that are FIRST-aholics .. and are looking for a team .. shoot me a PM and we can get you more info about the teams.

[A. Leese]

Cal Poly Pomona is in LA County and part of a major urban area. There are plenty of untapped potential sponsors in the area. If they were talking about Cal Poly SLO, it would be a different story.

For the past three years, the LA Regional committee has focused on keeping the LA Regional alive. Thankfully, due to the hard work of the development committee, we appear to have reached a point where the Regional is sustainable for the long term. So now we can start thinking about actively recruiting schools to join the FIRST family. Next year we are planning to do some substantial recruiting. The area around Pomona could certainly use a new team or two. Bill's points are good ones, but in this case Angela would probably have the blessings of the Regional Committee.

Of course I think she would be welcome supporting the BeachBots too (I know she'd get my vote and probably Joe Ross' as well among others) but the commute between school and our shop would be a killer.


As much as I would like to support the Beach Bots, the travel just wouldn't be worth the trouble. I'm carless and the LA bus system is great but..yah.

Chris: You mentioned that the regional committee wants to work on starting some new teams. Do you have any sort of an info packet put together to give to people such as myself who wish to start teams? I know Kate has something for the Finger Lakes Regional. If so, I'd love a copy.

Thanks!

- Angeal

[Joshua May]

One of our team members will be attending Cal Poly Pomona this fall, i'm sure she'd enjoy working with a new team. I'll refer her to you tomorrow.

[Travis Covington]

Did you all ever consider working with I-poly High School? This seems like something that would be perfect for them. I don't know all that much about them but it's just an idea. Let me know.

Currently I-Poly is going through some hard times, and it would probably be a bad time to try to get a team going with them in connection with Cal Poly. I am not sure if you know the history of I-Poly, but there are very few students and the actual 'school' itself is nothing more than a handful of portables at the edge of campus. The other problem is shop access and the limited resources that Cal Poly is willing to share. This is my fourth year at Cal Poly, and every year we wind up at the local adult education school enrolled in the machine shop class, simply because we cannot get access for long enough, or at the random times we need to make stuff. (random being past 3-5pm most of the time) Even still, the tooling that the school has is very limited.

Angela, I would recommend pursuing those other 3 high schools I mentioned. I do recall vaguely that they showed some interest in FIRST in the past and might be a good place to start. But again, like Bill mentioned, and to add to what Chris said, there are alot of 'untapped' resources, but the problems isn't always what is out there, but having the people to get it for you. I know personally, 968 struggles every year to stay afloat with money and leadership/mentor help. My point is you really need a dedicated group of people making sure that the team will succeed long before you register for the competition. I would suggest a minimum of 2 teachers, and 5 mentors of some sort, be it college students, engineers, or parents. Anything less and it will be difficult to make successful.

[A. Leese]

Currently I-Poly is going through some hard times, and it would probably be a bad time to try to get a team going with them in connection with Cal Poly. I am not sure if you know the history of I-Poly, but there are very few students and the actual 'school' itself is nothing more than a handful of portables at the edge of campus. The other problem is shop access and the limited resources that Cal Poly is willing to share. This is my fourth year at Cal Poly, and every year we wind up at the local adult education school enrolled in the machine shop class, simply because we cannot get access for long enough, or at the random times we need to make stuff. (random being past 3-5pm most of the time) Even still, the tooling that the school has is very limited.

Angela, I would recommend pursuing those other 3 high schools I mentioned. I do recall vaguely that they showed some interest in FIRST in the past and might be a good place to start. But again, like Bill mentioned, and to add to what Chris said, there are alot of 'untapped' resources, but the problems isn't always what is out there, but having the people to get it for you. I know personally, 968 struggles every year to stay afloat with money and leadership/mentor help. My point is you really need a dedicated group of people making sure that the team will succeed long before you register for the competition. I would suggest a minimum of 2 teachers, and 5 mentors of some sort, be it college students, engineers, or parents. Anything less and it will be difficult to make successful.


I'll take all of this into consideration. I also know of teams who survive with only three or four total adults working with the students. I'm in the process of writing a letter to send to the math and science team leaders in the next week or so. I know it's rather early, but it can't hurt. In terms of engineers, I'm going to talk to people from my work who have expressed interest in the past.

- Angela

[Bill Gold]

I'll take all of this into consideration. I also know of teams who survive with only three or four total adults working with the students. I'm in the process of writing a letter to send to the math and science team leaders in the next week or so. I know it's rather early, but it can't hurt. In terms of engineers, I'm going to talk to people from my work who have expressed interest in the past.

- Angela
I wasn't really concerned with the number of mentors. I know you can run a team on one or two adults, I've been on teams like that. What I was concerned about was the funding situation of the area. But on that note, wouldn't it be a better learning experience for the kids on a hypothetical team with one or two mentors to merge with a team with a handful of mentors? It's also more cost effective to introduce new students to an established team, and then eventually spin off the new school as a new team later on. Surviving is much different than being comfortably self sufficient... and surviving is not a fun place to be. Please, take it from me... I was leading a "surviving" team for 3 seasons, and it's not as much fun as you'd think. Have fun in SoCal whatever you decide to do, though.