I'm Starting a Team, Can you help me please?

[Leav]

Hi,
I'm a FIRST veteran here in Israel (Two Time captain of team 1578), and before I go to the army my Mentor has asked me to Mentor an FLL team.

Of course I was happy to do so, and Since I plan to start a FIRST Team somewhere sometime I look at this as Mini-FIRST where can learn the ropes on team-management....


So what I'm asking here really is What's different from FIRST?
do you have any tips for a new team?
since the FLL event is before the FRC, what about FRC team helping FLL?

From the FLL site I can see the registration will be closing late september so we better get cracking....

Thanks for the hep guys!
Really would like to get this going!

-Leav

[syraweb]

Leav:

You might find the content at our Sharon Youth Robotics Association website helpful - it shows the experiences of FLL teams in the current and past couple of seasons, with many photos, links and resources, including our "Coaching 101" document (not yet updated for the Mindstorms NXT).

Link to www.syraweb.org (http://www.syraweb.org/).

We usually sponsor around 5 FLL teams, and have a "Mentors Team" to help support them, composed of FLL "graduates" who are now competing in the FIRST Vex Challenge. We don't yet have an FRC team.

FLL kickoff is tomorrow (September 15th), good luck with your season!

[Allison K]

Differences
1. FLL teams have a maximum size of ten students, as opposed to the as many as you can handle/ as many as you can recruit style of FIRST.
Other than the obvious differences with the robot, I don't find FLL too far off from FIRST. The general ideals of Gracious Professionalism and Team work still apply. The build is somewhat longer, so a later start is detrimental. There's still stressful moments, and they're still worth it in the end.

Tips for new team...
1. Try and find at least one person who knows how to program, and I would suggest using robolab instead of the program that comes with mindstorms, if you can afford it. (It's not hard to learn since it's all GUI programming, but we've always had better luck starting out the season with somebody who's at )least played around with it before.)
2. Make sure the kids don't discount the research portion, it can be as much fun as the robot.
3. Have parents help! Even if they just keep the kids on task, that's a big step.

Help from FRC...
I would deffinitely recommend it. My FIRST team has 7-8 FLL teams that we mentor and it works out great. The older kids get the mentoring experience, and the younger kids have a great time working with high school students.

Good Luck!


~Allison