How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I found out about FIRST during a memorial day parade in 2009 when i saw a robot driving down shooting these odd looking balls. When i saw the robot, I was just amazed by it, to be honest i thought it was the coolest thing i'd ever seen. From there i became involved with my middle school's FLL team then a year later with my high school's FRC team. I was just wondering how others became involved with FIRST?

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

Back when I first "got involved", there was no FTC. There was no FVC. There was no AndyMark (though there were an Andy Baker and a Mark Koors, both on team 45). There was no FLL. There were no alliances. The competition that year? Ladder Logic.

My dad had gotten involved with my K-12 school's robotics team (formerly known as team 61, Southern California Circuit Breakers--now 207, 294, and 330), known as team 82, the BeachBots. (The number change to 330 happened the following year due to FRC numbering at the time.) I hung out in the shop if I had nothing else to do--I was all of 9 years old at the time. From 1998 to 2000, I hung out in the shop. In 2001 and 2002, I couldn't do that due to site rules. But in 2003, I was able to join the team.

I've been to the inaugural SVR, Los Angeles, Arizona, and San Diego regionals (and, in the case of SVR, L.A., and Arizona, the second year as well--matter of fact, I didn't miss an L.A. Regional until 2010, and I went to at least one competition every year from 1999 to 2010, then ran into doing other stuff and haven't been in two years). I went to Nationals in 2000. And I thought these robots were kind of cool. Trust me, I officially joined as soon as I could. Some would say I never left.

I still have a badge somewhere labeling me an official Robo-Orphan.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I had a cousin on team 1108 and when I heard about the program while in middle school I was insanely jealous. My freshman year we found out that my high school was starting a team. I (thankfully) was allowed to join the "senior only" team. That year we had 2 freshman, 1 sophomore, 2 juniors, and 7 seniors. That was all she wrote, I've been extremely involved since.

I actually was introducing myself today at a FLL meeting I was at and realized I just finished my 7th year in FRC, 5th in FLL and 2nd in JFLL. There was a comment made that the uber-volunteer gets burnt out and can leave at any time, I didn't realized we were allowed to leave. I thought we were stuck for life. :D

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I first saw a FIRST bot in my freshman year (2009) For some reason I thought it was with the Franklin Institute (a museum in Philly) so I thought it was just some sort of publicity thing.

The next year one of my friends told me that he was on a robotics team called Moe, he was always involved with it and he even brought me to a few meetings. My friend then forced me to sign up. I was doubtful I would be able to do anything (Im an art student) and I had not had good experiences with organized sports in the past. Moe quickly proved me wrong and I quickly became addicted to FIRST.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I found out about FIRST when my elementary/EARLY robotics coach took us on a field trip to spectate the Lone Star Regional in 2004 or 2005.

I got involved in FLL and FRC (along with other robotics competitions) in the 2005-2006 season. I went to Hogg Middle School, which was the only middle school to participate in FRC - team 1484.

I completed three years there and moved on to Reagan High School, continuing FIRST in the 2008-2009. And here we are today 2012. Graduating, and becoming a mentor..

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

Funny story... I was great in math and science for my age freshman year of high school (of course we all know now that's not what matters on a FIRST team) so when I saw flyers for a FIRST Robotics team I was immediately interested... BUT... my room wasn't clean to my father's liking the day I asked him to go to a meeting so I stayed home and since I wasn't at the opening info meeting I figured it was too late to join without asking. It wasn't until the middle of the school year that I had our lead mentor as my study hall teacher and somehow I found out that she was associated with the team so I asked her about it and got involved. Brings back memories... at that point in time I was just a little freshman cheerleader that people were hesitant to take seriously after I'd come into meetings in uniform since they were right after cheerleading practice. I was also one of only three girls at the time on our team of about 30-40 people. To think that the team went from that to a team of 100 including mentors, and half of that being girls, and holding two titled leadership positions including co-CEO before graduating is incredible. It didn't make me an engineer, even though that's what I started out as my first year of college, it made me a better person - I mean both professionally with business and management skills, and ethically. I guess that was more of not only how I became involved, but how I was able to see myself and the entire team transform for the better after only a period of a single high school career... but figured it'd be worth sharing if anyone has read this far :).

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I heard about our team last year, which was the team's rookie year, but I didn't think I'd be interested. A bunch of my friends were on the team, so I heard a lot about it from them. Turns out it's VERY interesting!

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I learned about FIRST at our county fair in 2010, when 1511 set up a full field and was (supposedly) running their robot around (trying to get it to work). I talked with one of their mentors for several hours. I was going to set up a team at our school, but I felt the cost was prohibitive. A year later, 1551 helped set up our team.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

My wife Dona started judging at LA Regional about 2004. Never really understood what she did during the weekend in March, all I knew was the kids and I had the house to ourselves.

Then in 2008 she convinced the school where she was teaching to start an FRC team and asked if I would be the programming mentor. Sure, whatever. Sounded like fun.

Oh boy.... that was the start of something huge!

That year I helped rookie team 2493 Robokong build a robot (wait, what? There are things called omni wheels? How cool is that! Our long based robot steering problems were solved!). The team competed in San Diego, and Dona and I judged in LA.

The next year we added judging in Phoenix to the agenda and I also added field setup/teardown.

Then we added judging at CMP in 2010. In 2011 I became a FIRST Senior Mentor for SoCal, along with adding judging and inspecting at the Alamo regional.

2012, we have now started 12 FRC teams, about the same FLL teams, competed at San Diego, judged in LA, AZ, CVR, SVR, MAR CMP, and CMP. Inspected at LA, AZ, CVR, SVR, and CMP. Control system advisor in LA. Judged 4 FLL Qualifying tournaments and 3 FLL championship tournaments.

Future plans? Start an FRC regional in the Inland Empire and develop Robokong University - training for mentors.... in addition to everything else we do.

On another note, it is interesting to read this thread and learn of all the great ways to get more students involved in FIRST. Great thread!

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I blame it on my daughter's elementary teacher. She told us, "B.. really ought to be on this MindStorms team." (That's what we called FLL, named after the product.) So the next year they started with Volcanic Panic.

The next year, FLL came up with this thing called a Project, and my wife became the project coach.

After 4 years, we thought maybe we ought to help out at the state tournament. We did queuing for technical presentations, and we kept those slow tech judges on schedule! Members of my daughter's now graduated FLL team judged this new thing they had, Jr FLL.

That same year my daughter joined the FRC team. We found that going to competitions was really pretty boring, especially on practice day. Lots of waiting around to see your team on the field for 2 minutes. So the following year we started volunteering. After stints in queuing and pit admin, I became a referee and was asked to be a head referee when we went to the district system and suddenly had more than twice the number of events to cover. Also about that time I started reffing in FLL, and have been one of the state head refs for several years now.

So even though my daughter will graduate from college this year - with the help of thousands and thousands of dollars of scholarships, much of them earned because of her FIRST experiences - I'm staying with it. I want to help give other young people the experiences and opportunities my daughter had. And it's a load of fun!

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

Back in 1995, my son had joined the TV club at school to follow in Dad's footsteps. I helped out and then in early 96, a robot team had started at my son's school. The team approached the club and told them they needed to do video documentation of the build. So he started shooting and then found out that he might have a shot at going to Disney for the Champs. I assisted with editing and some chaperone duties but never worked on the robot. The next year he abandoned video (thank you!) and started working on the mechanical team. So I took on more chaperone duties covering animation and editing and some shooting. Then the rookie Midwest Regional took place about twenty minutes away. My wife and I attended and somewhere in the middle of the weekend an electrical problem started on the robot. I was called into the pit and have been there ever since. When non-team volunteers were still inspecting, the Midwest Regional didn't have enough inspectors and they kept coming to me asking questions. I mentored the team on robot rules and meeting inspections at the time. Eventually, I was pulled in and then First allowed team volunteers to inspect. That first year I was lead at Midwest and assisted at other events. I was not inspecting officially (didn't arrive until Thursday afternoon) at 2003 Champs but was assigned to help teams that had problems or failed inspection. In 2004 I was asked to be a division lead inspector at champs and somewhere around 2007, First decided they needed someone to point a finger at for Champs and the other three LRIs pointed at me. A few years ago, Russ Beavis decided to step back from leading LRI training and inspection operations to concentrate on his DEKA work. First asked me to take over and gave me the title Chief Robot Inspector. Thanks to Russ for helping me along the way, I couldn't do this job if he hadn't prepared me. Thanks to Frank Merrick who keeps everything going for us at First and thanks to all the people who inspect all year long. They make this one of the most fun things you can do at competitions. I still mentor WildStang electrical students and visit schools who have yet to learn about First programs. I inspect for FTC and Vex tournaments and judge FLL when I can. In my younger (and crazier) days, I mentored as many as 7 FLL teams, WildStang and was an assistant Boy Scout leader all at the same time. I now know you need sometime for sleep and other things like CD where I visit daily.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

My involvement with FIRST stemmed back to 6th grade, when I joined my middle school's FLL team. Now, at the time, I didn't know what FIRST was. My little mind was not able to comprehend all the talk about Gracious Professionalism and For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology stuff my mentor was throwing at me.

So for a few years, I viewed FLL and "The big robots" as two totally separate entities. That would change in 9th grade, when I officially joined FRC. Before that, I learned about FRC at one of the FLL championships at the University of Rochester. There was an FRC team there modeling out and demoing their robot for Triple Play. That's when they had me. I was hooked. And I've been here even since.

So, looking back, I found out about FIRST in 6th grade when the morning announcements told us about the "Lego Robotics Club".

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I started in 2005, when I notice Georgia Tech put up FIRST flyers around campus. Given that I'd kept my local year-round job through the summers while taking extra classes, I didn't have any internships under my belt. So I started mentoring. I learned quite a bit.

7 years later, after 6 years in the 'real world', I find it very concerning that many upcoming adults expect there to be some magic wand that whisks their problems away. This is deduced from what I read in the news, the way secondary education evolved in the mid-2000's, and from a few interesting peer relationships I've had over the years.

I continue to mentor in FIRST because:

1. It's fun (if it's ever not fun I'll find another way to mentor youth)
2. There's some satisfaction in knowing I've helped upcoming youth become better problem solvers, regardless of whether or not they're strictly engineers
3. There are slim pickins for leadership roles and non-contract technical training at work, even on my own time. Mentoring FRC is essentially the same as both of those in one package.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I was on the High Schools VEX Robotics team as an 8th grader, one of about 15 people I think. That year, we went to the VEX International Competition, and my teacher got really excited about robotics. She started our FRC Robotics Team the following year, and that was the formal introduction to FIRST. But we sort of said Hello back in my 6th grade year, when my father started a LEGO Mindstorms robotics club at my school.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

2008-I just got back from being a student Ambassador that traveled to Japan and my parents signed me up for my high school's Summer Robotics Camp. I definitely got involved during that camp but still had sleeping issues from my trip. Anyway, it was a 5 day camp that went from 9:00 am to 5 pm and we were able to build a robot to perform that year's Vex game. It was really fun and I got to work on Krunch's 2007 Robot which was awesome by the way. It needed some repairing and it was a success. After I got involved with the summer camp I went into our school's Academy of Engineering. I was surrounded by robotics kids and they welcomed me into the team with open arms.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

My older son found out about FIRST from his guidance counselor in his junior year. She thought he would like it. He had to join Team 346 which was 20 miles away. The next year, the 2002 season, he co-founded Team 975 at his school.

I got involved because I'm the Dad with the car. I helped a bit on Team 346 and then became a mentor for Team 975 for 5 years. My younger son was in it the whole time, ever since middle school, as was the younger brother of the other co-founder. Interestingly, the two of them became the lead drivers for the last couple years. Not to mention doing the programming and electrical work. Pays to start young, eh?

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I found out about our team in 8th grade, when I became best friends with a girl who had a brother on the team at the time. She had gone to some of their meetings and had a team shirt. I don't know why, but I thought that that shirt was the coolest thing since sliced bread. So at the beginning of our freshman year, after she assured me that there were things to do with the team that didn't involve building the robot (I didn't think I was experienced enough), I went to the introductory meeting and signed up.

All I really remember about the first few months of that fall was that the meetings were extremely boring (learning about the difference between programming loops really sucks when you neither know nor care about programming). I didn't go down into the shop until the second-to-last work session of the year, and I only went because one of the mentors commented on the lack of girls in the shop and I didn't have much to lose by going. Somehow, I managed to be totally hooked by the time kickoff came around, and I have been ever since.

Now that I think about it, if I had been able to go to the off-seasons that first fall, I probably would have been hooked sooner, but that's all in the past now :)

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

Of our two team founders and their two little brothers, three went on to engineering school (one on a FIRST scholarship) and one became a machinist. Unfortunately, my elder son's studies at VCU were interrupted by a stint in Iraq, where he was killed in action.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

When I graduated high school in 1995 I still kept in touch with one of the tech ed teachers there. In the early summer of 1998 (June?) he mentioned he was going to start a team at the school to compete in the 1999 season and if I had any interest in helping the team and get it off the ground. Hence I became one of Team 237's original founding members. 237's first meeting was in Sept 1998 shortly after the school year started, I think something like 30 students turned up and a dozen parents along with others like me who had some type of specialty background to help the team and mentor. I think the new team met once a week until build started, we did lose a few people but still had 22 students or so once build was underway. Little did we know what we were getting into designing a robot to pick up floppies and tow the puck around.

I am one of the few that have been with 237 since the beginning. there were 2 years my involvement was very limited due to work and other outside commitments but have always been part of the team and even made a few meetings during those years. In late 1999 I got a job at a robotics company (injection molding) due to being involved with FIRST. I am still there today.

Jason Hartmann,

Team 237, Sie-H2O-Bots (Black Magic 1999, Sun Seekers 2000, Tribe 2001-2011, and back to Black Magic again, 2012)

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I first heard about FIRST in middle school. Well, kind of. I knew that my middle school had a LEGO Robotics team, and I knew it was connected to the science club (which I was in), but I didn't really like the guys on the team. So even though I was interested, I decided not to try it.

Then high school came around. My school was reviving their FIRST team after a three or four year hiatus, and the school's electronics/woods teacher was trying to rally up enthusiasm for it in her classes. She hadn't been involved before, but she was really excited about the idea. I wasn't in an electronics class at the time, but my best friend was. He wanted to go to a meeting. So even though I wasn't too sure of my ability to fit in or contribute (I wasn't engineering minded in particular, I liked art and other such frilly things), I made a deal with him that I'd go to a robotics meeting if he went to a drama meeting.

I didn't like robotics very much at first. It was filled with a bunch of people that were kind of jerks (All of them dropped off the face of the earth when they learned that FRC wasn't like Battlebots and that it involved doing some work), but I stuck with it because I ended up making a bunch of promises to organize stuff. I ended up becoming the president by the end of my freshman year because I was the person who just organized stuff and made sure everyone was 'in the loop'.

Competition eventually started, and after that I was hooked. Turns out I was totally wrong about not fitting in, in time the team became pretty much my family. I've changed teams around a bit in the past four or five years, but I still love FIRST and the environment surrounding it.

Oh, and theater? Totally not a thing I'm involved with anymore. Turns out my best friend kind of won that deal, oops.

Back when I was in fourth grade, which was the 2002/2003 school year, I was a big lego fan and my science teacher told me that there was a team involving legos that I could join. Mom let me, and I discovered how cool robotics was. I signed up for the middle school BEST team and got in in 6th grade, and in 7th grade I formally met the Robonauts. I had met various Robonauts before when they mentored and volunteered, but I didn't realize they were high schoolers. First chance I got I signed up for the FRC team, and the rest is history. My little brother followed me through the ranks, and my best friend to this day is the driver I spotted for back in BEST (she didn't even know my name until midway through the 7th grade season, apparently I was just "that little blond kid with the jigsaw" ). My mom is the Team Mom, and will remain the Team Mom even though both her kids are graduated from the team. It's kind of magical how I went from legos to replacing most of the iron in my blood with aluminum, and all thanks to my elementary school science teacher.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

My two friends were in FRC team 1094, so they invited me to the 2010 regional competition, so I came and I watched a few matches and I wasn't really interested, I thought it was kind of boring. so a few weeks later they invited me to their Team open house, I went and I got to drive the robots and I thought that was just awesome, then After that I decided to join the team, and once I got in I was HOOKED!! And Since then Its gave me allot of choices for the future. :)

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I found out about FIRST the first week of freshman year in high school. It came to me in the form of a flyer hanging on the walls, encouraging students to apply for the Robotics team. This intrigued me, so I resolved to apply. I was accepted, and I have to admit, being a part of Robotics has has led to some of the most rewarding experiences of my high school years.

I'm about to finish off junior year, and am anticipating my last year of Robotics to be the best! while at the same time sad that it is my last year to be part of it as a student. I hope to become involved as either a mentor or volunteer in the future though!

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

Some guy with bad shirts and silly hair dragged me to a team meeting.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I joined the "Robotics Club" in grade 8, which turned out to be an FLL team. I was hooked since our first event. I go to a high school that doesn't have an FRC team, but I still keep in contact with my old FLL coach, and he emailed me one day to go check out a workshop 907 was putting on. That was the last week of December before the winter break. I had no idea what I was getting into, and was late joining the team because most had come to meetings since the start of the school year. 40 hours a (build/competition season) week later, I'm still here and not going anywhere. :D

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I saw a flyer for 1293's first meeting and thought FIRST was, well, the thing before second. Not sure if we were talking Legos or Battlebots or what, I drove to the school for the meeting.

It's been all downhill since. ;)

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

At my school, there is an afternoon at the beginning of the year where all the clubs set up tables and try to recruit members. The new robotics club had a table and I learned about what FRC was and came to one of the first meetings. Since then, I have developed an addiction. ;)

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

My oldest sister was one of the founding members of our team (we started back in 2008). So essentially since I was in the 6th grade I had been hearing about robotics. Starting around '09 I would visit at a meeting or two during the year with my little sister - usually 'epic weekend', our school's 3-day winter weekend that's always the weekend before ship... er... bag; famous for deliriously tired/hilarious moments - and I went to the Buckeye Regional every year. Then my other older sister joined, too. By the time I was a freshman, I knew pretty much everyone on the team, and after years of hearing about it/seeing it, I was excited to be part of it myself.

And then my team almost didn't exist my freshman year. But we survived! And I'm really glad we did!!

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I played softball every season from when I was five years old until the end of my Junior year of high school, when I realized that it wasn't fun any more, due to an emphasis on "Winning is what matters the most." So, I looked for a new hobby, and a friend suggested I check out the robotics team (this was the year after the Killer Bees were finalists at Disney World, and I didn't even know we had a team!). So, I applied, was interviewed by 33's founding-mentors Pam Williamson and Tim Grogan, and joined the team my senior year of high school. ...this will be my 10th year involved with FIRST. Feels like I just started yesterday.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

I was born this way, baby. ;)

No, really. I started going to FIRST events with my family, when I was a baby. The first one I remember, I was probably 4 or 5. I even got to drive the Placebo-bot at competitions back when they were a thing.

As I got a little older and moved, my father judged at the New Jersey regional (still does), and would find teams he trusted (thanks 103/25!) and stick me with them. They taught me about the robots, and I was hooked- I knew I had to build robots. The private school I went to flat-out refused to offer FIRST LEGO League when I was there, and so when I switched schools in 8th grade, I knew it was time to start an FRC team. I walked into the high school, asked to speak with the principal, and so 1923 came to be.

You could say this is my 20th year in FIRST, but as far as team experience, this coming season will be my 8th. I still work with my Midknight Inventors, but I'm also proud to mentor two FRC teams in partnership with Clarkson University. This stuff is my life, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

Spring 2005, I was teaching math at a small rural school an hour southeast of Indianapolis. I got a call from the principal at Southport High, asking if I could come interview for a position. I didn't even remember applying there.

I accepted a job teaching Algebra, Project Lead the Way, and coaching FIRST Robotics. I had never even heard of the latter two before the interview. My first roles were to move the materials from this room and closet on the second floor of the building into this big workshop space and room they were going to convert into a computer lab. Oh, and take two summer courses to teach the PLTW classes. Oh, and chauffer a half dozen students to this thing at Lawrence North.

So we get there at IRI 2005. I had just finished my PLTW STIs, didn't have a team shirt so I wore my PLTW polos. Never seen a competition before; didn't even really know the game. I was pleased and confused to not see buzz saws on the robots. The kids were great; they pretty much ran everything. We had a pit right there by the field (it was our rookie year; we were kind of 'special guests' of 234, our mentor team).

Ho.Ly.Cow. It was amazing.

There was this absolute Beast of a machine that could pick up several tetras individually - set them on its base - then pick up the whole pile and lift it to the top. There was this cute little Pink robot that ran to the loading station, grabbed a tetra, spun around, and grabbed the other - WITHOUT BEING DRIVEN. There was this red and clear robot with a huge GM on it - it was as fast and as slick as could be. One of the guys from that team, a fellow in an AE cap, approached me later and said they were starting a new event in Toronto, and they'd be honoured if we'd consider coming. (he managed to pronounce the U) There was a team called Bomb Squad with this cool spiral thingy.

Then there was our team. We had a forklift with a pivot arm that had a doorknob on the end. A freakin' doorknob. Our driver almost hit this guy in a striped hardhat on the head during a match. He seemed cool, though.

I had just learned the difference between a resistor and a can of cream-of-mushroom soup; our robot looked like it was made from parts off the clearance rack at Lowe's, and I was supposed to lead this effort in 2006?
Goodness.

That's how I was introduced to FIRST.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

In 5th grade, my dad heard about FLL and convinced me that it was a cool thing to participate in, and one thing lead to another we started our own FLL team for our Elementary school. When I moved to middle school they did not have a team either, so I started another FLL Team with a friend of mine. That Friend of mine stayed with me through middle school, and we both ended up being convinced to go to an engineering high school, and encountered The Leopards. I ended up joining team 57 The Leopards. So I guess I have a Robot fueled addiction :D.

When I was in 7th grade, our FLL teams took a field trip to the SBPLI Regional at Hofstra University. When I saw the robot for the 1st time, I was

WOW!!!!!!!!!

How were they able to build this? Another thing was that the coach of the high school team was a Tech Ed. teacher at the junior high I went to, so I had somewhat of an idea of who she was. The Red/Blue Alliance system confused me back then because I didn't know how it worked. Another thing that confused me was the Gracious Professionalism. I knew a little bit of it from FLL, but I didn't understand it fully. One thing that surprised me was that there were different departments on the team. I always thought the team always worked on the robot, but there were extras, like making buttons. Now being a Junior, I fully understand what goes on in FRC and spread the knowledge to the younger ones, in fact at my regional today, I actual gave an FLL team a tour of the pits and explain what goes on in the program!

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

In the late 90’s, I had heard about the robotics team at our town’s high school, but didn’t know much about what they did, but it sounded cool..and interesting.

When my son was a high school freshman in 2009, he wanted to join the team, and because the mentors/advisors encouraged any parental help they could get… I hung around to help. It was so cool when we finally got into build season, and then finally seeing a competition. That is when I learned what FIRST was all about.

The following year (2010-2011 season) the advisors (who had been running the team for a very long time) wanted to get out of running the team, were looking (pressuring) for some of us “helping parents” to take over running the team. So after much consideration, I and another parent took over running the team for the next 3 years while our sons were in high school. What a great experience for the students, our sons and the mentors as well! It was a lot of work, but very rewarding to see the students have fun and grow as people.

2013 was my last year as an advisor for the team and being a full-time mentor, as it took up way too much of my time for three years. I still dropped by during build-season a bunch of times this year, to lend a hand to the students and to help work on the robot. It’s a hard thing to give up completely.

My son was on the drive team for three years, and was the team co-captain for his Junior and Senior years (and on his own merit, not because of me). He is now in college majoring in Electrical Engineering, and tries to make it to the competitions when he can to offer moral support to the drive team and help out in the pits.

We plan on being there this Saturday in Lewiston ME, to support BERT at the Pine Tree District.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

Simply put, a coin toss.

When I was a freshman at Harrison High School, during activity period, I was kinda split between the robotics team's (1747) call out and a board game club's competing call out. It's a good thing the quarter landed heads up... or else I wouldn't be posting this (and I probably wouldn't be an EET Junior right now either).

It was odd as I was the only freshman that year. But the team took me in anyway. While it wasn't my only extra-curricular in my high school years, it was my favorite and honestly the only one that I could say was in any way a success (and a huge success too!). Band? I was a lousy tuba player at best. Last chair. Emphasis was on winning awards (contrary to the "student centered" claims made by the department). Hated it by the time I quit at the end of my Sophomore year. Tried a few other things, didn't like them. FRC? Tons of fun. The awards, including a 2010 dean's list nomination/semi-finalist that I am very grateful for (thanks HBR!), were icing on the cake.

But the best part for me? Portability. As fate would have it, my dad finally escaped a really lousy job and moved on to a much better federal job... but that also meant moving after my junior year. Luckily, yet another team, 2783, took me in. While there may be separate teams in FIRST, we truly are at the core a single connected community.

While a coin toss got me in the door, it's the awesomeness of FIRST that made me stay and keeps me involved to this day.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

Larry,
Where are you taking EET? I thought schools were phasing that out. I was one of the first graduates in the program at Bradley.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

well it was 1998, I was 7. My dad was asked by a co-worker to help out with a high school engineering program for a 'few hours a week for a few weeks' and of course i tagged along ... things have changed quite a bit since then.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

Before I joined FIRST I was obsessed with becoming an animator. My ex wife told me there was a program that I could get my hands on if I became involved with FIRST. I tried it out and over the years I found myself more resourceful than skilled with the program and increasing frustration with the contest (it had nothing at all to do with anything the team did) caused me to lose all passion for it. Meanwhile I discovered and new passion for serving FIRST itself. Unfortunately my travels caused me and my wife to drift apart to an eventual separation and divorce and so in a way I'm om a "it's complicated" relationship with FIRST.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

The first time I had heard about FIRST was when my dad was telling me about FLL and brought me a book about it when I was little. When my high school actually offered a robotics club and a chance to join the FRC, I jumped at the chance.

The past three years on this team have been amazing to say the least. Going from writing the Chairman's Award as a freshman to being a primary driver and captain of the Spirit Squad in my junior year, it's been a great experience.

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

My adventure with FIRST began with with my computer teacher recruiting me to join our schools robotics team (FLL). I went to the open house and was interested and as the season rolled on I realized I wasn't having that much fun so I was planning on quitting. Then came the Austin Qualifier, there was an FRC robot (the game was Lunacy) that was there and I immediately became hooked in trying to build an FRC robot. A Dean's list finalist began explaining to me what FRC is and how if I continued in FIRST I could eventually build a robot like the one he built. I was determined to build a robot as good as the one I saw, So I dedicated myself to FLL and 5 years later I'm an FRC student with my own FLL team. I only wish I could remember the team that introduced me to it....

Re: How did you findout about/became involved with in FIRST?
 

Well let's see. Back in July of 2002 my son Michael was invited to a picnic by friends he met who were friends with my younger son Chris. He called it a picnic for the robotics team. Come September he wanted to check out the meeting, so my wife took him. The next week she "Got a headache" & asked me to take him. When I met "Engineer Dave" I was hooked. When the new game was revealed in Jan '03 Mike volunteered me to make a miniature ramp because he knew I liked to build things. He also volunteered me to help with the Scrimmage. Boy, I didn't know what I was getting into. Mike graduated in 03, got a FIRST Scholarship to UMASS & now Works at Pratt & Whitney as a Mechanical Engineer. Younger son Chris came on board from 2003-2008. Chris graduated in 07 & is now a navy corpsman in Hawaii with the marines. I have been doing the scrimmage ever since.
Of course it doesn't end there. One of the team mentors & a direct liaison to FIRST pushed me into volunteering at the CT Regional. That was in 2010. I'm still volunteering & was very happy to be Field Supervisor for the Groton & Southington District events in CT.