Help with Club Name
 

Currently I along with a few other FIRST alum from Minnesota are in the process of starting a FIRST Robotics club at North Dakota State University (NDSU). We are on track to becoming an official club by Thursday, October 23rd. We just have one small problem... the name. We as a club are looking for a name that's easily marketable and draws in all types of people. We are hoping to stay away from using the term "robotics" or any variation of the word in our name because that doesn't correctly portray our club's goals.

Our hope is to be the go-to STEM promoter in the area. We would like to give presentations throughout the local area about FIRST and STEM in general as well as learn more about STEM ourselves by competing in collegiate engineering challenges. We hope that this club can also provide a large number of volunteers for surrounding FIRST events. It is easier to accomplish our goals with a large number of people in our club, and it is easier to get a large number of people in the club if we are extremely marketable!

If anybody has suggestions for a name it would be highly appreciated! Also if anybody has any suggestions for our club we are all ears.

Re: Help with Club Name
 

I wrote a little bit about this in my blog (which I really need to start updating again), when WARP went through this process.

Re: Help with Club Name
 

You missed out by not using the Robot theme -

FarGoBots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcSbYCdKs5o

Good luck sir, I am certain you will make this a success!

Re: Help with Club Name
 

DO NOT refer to yourselves as a CLUB, ALWAYS call yourselves a TEAM!!! It may sound silly but it will make finding sponsors much easier.

Re: Help with Club Name
 

Could not agree more. It seems subtle but it is actually a good distinction to make, a team implies "competition," which attracts more people.

Re: Help with Club Name
 

The OP seems like they are starting a FIRST support organization at their college, not a team.

Re: Help with Club Name
 

Correct. I do, however, understand the benefits of calling our organization a team rather than a club. Although I think the term "club" better describes what we plan on doing.

Re: Help with Club Name
 

S.T.E.A.M. PUNKS!

Re: Help with Club Name
 

Really dumb question: How many collegiate engineering challenges does NDSU currently compete in, and do you have the contact info for all of those team leads?


See, back when I was in college, I was at SDSM&T, down at the other end of South Dakota from ya, and most (not quite all) of the engineering challenge teams there were all under one organization. It would have been--and often was--rather trivial to get the teams to all do something for the community as a group. (Display/demo at the local mall? Every year. Community events wanted a team? They'd get one. Or more.) There were also a couple of faculty/staff whose primary responsibility was working with those teams. The organization was known as the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Production, CAMP for short, and had about a dozen teams of varying sizes who were more than happy to function as test groups for that advanced manufacturing.


It might be a really good idea to contact those existing team leads, if you haven't already. Instant membership boost going both ways, and maybe gets some more thought for name, ideas for outreach, stuff like that.

Re: Help with Club Name
 

I find it interesting that the labels Team and Club cannot coexist.
As a team we compete in events.
Yeah sounds fine, and saying as a club we compete sounds a little weird.
As a club we provide chances for members to do give back to the community.
I dunno I haven't had the most trips around the sun but I just can't think of a reason why a sponsor would look at the word club and associate negative connotations with it.


Unfortunately my suggestion
STEMulation is currently taken by a "premier luxury skin care" website...

Re: Help with Club Name
 

Colonel Panic and the Dual Corps

Re: Help with Club Name
 

Hey Ryan,

I am student from Team 4818, THE HERD (formerly Taurus Robotics). We are from the West Fargo High School and would love to help in your efforts to promote STEM in the area!

As for name suggestions, I am not much help. But maybe something with the word Bison (ex. The Bison STEMpede (stampede) ).

As I said before, we would love to collaborate with your club to promote STEM. Many of us on the team have attended the first STEM school in the state of North Dakota and have many ideas about encouraging others to take an interest in STEM fields. In the past, our team has gone to groups, businesses, and schools presenting our robot and STEM. Please feel free to email us at wfrobotics@gmail.com if you want any help.

Re: Help with Club Name
 

I agree with STEMpede. It's clever, STEM-related, and fits with a theme. And best of all, it's simple, which makes it easy for your target audience to remember you.
+1 to Taurus Robotics