a new team
 

I been taking a serious look at starting a team in the 2004 season... im an alumni from Team 702 and now im in college and i was thinking ofa college level team ummm but i dont know all the requirement for starting a team ....

I went to the first site but they seem to be missing a file guide for starting a team...

anyways if there alumni that have started college level teams id love to hear from you and if anyone has the documents from first or documents on starting a team post them ;)

thank you in Advanced


-Oscar-

Can you explain what you mean by college level? I know many college groups have helped high schools with their projects but never had a team to themselves.

well just eithier a group for themselves or a group that helps a high school eithier way would be good.....

of course my true dream would be of making a team composed of an all star cast of members from several high schools.. just alumni from all over the southern california area

FIRST is a high-school robotics competition, meaning there can't be any all-college team. At the bare minimum, FIRST requires that high school students drive the 'bot.

If you mean a team that is sponsored/assissted by a college, then I know of plenty of teams like that. Speaking of which, does anyone know what happened to BuzzU?

Re: a new team
 

starting a team docs

ahhh, I see what you mean, a
broken link

found it!

Redhead Jokes lol i knew u would some point add something to this. im glad it was wut i needed thank very much ummm that was fast lol

anyways id still like ot hear some input form alumni created teams an anyone with experience or somethign in this field of first

Starting and running a team is a lot of work. Don't underestimate the commitment it takes to be the one organizing, planning, and completing everything.

Students have it easy compared to the amount of work a good administrator puts into their team.

If you only want to administer the team, it may not be too bad, but if you expect to be in charge of the team you're starting while still maintaining a hand in the things you're used to doing as a student, you'll be in a for a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of stress.

Is it worth it? Well, I guess that depends on who you ask. I like the level of control I've had when I've been placed in that situation in the past, but at times, it's nice to be able to relax and know that someone else is charged with making sure Really Important Things get done.

I too have been toying with the idea of getting my College to sponsors a team possible with a company or go it alone and would also like some input more so about who in the College people have gone to talk to. I tried to invite my college's president to a regional but received no reply.:(

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=20170

Give us some names of colleges, schools, etc. and let's all help each other get our teams going!

So I'm not the only one thinking about this eh? hehe
I've been toying with the idea, but I have to see where I get in... the other thing I thought about was getting wherever I got in for co-op to sponsor and send me as a rep ;) sneaky eh? hehe
I donno, i just want to keep going and I'm afraid that i'm gonna end up out of the area, which is a great place to be, my first choice is still close enough to hit the Cdn regional for the weekend.. but if i get it... then i'll be in co op, and possiblity no where near competitions... bleh!
~Ann-Marie (team 783, "mobotics")

Talk to George1083. Hes an alumi from our team, and could probably give you a little help :) (sorry George!)

I'm going to Albion College, Michigan next year. I want to start a team at the high school there

Ive been involved with starting new FIRST teams. Essentially you need:

an engineering or science based company to sponsor you (I suppose a university could meet this requirement)

engineers from the sponsoring company - its easy to start thinking that FIRST is a robot building contest, and forget that you need engineers/scientist to be a part of the team - otherwise instead of inspiring students to be engineers, the team will fail on several levels, and you will only frustrated them and led them to conclude that engineering sucks!

you need money - at least $10,000 for a small team that travels to only one regional.

you need a place for the team to meet, with some machine shop equipement (drill press, band saw, lathe...) - remember the purpose of the team is to show students that engineering is cool stuff - if you dont have access to any tools/equipment/machines, then trying to build a usable bot is going to be frustrating and counterproductive

you need a high school to participate in the program. The principle must be on board and you MUST have at least one teacher to be the FULL TIME single point contact. At least one teacher will have to be present at ALL team meetings - this is a HUGE commitment. You will also need a way for the students to get to the team site - this usually means a school bus after hours AND on saturdays (they are not free).

you need parents and other adults to be involved with travel plans, tracking the team money, feeding the students during long meetings, someone to be a gopher during meetings when you need a new drill bit, or nuts and bolts from the hardware store.

I have been involved with finding new sponsors for teams that were dropped, and starting new teams. Its a TON of WORK!

This is not something you can take on yourself, esp if you are a full time college student. We all want to see new teams formed, but you really NEED this to happen from a corporate or business level and flow DOWN - if you try to build a new team from the bottom up have a room reserved in your name at the psych ward - you will have a nervious breakdown sooner or later

:c)

1123 did it without a highschool, and less then $10K.
They did, however, have dedicated parental support.

Wetzel
~~~~~~~~~
Support and money just makes it easier.

how can you have a team without a highschool?!

FIRST is a program FOR highschool students

?!?!!