Chief Delphi - Starting a team in college?

Chief Delphi (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/index.php)

- College Teams (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=88)

- - Starting a team in college? (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20261)

I want to start a team next year in Albion Michigan. I'll be a Freshman at Albion College. I know there are other FIRST alumni there and I'm kinda hoping they'll be willing to help. I'm going to contact the high school after spring break.

hey everyone wanting to start a team,
i am from 461 westside boiler invasion. this was a team that was started bye FIRST alumni at Purdue University in west lafayette IN. if anyone needs any help at all with starting a team or would like to know how we did it please feel free to contact me at rdaftuar@purdue.edu or r2k2d2 <-- AIM. i will be more than happy to answer any questions or concerns.

-Raj-

Hey everyone! I am from team 461 Westside Boiler Invasion and was part of the group from Purdue that helped to start the team. There's a lot to starting a college-led team as you may guess but it is definitely do-able and it is an absolutely amazing experience! I was on team 68 Truck Town Thunder in high school and happened to get hooked up with some others that were interested in starting a team here. It was so great to be able to give back what I gained from the program and I would definitely recommend starting a team to anyone who is interested and has a passion for it! If you have ANY questions, please feel free to email me schnepsm@purdue.edu or IM me at shrtcak999. I am currently working on a document with advice and guidance as far as starting a college-led FIRST team from our 4 years of experience in doing it...hopefully this will be posted on here by the end of this week so be watching for it. Yeah FIRST!!!! :-)

Wow guys way to post basicly the exact same thing in a row!

heheh yah my team is proud of being a college team! If anyone has any questions...obviously we are willing to answer them!

Quote:

Originally posted by Matt Leese
I suppose I'll throw a bit in about my experience in starting and running a college team. My first set of advice would be to not do it. But more seriously, it is a lot of work and you should be prepared for a lot of work, a lot of stress, a lot of getting blamed, and a lot of sleepless nights. However, it can also be a very rewarding experience (personally, seeing excited high school students make it worthwhile to me).

As far as starting a team goes, the best bit of advice I can offer is to talk to anyone and everyone that will listen. If you talk about it as much as possible, it's that much more likely for it to happen. And there's the possibility that the person you're talking to may be able to help you out in someway.

At RIT, we've yet to become an officially recognized club on campus as it doesn't really provide us any benefits. We are recognized by the College of Engineering (official recognizition is by Student Government). Most of the team's funding comes from Bausch & Lomb but a significant portion comes from RIT (the College of Engineering and Admissions specifically).

The real key in getting a team is to get someone significantly high in the power structure who not only believes that having a FIRST team is a good idea but also that you can pull it off. In our case, it was the Associate Dean of Engineering and he's gone to bat for us numerous times when we've needed it (unasked normally). That's the key to actually making sure it happens.

As the team is still going strong even while those who were originally involved were on co-op, it seems to me that we've at least gotten to a point where a team will continue to exist so perhaps there's some actual use in what I said above. Best of luck with it.

Matt

And here I thought FIRSTers went to RIT to join their renowned mini BAJA team.:p