Re: What does your team do before FIRST season?
 

Well our team usually works on various fundraising and community service events. However, this year we have done absolutely nothing. Why? I have no idea. I guess its because of lack of support from our school and we really dont have a teacher that is willing to help organize events. Our team is a very small team consisting of only 20 members 9 of which are returning. We do have weekly meetings that all members on the team are suppose to attend. Just after reviewing the attendance for the month of November we have had poor attendance from the new participants. Right now our team is slowly falling apart. We will see what happens in January.

Re: What does your team do before FIRST season?
 

This year (our first off-season) we mostly concentrated on learning how to use the camera, as we didn't even touch the thing last year. That we did over the summer primarily. This fall we've been working on teaching the new members about FIRST and about robots, in addition to learning how to use Inventor. We didn't touch that either :o. We hope to be much more advanced in terms of the robot next year.

Re: What does your team do before FIRST season?
 

Team 469, Las Guerrillas, participates in OCCRA. If there are any regional off-season competitions in your region it could be a good idea to participate in one of them, to give your new members some experience before the FIRST season starts. It's an awesome opportunity to teach new students the basics of robotics, from how to use machines, to safety, to mechanical, electrical, and programming basics.

We also participate in IRI. That is a good way for us to end the prior season with a bang. It's very fun, although it's during the summer, so the new members do not come. Sometimes we also participate in Ford Sweet Repeat. We do have the new members attend that. It is a good way to teach them the various roles at the competition (battery team, scouting, etc). It's also a fun thing to do.

Lastly, we have "team bonding" activities, like going to the movies as a team or playing laser tag. It's a wonderful way for the team to become more closely knit group.