Originally Posted by Phoenix Spud (Post 873416)

We know that long term this is going to be one of the most important things to do so that FIRST--both FLL and FRC--will grow the way they have in the USA. We are already working on the education aspect. We are going to work at Macquarie University where we already have a bunch of the professors excited as well as the grad students. We has been going around to a bunch of the local high schools (which over here cover both FLL and FRC ages) trying to recruit more kids for the team. Our talk also encourages kids to get involved in STEM even if FIRST is not the right outlet for them.

We would love to get the politicians involved to help grow the programs. Also they might be able to put out some grants to help teams form in more rural areas. (In the outback, sometimes families can be miles from the nearest family, so getting funding for them could be a problem)

The other thing that we want to look at is how to involve the media, since a lot of the morning shows are taped in central Sydney (which is about an hour by train/bus from the university) as well as one of the biggest newspaper in the country is in Sydney. This way we would have a national audience without traveling around the entire nation!:)

Any help that anyone could give us in any of these areas would be great!

Originally Posted by ebarker (Post 873059)

That's great !!!

Actually there may be not one but TWO teams starting in Australia. We have been working with a group for a few months in Melbourne. Their event would not be in Australia since there is no regional but in the states.

And if it all works out there may be another announcement.

.

Originally Posted by dtengineering (Post 873413)

While I am sure American regionals would be delighted to host the Aussie team(s), especially the ones in Hawaii and along the West Coast nearest to Australia, I would like to point out that they would be equally welcomed at regionals in other countries as well. FIRST is, indeed, bigger than the USA and that for many teams is one of its great appeals. Adding another country to the list of international participants is great!

Welcome aboard, Aussies!

Jason

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod (Post 873425)

Is that at Beaconhills College in Pakenham near Melbourne by any chance?

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi (Post 873417)

O o o o o o! Can the team name please be the RoboRoos!? :D

Btw, told you some of us would still be up (and I'm on the East coast :p )

Originally Posted by BrendanB (Post 873453)

HAHAHAHA...:D

They name has already been considered.... we've had several discussions about the team name and RoboRoos was going to be the name but they changed their mind and decided that they would have the discussion with the team members when the meetings start up.

Hehehe i thought that someone would mention that name on here.:)

Originally Posted by Phoenix Spud (Post 873481)

Actually, that is our current team name. The team will have to make a final decision once we are meeting, but The RoboRoos is the (very) tentative name! (For those of you who are not that into sports, the SocceRoos are the national soccer team, and the HockeyRoos are the national field hockey team.)

Originally Posted by demosthenes2k8 (Post 873146)

Haha, if they made it to GSR it'd be amazingly epic.

Congrats!

Originally Posted by Phoenix Spud (Post 873046)

Hi Everyone,

Special thanks to Team Phoenix (team 2342) for the loan of their overdrive robot.

Originally Posted by timytamy (Post 881097)

Umm, Hi,
I'm one of the guys on the Aussie team. Things are going well we got about 20-30 people in the team. We still haven't got a name yet but thats on the to-do list for the next meeting.
So... Yeah :)

Thanks
timytamy