New Team- Any advice?
 

My school may be setting up a new FIRST team this season, and I was wondering what advice any more seasoned participants had. Anyway, I'm bound to find some good advice because I'm looking through the forums right now (I swear :D ).

P.S. The mad scientist (bonus points if you guess who in particular) avatar will most likely be temporary, Ill replace it with one I made myself shortly.

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

I'd use the following: http://www.team341.com/tiab/ and http://moe365.org/moementum/moementum.php to help get started.

Also, find a veteran team in your area to mentor you for the year. That's the best thing you can do.

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

Where in PA are you?

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

Spring City/Pottstown area. We've already visited a senior team (the all girls team I believe... Firebirds or Pheonixes I think... Firebirds probably...)

@EricH

Ty for the links. :D

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

Mad scientist is Dr. Steel. He's pretty cool; a few 1714 alumni follow him rather religiously. Good luck with the team.

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

Alan:

Team 341 Miss Daisy is about 50 minutes away from your school (Wissahickon High School in Ambler, PA; our machine shop is at the North Montco Technical Career Center in Lansdale, PA). We would love to help you out in any way we can!

In the past we have mentored teams such as 1218 Chestnut Hill Academy, 1712 Lower Merion HS, and 2234 Episcopal Academy (all winners of the Rookie All Star Award).

I will contact you via PM with our contact information.

Good luck!
-Jared

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

Ah thank you very much. :D The main guy who was organizing our group (he's a student in 9th grade, not a mentor) was actually showing us your site during the first FIRST (I had to, ok? :P) "meeting" we had, as an example of a well put-together site.

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

For starters, try to build connections with local businesses; it's important to have a ready source of parts, food, and advice. Eventually ask them if they would be interested in sponsoring your team. I've found that business owners are fascinated by FIRST, and are often willing to provide discounts or donate parts. Try to find someone to lend you equipment or the use of a machine shop if you don't have one already. You don't need much to get started; a drill press is useful, and a few handheld drills and saws are always helpful.

It's very important to find good engineering mentors. Also get close to a nearby veteran team-they've been through all this already and will be able to offer useful pointers throughout the season.

Good Luck!

PM me if you have any questions.

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

If your school has someone who is the school's liaison to industry, try to get them to support your program. The team I am helping to start up has been able to get a great deal of funding this way.

I would also recommend printing out sponsorship booklets to show companies what FIRST is all about. If you need one, please PM me and I will be glad to send you my teams.

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

Lol. XD

Ty all of you, I'll be sure to share this with the team. ^^

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

Hmm... does anyone have a rule book from one of the previous years we could look at? 0.o (I.e. 2007/2008/2009 so they'll most likely be similar to this years).

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

You can find them on usfirst.org.

http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...t.aspx?id=4094
http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/...nt.aspx?id=452

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

Ah thanks I was having trouble finding them there. :D

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

Standard warning: Any and all rules can change between years. Be careful.

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

Team 1511 Rolling Thunder has a great wealth of information for fundraising and organization. We are implementing several of their ideas this year for our team. Check them out at the links below...

http://penfieldrobotics.com/resources/rookies.php

http://penfieldrobotics.com/team/fundraising.php

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

Some things that teams tend to think about too late: (Start them now..)

1. figure out how to pay vendors... set this up with your school now...
If you wait until you need something during build season... it will be too late..
You need to be able to make purchases same day...
Many coaches of FIRST teams end up with big tax write-offs the first year...Try and make this easier on the team and discuss this with your school now... or whomever keeps the money...

2. Start your students learning Inventor (or some other 3d modeling program) EARLY.... it can be very valuable during brainstorming and the build... but it takes some time to learn....look up the resources....find tutorials.

3. Find local sources for stuff like...fasteners, aluminum angle, polycarbonate, etc.... make connections now.... so you don't have to waste time during build.
Make up lists of suppliers that you might find on the web...

4. Figure out how you are going to weigh something that is about 2' X 3' and can weigh up to 200 lbs....... find a wrestling scale or something....
Or better yet.... pony up the cost to get a decent scale....(about $200-300)
Keeping track of the weight of your components while you build them will come in very handy....

5. Do some team building now....

6. Get as much parent support as you can... find mentors now...
find a machine shop.... or at least parents that have the tools you need...or can operate them....you don't have to have a machine shop to make a decent robot... but it can help you....

7. Get some basic tools..... You will need to cut metal.... so at least a GOOD sabre saw...a hacksaw....a good drill... measuring tools..... drill bits....proper hand tools... etc... other things are nice but these should get you started...

8. Again.... get parental and mentor support NOW.... do what you can to get them to the kick off.... if they are there then they will be interested...

Many other things make up a good team.... but with some foresight in these areas you can be ahead of many rookie teams...

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

The NUMBER ONE thing I can recommend for when it comes time to build a robot, especially for a new team, is one little key phrase: Keep It Simple, Stupid!
One problem many do is to try to do too much. "The Jack of all Trades is a Master of None." Doing one thing well will get you recognized, even as a rookie team.
Also, Gracious Professionalism. Its a key part of life here in FIRST.
And lastly, Welcome! Good luck!

Re: New Team- Any advice?
 

Well, some majorly important things are to make sure you manage time well and are organized. A strong team structure is really helpful too. But depending on how many students your team has or will have this year, it might not be really important right now.

Also make sure that you know what you're doing before build season starts. Programmers should learn how the code (which ever you plan on using) works, build kids should know how to properly and safely use tools and where everything is in the robot room, etc.

If you guys need help with anything, you can PM me and I'd be glad to help you. You can check out our website too. It has a lot of resources and things like that. mercury1089.com

Good luck with you're first FIRST!