Quote:
Originally Posted by lemiant
Hey,
So, here is my situation. I am trying to convince a school in my area to start an FRC team, their robotics program is still extremely young. Currently they only have bought a couple of Bio-loid kits. There are two teachers however, who are extremely interested in starting a robotics program. One is the shop (metal and wood) teacher, he is extremely young (22-ish), and seems really excited about FRC because "you get to fabricate all the parts yourself".
There is a second teacher, who I believe is the head of the science department, he is older (40-50) and is also very interested in robotics. However, he saw a presentation on VEX competition a couple of weekends ago and he seems to be really into that idea. His main aim in the program appears to be spreading robotics, he is very excited about the possibility of starting teams at other schools and maybe hosting a regional within a couple of years. As a result of this, he likes VEX because it is really easy to start teams.
What can I say, and what links can I send them that will appeal to the each of them (a link to a good Kamen speech would be greatly appreciated).
PS they also apparently have a handful of kids, that they have talked to personally about a robotics program who are very interested, is it a better idea to try and get the groundwork going with these kids, or to announce right away?
Thanks,
Lemiant
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The biggest hurdle to starting and maintaining a FIRST team is money,
and I can only imagine that it is even bigger for international teams.
That being said, if you attend WPI they will help out quite a bit with travel expenses, significantly lowering the barrier to entry.
Also think about your own team, and how you raise the money... If you have big $$ sponsors, they may be on board to help with a rookie team.
I'm guessing the older teacher will most likely oppose you on money, not scope. So the best thing is to come up with some form of a plan for that school to raise the money. I think he'll come over pretty quickly if the plan seems feasible. Also if the team is close enough to another school, they may be able to enter into a partnership, where both schools work to build one robot.