We're just starting our "Rookie +1" year. We had 3 new community-based teams in our county this year (2 split from a previous team so not formally rookies but rookie in terms of starting new organizations and our team which was 100% rookie -- mentors, students, parents) and 2 veteran school-based teams. The 3 community-based teams were extremely different in terms of how they were organized, values, purpose/goals, roles of the mentors, roles of the parents, the perspective of the student role, etc. Each team is different and that's one of the strengths of FIRST.
The following are some observations/tips from our experience (of course, every team has their own FRC journey!). Hopefully some of this is helpful.
What we've found in our area is that one of the differences between a school-based/ corporate-sponsored team and a community-based team is that, as a community-based team just getting started, you have to count on lots and lots of support for all aspects of the team from people who share your vision -- build location, general meeting location, money, students who share your vision, parents to support the growth of the team, mentors who are there every night and weekends ("full time technical mentors" who are often engineering parents) as well as the part-time mentors who bring specific expertise. One person can't do this alone.
For us, it was critical to have a very well-laid out handbook of expectations, mission, goals, and values of the team so the people joining the team knew what they were joining and knew we were counting on their support. To ensure their support, we needed them to buy into the team vision.
On your blog, you talk about
:
"I would not be satisfied with a season that doesn’t include qualifying for Championships."
To achieve that, I'm guessing you want competitive, driven students who are joining the team to create a winning robot. If that really is your goal, you probably need to be very clear about that up front so that is the type of student and parent you attract. We got some great information from Team Rush (22) at the workshops in St. Louis about having students go through a membership application process to show that they were a good fit with a written-out, well-defined profile of a "Team Rush Student." Makes it easier for the student, mentors and the team organizers to have a good fit.
The other thing we learned was to not underestimate the time of forming a team (which is really multiple "teams") -- the students, the mentors, the parents (who will likely be the backbone of the sustainability of the program), and all combinations. Think about what type of value system you want to set within the team and make sure that's clearly presented before the team gets started so everyone's working off the same page when things get intense.
You might also let the students define what success is to them after they form a team. Our students defined 3 levels of success before we went to our first regional: satisfied, excited and thrilled. We ended up far exceeding all 3 levels but the coach and mentors' measure of success showed up last night when we had an Open House/New Member meeting and all the students presented comfortably, enthusiastically, with good knowledge of all aspects of the robot, and with an overall understanding of GP/coopertition/outreach/learning. They were also very clear on the commitment level they were looking for from students who wanted to join the team for next year. It was very cool to see and fit with our team's mission.
Good luck with Year 1! I tried to blog our journey but it went by so fast and furiously that I quickly lost track of the days and tasks accomplished!
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Rookie Year success based on our goals/objectives (12 students):
- 3 students who discovered new career goals and interests
- 3 different students who identified career interests that they weren't interested in after all, after trying them out for a bit
- 4 students who were reluctant to even speak at their first team meeting who are now leading FRC demo's at a local Space Camp
- 4 students who found technical mentors who really changed their worlds and outlook
- 1 student who achieved his dream of getting both Woody and Dean on video saying "Go Team PyroTech"
- 100% team alumni heading to university/Carnegie Melon (1 student
) - all member families returning for a second year with the exception of 1 family who is heading off in different life directions
- 80% of students now reading their emails on a regular basis in order to keep up on what's going on
- Oh, and for our team, the frosting on the cake: NC All-Star Rookie; NC Highest Seeded Rookie