As a second year team, here's some of what I'm wanting our team to do to prepare for next year (since we didn't quite make it to finals this year...)
1: Analyze what we did right and what we did wrong, so we can learn from it. For example, our robot was mostly limited by our unreliable autonomous for most of the season and our lack of a rangefinder for the targets - both caused by not having a full practice field and not giving programmers enough time to work.
2: Recruit at our school, doing as many presentations as possible - hopefully one in an all-school assembly. (Hey, they do pep rallies for sports, can't we have some time too?)
3: Do presentations at the middle schools (for sure) and elementaries if we can, and get some Jr./FLL teams started (maybe an FTC at the 9th grade center...)
4: Sponsorships. Email tons of people, show up at a few likely candidates in person and try to get an appointment, things like that.
5: After season events in the fall. There's usually one or two in the area you can find.
6: Talk to new recruits about how the process works and going over the robot, explaining what the challenges were and how we solved them.
7: Have someone practice CAD programs. We get them for free, and we've gone completely without one for two years now.
Hmm, that's it for now. I'm sure I'll think of more. Hope this helps!
