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My wife Dona started judging at LA Regional about 2004. Never really understood what she did during the weekend in March, all I knew was the kids and I had the house to ourselves.

Then in 2008 she convinced the school where she was teaching to start an FRC team and asked if I would be the programming mentor. Sure, whatever. Sounded like fun.

Oh boy.... that was the start of something huge!

That year I helped rookie team 2493 Robokong build a robot (wait, what? There are things called omni wheels? How cool is that! Our long based robot steering problems were solved!). The team competed in San Diego, and Dona and I judged in LA.

The next year we added judging in Phoenix to the agenda and I also added field setup/teardown.

Then we added judging at CMP in 2010. In 2011 I became a FIRST Senior Mentor for SoCal, along with adding judging and inspecting at the Alamo regional.

2012, we have now started 12 FRC teams, about the same FLL teams, competed at San Diego, judged in LA, AZ, CVR, SVR, MAR CMP, and CMP. Inspected at LA, AZ, CVR, SVR, and CMP. Control system advisor in LA. Judged 4 FLL Qualifying tournaments and 3 FLL championship tournaments.

Future plans? Start an FRC regional in the Inland Empire and develop Robokong University - training for mentors.... in addition to everything else we do.

On another note, it is interesting to read this thread and learn of all the great ways to get more students involved in FIRST. Great thread!