Going back to the original question, on 1540 we believe that the best way to learn how to build a robot is to, well, build a robot. So we host BunnyBots, an offseason competition different than any other. It's different because it involves a whole other build season.
Our mentors and graduating seniors come up with a different game each year (this year it's based on pool -- not water pool, sorry, but 8 ball pool). Then whichever teams that want to from the local area take on the challenge while simultaneously training new members. By the time the competition happens (December 21st, there'll probably be a livestream), all the newbies know exactly what they're doing, and then there's build season.
Also, the competition always involves stuffed bunnies, and they get horribly mangled and that's fun.
BunnyBots main page:
http://team1540.org/bunnybots/
BunnyBots Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/bunnybots1540