Great post! As a lead in, while it sounds like at times you may feel like your accomplishments are not noticed in the way that the formally recognized teams may be... from the first time I saw you post on CD I took an interest. I actually spent 5th-12th grade in Baton Rouge about 10 minutes from Woodlawn HS before returning to Texas in 2005. Unfortunately, FIRST was non-existent (AFAIK) in Baton Rouge when I was in high school, and I didn't really learn about it until just a couple years ago. Every time I see you post, I'm a little wistful that your program wasn't around then.
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Our awards are geared to extrinsic ideals, our success measured by visible standards, and our determination fixed by ideals that are often formed by those who have gone before.
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It sounds like you did what our team did this year as a "re-rookie" team, and I believe all teams should do... set team goals. Your goals might be different than my goals... and my goals were certainly different than the established power house teams.
Our existing team of 5 mentors moved programs due to lack of students at the after school club we were previously working with. Rather than continue trying to grow at a location that lacked students, we moved our mentor group to a struggling FIRST team (no funding, 1 mentor), and we transitioned the after school club to a smaller program (VEX IQ).
FRC3005's goals for this year were (actually written in Sept 2013 (edit: Fixed typo of 2014):
1) Stabilize: With the renewed interest, and support of a new administration at the school... we were able to start thinking of Conrad HS as the new home for our program. We were given a medium sized 20'x30' classroom, and will be upgraded to a ~50'x35' classroom next year with an addon office and storage room. Our goal was to stabilize, and start generating some continuity by making the program a year-round effort with the same students, instead of the 8 week program in the Spring as it had previously been.
2) Grow our funding and mentor group: The school went from a budget of ~$6000/yr (registration + $1K)) to a projected budget of~$25K-$30K/yr due to additional grants we were able to apply for, volunteer matching where Texas Instruments matches our hours with ~$1K per mentor per year (up to 15 engineer mentors at the moment), and personal donations that TI matches dollar for dollar.
3) Recruit a younger student base and retain the top students: We started with ~24 students that dwindled to 17 fairly quickly in the fall. However, the 17 that remained were extremely committed, excelled beyond our wildest dreams, and are growing rapidly. Many went from unable to identify basic hand tools, to running mills, riveting, tapping holes, etc. The program only had juniors/seniors when we got there, but this year's driver and human player were freshman. We'll return 12 students for next year, and hopefully recruit another 10-15 good ones based on all the interest generated at the school through our outreach.
4) Make an impression at our single regional: I believe we fielded a capable robot this year. Last year's robot for these students was a climber bot that was unable to climb, or move. Our OPR was in the top 10, and several teams had us scouted there as well. Our design wasn't the most original, our robot had its share of flaws, but our students and mentors had the time of their lives competing... and it cemented in our minds that we can be successful.
Sure, we didn't win a single award, and we didn't qualify for championships... but I could not have asked for a more successful season. We have a large number of our mentors that have shown a huge amount of technical prowess. Our students are getting to where they are helping select and choose off season projects THEY want to build. We're building a gantry mill and a "non-tank" practice drivetrain this offseason. PLTW is likely to provide us with a CNC mill and repair the schools 3D printer. We'll also be starting up a robotics program at the middle school that feeds our high school, using the high school students as "Jr. Mentors" as well as support 2-4 other Jr. High VEX IQ teams..
I can't wait to set our goals for 2014-2015!
A few of our mentors will be at Champs to represent our parent company which sponsors FIRST. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you'd like to meet up and chat robots (I noticed from a prior post you said you'd be there for your Dean's list award winner).