[vhcook]

Do you have any friendly faculty members? We've had a lot of success at gaining new members through our faculty coaches, who talk up the program during math and science classes.

Can you do any demos or pitches at the middle schools that feed your high school? Can you partner with any other FRC teams in your vicinity for a more complicated demo to your high school community? How about the parents, where you could pitch the scholarship opportunities FRC gives you access to in addition to the learning opportunities for math, science, marketing, communication, etc? Getting parents on board can also help deal with the time situation.

Do you have any underclassman friends you might be able to talk into giving robotics a try? We got a few excellent recruits through things like one of our student leaders making a deal with her friend that she'd try the fall musical if the friend would try robotics. You can also help get people who seem interested but aren't quite willing to commit the time off the fence and onto the team by getting them to come to an off-season event and get a feel for the competition experience.

This may be rough with your staffing situation and it's more of a long-term solution, but FLL teams can provide a pipeline for new members. If you can manage getting a team or two started in the middle schools that feed you it can help provide a steady source of robotically-inclined freshmen.

Worst case, you might consider stepping down to FTC temporarily while you work on improving your recruiting. The budget and staffing requirements are a bit less harsh.