[BSV]

With any recruiting, personal connections are probably the most important factor, followed closely by making people feel that their contribution is important once they are signed up so that they will stick around. We have a small FRC team, and it also splits into three FTC teams in the fall. Last fall, we decided to have an all-girls FTC team which started out with just two committed ladies, and it was very empowering for them. They added a third for the latter half of the season. They were extremely outgoing and shared a positive message about FIRST (they even won the Promote award for FTC at state). Then they recruited middle schoolers from an FLL team for this new school year, as well as other friends they knew. There are going from 2 girls to probably 10+ girls in less than a year, just by sharing what they know and how much fun the FIRST experience has been for them. Like CoachC, we are lucky that the original three are natural leaders, so that certainly plays a roll (a student council president, a soccer captain, and a Dean's List Finalist).

The FRC team we are taking to an offseason event next weekend is going to be 80% girls, which is a total flip-flop from last year. I imagine that once school starts it will be back to 50/50 again, but that's a great number compared to the ~30% number that is the FIRST average.

Now, if only we could find some more female mentors...