Any serious recruiting program (whether for an FRC team, a church, or a branch of the military) has three basic elements:
- Informational
- Advertisement
- Personal
The
informational piece is just that - make sure that as many people as possible within your recruiting sphere (in this case, a school) know that the team exists, and when and where it meets, and how to find a contact person. Don't leave anyone a valid excuse that "I didn't know that you existed." or "I didn't know how to get in touch."
Advertising is a bit more flamboyant. Let as many people as possible know
why they should want to join. Do cool stuff, like toss shirts into the stands at a football game with your air cannon, or demo the robot during halftime at the basketball game or a pep rally or other assembly. Often, advertising and information are part of the same event/poster/announcement, so you may want to combine these two efforts. Just make sure that when and if the advertising grabs them, they have enough information to act on it.
Third, and most important, is the
personal appeal. Advertising and Information alone will only bring in those who already think that doing robotics would be cool. Stopping there give short shrift to what is probably the most important word in the name of FIRST -
inspiration. Identify people who are not moved by the advertising, but who might benefit from the FIRST experience. This could be an athlete who is smart enough to be an engineer or business leader but whose personal horizons are limited. It could be someone who likes to work on cars and machines, but never thought of it as more than a hobby. It could be someone in the process of becoming a business leader who needs an opportunity to grow leadership skills. It could be someone who is scared to be seen as good in math and science (more commonly girls than boys here) who can find a place where math and science are not only acceptable, but honored.
Find a way to invite these people! There is no blueprint for this invitation, or perhaps there are hundreds. The personal appeal is best done by an inviting person who knows the invited person, well, personally [redundancy intentional].
To support these personal appeals (as well as the few brought in by advertising), each team must have a process to bring people into the team. Our team has developed an "open door" policy for the period between the end-of-season banquet (~May) and tryouts for the team (~Nov). This means that for half of the year, prospective team members are welcome to come "give it a spin" without commitment. If your window to bring in team members is much narrower, then getting the info as to when, where, and how to join part of step 1 is
crucial.