[tindleroot]

Originally Posted by Ari423

Even with all of this outreach to our school and our feeder schools, kids and adults alike are still surprised to hear that the school has a robotics team.

The team I just graduated from has been around since 1998, and I think we are well known (in addition to our outreach) since our school principals have been supporters of the robotics team. Our 3500 student high school has had at least 2 principals since we formed and our coach has been extremely effective at convincing the principal that our program is worthwhile and meaningful for the students. (Also note that we worked toward getting school support every year and had never won an event until 2014) If you can get even a single person with a lot of power in your school to support your efforts then they will be able to help your team get more recognition and "advertising" in the school and community.

Also, every year our school system (1 high school, 3 middle, 11? elementary) holds a 5k run/walk for the school foundation with thousands of people in attendance, and every year for a long time the FRC team and FTC/FLL have demoed there. Many of our students will say that their first inspiration to join robotics was seeing the FRC team when they were in elementary school.

Make your team memorable and noticeable to the school/community, and that coupled with the outreach that you already seem to do will get more students into your program.