Originally Posted by Eternity_Soap
To make a relatively long story short, my team was nearly dealt a deathblow this year. At the beginning of the build season, my coach was forced to take a leave of absence, such that he could no longer hold any contact with the team. He was the one who managed the teams finances, as well as the only one around who had real experience working with FIRST and knew the procedure regarding activities like bagging and tagging. Additionally, he was the team's only connection to our high school. This alone nearly sunk us, as the high school administration was not exactly willing to let the team go and compete without anyone from the school. We were saved by the fact that we are technically a neighborhood team, as we have some kids from a nearby private school. Throughout the rest of the build season we were in a frantic rush to complete a robot and figure everything out. We ended up having a parent step in to coach. She had no engineering experience that she could offer us, meaning that we, for the most part, had to trust our amateur engineering skills. The result was... interesting. As one might expect the robot wasn't ultra high performance (as a matter of fact it failed miserably and sometimes hilariously), but we still scraped by at two regional competitions.
Now that they are both over, it is time to think to the future. To make matters slightly worse, we're a bit short on members. As mentioned previously, we have no adult mentors remaining either, and the parent that took over for this year understandably has no intention of doing the same next year. Being a high school senior this year, I don't have very long to act. I believe that I've got three problems to tackle: Finding new team mentors, acquiring new sponsors, and recruitment/retention.
My team is located on Florida's space coast, and as such I would think that the opportunities for mentors/sponsorship from local aerospace companies would be abundant. The problem is I really do not know how to go about this. My coach was the one that would handle the acquisition of sponsors and grants, and I myself am relatively new to FIRST. This is where I seek help. I originally posted this on the FRC subreddit, and was pointed here by members who said that I might find more credible advice from the experienced FIRST guys around here. Additionally, I've actually got an appointment with my principle to try and make a case for the team the coming Monday. If anyone has any ideas with respect to preparation in this regard, I am all ears.
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