[eneubec1]

My words of advice (from a 3 yr old team).... Start EARLY....The earlier the better.

Last year we decided to go visit the 8th graders at their school in May (before they come to the high school). We introduce them to our team and invite them to a "information night" for them and their parents. It is only open for incoming 9th graders and gave them the opportunity to understand our program.

During this info night we invite them to join us in our off season events in the summer. (We do local street fair events, some fun fund raisers, and other social events). The incoming 8th graders that participate end up feeling like they are part of the team and form new friendships before they even start high school. This approach worked very well for us last year and is looking good for this year.
We have been meeting twice a week for the month of may, building a R2D2 Photon Shooting robot to use at our street fair event. The primary build team is "hands off" and the underclassman are building this demo robot.

Something interesting happened this year with this approach. (only the 2nd year we have done this). We had some 8th graders ask if they could come to our May meetings as they were really excited to join our team. We now have three 8th graders that have joined us and have learned alot about FRC and other teams. Lots of smiles and laughing with students they didn't know 3 weeks ago is what it takes to make them feel welcome. Once they feel welcome, they will stick around.