[AdamT]

I am from a team that was started by college studetns at Virginia Tech four years ago. What they did was to approach the nearest high school and ask for some help recruiting kids. They wrote a letter that was supposed to be sent out to all the science and technology teachers so their students could be told about it. I was one of those students who found out about it that way.

One of the ways they tried to organize it on the college level was to try and associate it with ASME, but that flopped. Even though Virginia Tech gives us very little money (if any anymore with budget cuts) and they give us no space, we still call them one of our sponsors for the fact that us students donate our time and energy to the project. Having a college for a "sponsor" is quite helpful, especially if you have no major corporate sponsor. It's an identifier like Delphi or GM or Ford. You can say *as for us* we are the Virginia Tech team.

One thing you may need to do on the high school level is try and find a high school teacher who would be willing to sponsor the team as a "club." I don't know about other school districts, but getting excused absenses for competition without having the team as a class or club is nearly impossible here.

The key is to get started NOW. Research the local schools and their policies, go up there and make contacts, try and find corparate sponsorship, etc. You really can't start too soon and to get an effective team going you need to start now. On top of that, you will have more time this summer then you will when classes start in the fall.

Your other option is to get involved with an existing team as a volunteer/mentor. I'm sure they'll understand you're not pro, but usually you can still get in there to help out. The closest teams to UIUC are in Indianapolis or Chicago....

Good luck