[Keith Chester]

Judging from your team number you're a veteran team. If you've managed to keep alive any of the bots your team has built thusfar, showing them off can entrance people at first.

The key to introducing people to FIRST- whether they're a corporate executive or a freshman student, is catching their eye quickly. Sure, a robot with a transmission that can shift on the fly is interesting to us (heck, I catch myself drooling at the transmissions of other teams at times) but not too interesting to the general public. Also, technospeak kinda scares people away.

Try to make the team seem as it's not only fun, but not nearly as difficult as most people believe on the general first impression. I know full well that when I started I could not believe I was at all capable of producing such a machine. I'm glad to say I've proved myself wrong on several occasions.

A gimmick works well too, an identity. My team has its bright hawiian shirts that cause people in New Jersey to do a double take. MOE has their awesome cheer and bright lime green shirts. The list is endless- you need your identity to catch their attention!

Lastly, for your starting freshman, I suggest you introduce them to the game as if it was kickoff. On our team, all the freshman were presented with the basic rules as we were on kickoff for the 2003 game Stack Attack, and then split into small groups to discuss and design their game playing robot. Quite a few interesting ideas popped up, and it's encouraged them to stay aboard.

Hope this helps!