[Kit Gerhart]

I seem to have more experience finding new teams than most people, so I'll tell my experiences.

I was with Team 45, TechnoKats for about seven years while working with Delphi in Kokomo, Indiana. Then I was offered, and accepted an early retirement. Since I don't really like cold and snow, I have become a "snow bird" in Florida. I wanted to continue working with a FIRST team, so this is what I did:

My first "winter home" was in central Florida, about 10 miles west of Disney Orlando. I looked over the team lists on the FIRST web site and picked out some nearby teams that I might want to work with. I wrote a short resume/letter of introduction and sent it to a few teams. I obtained contact information for some teams from their team web sites, and got my letter forwarded to other teams through FIRST. It turned out that FIRST keeps contact information "secret" and was not particularly helpful in my search, but I got it done. One of my letters went to Andy Knutson who was a coordinator for Disney teams, and he provided contact information for Team 1062, a rookie team in Celebration. I worked with that team last year. While we had few resources, we had a good core group and it was a good experience.

Fast forward about half a year--I took a mini-vacation to the Cocoa Beach area, and it was obvious to me that I'd really rather be near the coast. I sold my place in central FL, bought a condo in Cape Canaveral, and was again searching for a team. I contacted two teams, both of which were very receptive to having another person with FIRST experience on their team. I have joined Team 233. Our pink beast is in its crate, and I'm look forward to our soon-to-begin competition season consisting of the UCF and NYC regionals, and the national event. I don't plan on moving again anytime soon, and plan to work with this team for years to come.

My experience in finding teams can be summarized this way. If you have FIRST experience, especially with an established team like Team 45, other teams will be more than happy to welcome you and put you to work.