[Anne Shade]

Ok,

This question pops up about this time each year. Each one of us college teams runs things differently since each of our situations is just a little bit different. The first thing I would recommend is to not do this on your own. Look to established student organizations on campus for student support and possible working space. The best would probably be to spend the first year helping out a local already established team while you work on getting things established on the college level.

Getting the college involved and supportive is not easy. It should be a little easier for you since you can play on the fact that VT has a team and UVA does not. At GT we have support from the Mechanical Engineering department and the development office which helps us raise money. It takes a lot of talking to a lot of people to find at least one established faculty member who will support the program. Getting working space is often the hardest part since a lot of people want very limited space on all college campuses. Start with a club or organization that already has some working space and see if you can have access. Sometimes it's more convenient to work at the high school.

The next part is getting the high school. Believe it or not, finding an interested high school who will work well with you to start a team is not easy. Look to schools that are close (makes it easier to deal with transportation back and forth) and find a teacher who is really excited about the program. That makes all the difference. Start looking for a team when you get there, get the kids and teachers organized and have them go to a competition this year. Let them experience it and see it before they go in. It'll make it much easier for you in the end.

This is becoming a really long post. There is just so much information that I can give you and suggestions for this since I have helped start and run 3 teams as well as the 27 other GA teams. Feel free to IM me or PM me if you have any questions. As mentioned above Eric, Amanda, Erin, and many others have also done this and have other suggestions for you. Just don't do it alone. Good Luck!!!