A few years back, Colleen Shaver from team 190 was trying to start something called "BostonFirst" when she was a student at BU and on team 246. It started to take off, then she transferred to WPI. You should contact her, as she went through some of the process you are now experiencing.
Her idea of BostonFirst gave us the idea to start IndianaFIRST. Up to this point, IndianaFIRST has been these things:
1.
IndianaFIRST Website, created and managed by David Kelly.
2. Indiana FIRST team leaders' meeting: Team leaders from all Indiana teams have gotten together to talk each of the last 3 years, in the early fall. This usually happens in Sept. or early October. I have organized and facilitated those meetings.
3. Indiana FIRST Forums: All Indiana teams have been invited to attend and host workshop sessions for the past 3 years. This has taken place at Ivy Tech State College in Kokomo. For most sessions, 2 or 3 people from different teams present on the same subject. This way, audiences get different opinions on similar subjects, proving that there is more than one way to run a FIRST team or design a FIRST robot. This has been coordinated by team 45, but the veteran teams all pitch in to educate the rookies and each other.
4. Kokomo Kickoff: Indiana teams (and all other teams) have been invited to Kokomo to attend a remote kickoff for the past 3 years. This has been coordinated by team 45 and hosted again at Ivy Tech State College.
We are looking to create a more formal association of teams within Indiana, but that process is not easily done. Stay tuned for more details on that.
My main point here is that you can get teams together and cooperate without having an official organization. David has done a great job with the website and all the teams have really pulled together to put on the workshops and meetings. These are things that many states and regions could do.
Andy B.