[Barry Bonzack]

This post sounds a lot like troubles I had about 4 months ago. However, I had an advantage of having another 4 months before kickoff to fix things. My first question is how well is your team financially supported? Also I am wondering if you all have a space for your team to build.

I can share other bits of advice I used to help problems out, but many times it is not possible to change personalities of other students. However, there are many ways to recruit new students, perhaps that school 30 miles away would be willing to give a demo during lunch time. Team 233 did this for our school. Feel free to IM me or e-mail me about other suggestions in this area, I've been through a similar situation and continue fighting similar problems. someone once told me "founding a FIRST team is an battle, but an uphill one."

The best thing I can share is that without teacher sponsors, you are sunk. I asked FIRST NEMO about this problem I had at one point, and they had many ideas. FIRST NEMO is an invaluable source for information for topics such as these, and they were able to help see me through the forest during some times that looked bleak.

Regarding teachers from Jenny "Robomom" Beatty of FIRST NEMO:

Originally Posted by RoboMom

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonzack1390
an just one teacher to help with the I guess what I was really asking was for more way to get teachers wanting to help be a sponsor for the team. How do other teams spark interest into teachers, even the ones that know nothing about engineering?


Team 007 has the same problem. Only one teacher. This can contribute to really high burnout. So what they started doing is writing a great letter, attending the first faculty meeting the administration will let them come to and asking faculty to sign up for just one evening during the build. We've gotten a good response. The teachers are just required to be there so many do their own work. But the benefit has been that teachers from around the school (English, French, music, science, guidance counselors, etc) get to see what the team is doing. They are genuinely amazed. Last year the team asked them to write a paragraph of their impressions and these were wonderful to read. They go into our "Q-Log" where we keep everything for the team. It has helped let the faculty(2000+ kids, I don't know how many staff) see what the team is doing. One of the English teachers then volunteered to proof read the Chairman's. One of the art teachers volunteered to help with a logo (2 years ago when they needed something to put in the program book-they don't do that anymore) Anyway, it ripples out wards.Most teachers are willing to sign up for 3-4 hours, knowing it is only once. Many then signed up for a second evening.

We would love to have a second teacher mentoring, but this has been tough to find. You try to do the best with the cards you are dealt.
Jenny