[mathking]

Our team (1014) is a three high school team. We started as a two school team and then the school district opened a third high school. Are there other high schools in your district you could partner with?

If so, then the biggest piece of advice I can give you is to reach out now. Get students from another school (and as importantly at least one teacher from the other school) interested now. A new school can mean new ideas and fresh excitement.

Multi-school teaming is not really that hard. The biggest issue is communication. You have to devise a system to keep everyone informed about what is happening. You can do this by having returning members step up and take responsibility for various activities. You have to make sure that all of the schools involved get information and that no one feels second-class.

Remember that rookie teams start with no experience. Leverage the experience you do have by working this fall. You might even want to do some work this summer while your veterans are still around. Plan some lab activities for the fall.

If you are losing a major sponsor, start looking now for more sponsors. Make up a brochure, train everyone in what to say and then get out and pound the pavement looking for sponsors. You should also look for grants. A lot of these can be found by searching the internet, and a perhaps even better (and certainly less-utilized) resource is your local library. Librarians can be of immense aid in any search for information.