[Martinez]

Evening,

My name is Jeff Martinez, Alumni of Team 229 Division by Zero at Clarkson University, New Hire at Lockheed Martin Owego, and I need help starting a FIRST Robotics Team. More specifically, there is a group called Engineering Explorer Post 76 sponsored by Lockheed. It’s a group of employees and local high schoolers of around 30 people and each year they have an engineering project. Last year they built Telescopes, this year involves Lego Mindstorm and next year I want to encourage them to try FIRST. That’s where I need your help. I want to educate and excite them about FIRST Robotics, any advice you could give me would be most welcome.

What I really want to learn is:
Are there any FIRSTers in the Binghamton Area looking for a Team?
Do any of you have Lockheed Martin Sponsors or Mentors?
Any teams in the Greater Binghamton Area, or elsewhere, willing to help us out?
How did your team first get started and what did you do to get people excited?
Anyone have advice for a potential team where most haven’t heard the name FIRST before?

My ideas so far are:
Next meeting (Tuesday), bring some recap videos from 229’s previous seasons.
Encourage everyone to attend a group meeting to watch Kickoff.
Find a near by team willing to attend a meeting and show off their bot.
Attend a Regional, ether at Rochester or NYC.

So far the Adult Leadership seems to like the idea, and is allowing me to pitch my idea to see what the Students feel about it. That’s why I’m posting here, and really my next move is up to you guys. There is a regrettable lack of FIRST Robotics Teams in the Greater Binghamton Area, and my goal is to forever change that.