[Anne Shade]

Because Georgia Tech has been so great to help us start new teams, we have been able to offer to pay for registration to regionals and Nationals to new team we start in the Atlanta area. We also pay for tools and extra robot building fees. We have room here at Tech to build the robots. This kind of incentive for new teams has been part of our success. This is our second year mentoring teams and we already have two teams and 3 high schools involved. My suggestion to you would be to find potential sponsors in the area that would be able to offer these kinds of benefits to teams. Companies in your state that would be willing to cover registration for a new team as well as engineers. Then try to match these up with schools. You can then offer financial help to the schools right from the start. Another idea, which may very well be easier, would be to contact large universities in your area. They have contacts in these companies and may be able to get a group started at their university. If you would like help in this, please feel free to contact me. We have succeded here at Tech and would love to share our success.