Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Rotolo
Direct 1on1 appeals. Most colleagues expressed some interest, but couldn't commit to time after working hours - family commitments and such
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some random thoughts and observations in lieu of an intelligent response on my part.....
young engineers - before they have children are more accessible.
engineers with children are not particularly accessible, unless their own child is in the program.
Old engineers, like myself are more accessible. After my daughter went to college I had a choice of golf, boating, robotics ? etc as a past time. At a personal level robotics is personally cheaper and more rewarding than the other things.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Rotolo
If you’ve got any tips on how to convert mild interest into action, I’d love to hear that too.
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The mild interest audience I think would naturally resist making a commitment into an 'unknown' program. Ask them if they would be willing to come in just one or two Saturdays to help with a specific aspect.
'helping' is different than 'committing'.
Engineers personalities tend to decide things on their own. If you are having to 'sell' the program you are probably already in trouble.
Just present a) the information and b) the opportunities to help.
Give them a chance to 'dip their toe in the water' and don't ask them for the belly flop.
presenting the information is a little challenging. video of robots ? video of people ? personal appeals from students or other mentors ? etc
(at risk of self promotion) The video at
www.kellrobotics.org is an experiment in communication.
The obvious question is "who are we trying to communicate to ?"
The next obvious thing is we were probably trying to communicate too many things to too many people but that is okay because we know what we want to do next.
A few things of interest in the video at these time marks.
6:45 - obviously my favorite when they tell you how wonderful you are, haha
17:01 - Where's Waldo - talking about how they get real learning from real engineers, (with all due respect to the teaching profession)
24:00 - The director of engineering for F-22 talking about how FIRST is like a giant rock concert, not a nerdy science fair.
Ultimately we need targeted videos for a) potential mentors, b) educators, c) sponsors, etc. Each audience has their own perspective or points of interests that need to converge.
For a mentor recruitment video what you all of you like to see packaged into a tight 10 minute video. This is for mentor recruitment ? Suggestions anyone ? 10 minutes max.