[Eric O]

[quote=EricH;976637]What I'm seeing is that there are 3 distinct sources of non-sustainability, and a wide range of solutions. This is just a summary post; feel free to add to it or take issue with something I say as you will.

1. Funding.

2. Leadership/Mentor/Student Involvement.

3. School/District Involvement, or Lack Thereof.

[quote]

One word: Alumni

I have always wondered if/when FIRST could become self-sustaining. As the program graduates more and more students each year it builds an alumni base who knows what the program has done for them, and if they return to help, what they are doing for the kids involved today. Here is how I see them helping in all 3 categories you specified.

1. Funding.
Many alumni go to college and likely make some decent money (50k+) coming out of school. Some of them will eventually go on to make substantially more than that, and maybe even a few will start the next Google, I-Robot, or Facebook. Even if an alumnus doesn't own a company they are still the best person for convincing the company they work for that sponsoring a FIRST team is a good idea. I think it will take alumni being 10-15 years out of high school before they have enough pull in their company or own a business that could substantially help teams. However, FIRST has grown exponentially, and therefore the number of these alumni is currently growing exponentially. On 177, most of our mentors are FIRST alumni. These alumni request support of the team and also donate a couple hundred dollars out of pocket also, usually in the form of robot parts.

2. Leadership/Mentor/Student Involvement.
As an alumnus I actually find mentoring more fun than participating as a student. I think many alumni would find this and therefore be willing to mentor. If alumni are willing to mentor and lead at least the technical portion of the team, it takes the load off of the high school mentor and hopefully allows them to avoid burnout. If you benchmark teams with 10+ years of sustainment I would bet they have a dedicated teacher and engineering mentor who successfully divide up the workload. A teacher will be more likely to start a team if they know they have help from someone that has done this before. Again, 177 has many mentors who are FIRST Alumni and this helps with our sustainability by knowing what to expect every year, operating efficiently, and having. I should clarify that these alumni are 6-13 years out of high school, not the kids that graduated last year. This is an important note as I do not think FIRST should be asking kids in college to be starting or help save teams. In the student involvement area, alumni probably can't do much here except maybe talk at a school assembly about what participating has done for them or ensure that a team is fun for the students so they tell their friends.

3. School/District Involvement, or Lack Thereof.
Just like alumni speaking at a school assembly to recruit students, alumni should be used to gain district involvement. Again, if someone is a product of the process, requesting support of the process is a lot easier if the product is standing in front of them. Alumni should be encouraged to go to Board of Ed meetings to stand up for the program. If the alumni lives in town, that is even better because they are also a taxpayer. On Bobcat Robotics we also try to keep track of what the program has produced. We like to note that students graduating from the team combined have received over $500,000 in college scholarships related to FIRST.


There are many methods and resources which could be used to ensure sustainability of a team. I think alumni are one which is not used as well as it could be.

-EOB