[Bethie42]

Originally Posted by eyu100

Are teams generally willing to accept students like me? Would I have to give a good reason, or would "I fell out with my team, please please please take me" be enough?

As someone who is crazy about FIRST and most FIRST people, who's been on a team for four years and is team leader this year: I'd let you join our team in an instant. [IF I met you in person, maybe talked to your old team's coach, etc, heh.]

I think though it would depend a lot on the team. Our team has always been small, and we're usually glad for whoever we can get. I think this would not be the case though, for larger teams.

I recommend talking to your Reg. Director. Deb Mumm-Hill used to be the RD for WA [she's awesome], but she's just doing Oregon now and you'll need to find the new RD's contact info.

I looked at the Bellevue teams listed on the team locator and they are all teams that have been established for awhile [ie lower registration numbers]....hence, I think these teams may be larger/better established. Now they could be fine [and by all means approach them...after all our team has been around for 10 years and we're still tiny], but I would lean towards a newer team.

I bet there is some rookie team out there right now that is panicking because they don't have a programming lead [that happens to veteran teams too...just ask me, who is now lead programmer and has NO idea what she's doing...]. If you can find that team, I think things could go very well.

Can you get some other sort of transportation [bus, etc] to a further-away team? Although that would have the same problem of insurance, for the school.


Sorry you're having to go through this, I know several people who have quit FIRST because of problems with their team and they just couldn't find another team to join. Hopefully you can find a way to work around it.

Oh one more thought, do you know anyone who's on a team close-ish to where you live? It could be a huge help if you already had at least one friend on the team.
Good luck! Let me know if there's any other way I can help.