Am I the only person with this job?

[nkauj_ntxoo16]

Well, I don't think our team writes newsletter(s), but we do make newspapers every year. On the other hand, though, it is a subteam. This subteam has a scale of 5-10 people in it that helps write about a certain topic for the newspaper. I'm not quite sure, but I do believe that it is somewhat similar to having to write a newsletter. It is pretty fun since you get to jump into your own team's history in detail!!

[Sam Lipscomb]

our team has a newsletter, and i'm the editor. three times a year i bother people until they agree to write an article, and even -then- i only get three people, who write one article each and leave me to write at least three myself. then i put everything together, and edit it, and add pictures, and print copies, and fold/label/mail each newsletter. hahahaha i love my life.

our newsletter is basically for public relations, but it does go out to parents so they can see what kind of community activities we attend. of course, we do have an email system for the team, so we all know about the next meeting/build session and how robot progress is going. we also have a daily log on our website that outlines what went on during any given day, in case someone missed a session.

that's not my only job though, so it's a bit different from your situation. i maintain the team website and the daily log, memorize the manual so people can come to me with questions about the rules , and make graphics/textures for our animation. robotics is -definitely- life!

our newsletter articles are on our website - go to http://shsrobotics.org, enter the site, and click news.

[Jasmin]

We do indeed have a newsletter. A parent volunteer writes it, however. Included are mostly fund raising announcements and other things that need to be mentioned. Also included are spotlights of our mentors. Every newsletter one is interviewed, and placed in there along with a picture. Kind of like a, "Get to know your mentors" thing.

[drewcampbell]

No, we do not have a Team Newsletter. We do have an email that we send out - with our accomplishments.

[roboguy #1]

I suppose if I said I had a job it would end up being the guy with all the best ideas that everyone ignore. I think they need a steam from the ears smily or maby call it a steamy.

[Athleticgirl389]

Originally Posted by Lora Knepper

All I have to say is ---

Life == FIRST

~ lora
FIRST-a-holic for life...and prolly after death too

I totally agree with you there! lol. It's so true! Or as my friend and I say, robotics owns my life haha

[Dan Zollman]

Originally Posted by boy_scout72688

[i] Now I have an interesting job. Not only am I the programmer I am also the one responsible for getting all the updates from Cheif Delphi and then getting all the team updates from first....

I had a similar job this year. I worked on our Rookie All-Star entry, but I was also the communications person, so I kept our manual binder up-to-date.

We're going to start a newsletter next year for the Tech & Engineering Club (the umbrella club) which will probably be quarterly, and will be for parents, interested teachers and students in the school, administrators, and I suppose donors. We have a lot more people in the club than just the robotics team, and the club does a lot of other activities too, so it would probably be broader. I would expect that our PR person would oversee it, but we'd also choose a separate newsletter person and committee to write it and do layout.

[Zak698]

Originally Posted by Karl

Our team does not have a newsletter. We do, however, have individuals with unusual team tasks. For example, as far as I know, I'm the only guy in the entire FIRST program whose job it is to show up at every meeting and stand around cracking wise until one or more of my team mates feels compelled to injure me with any of various shop tools.

No, you would not be the only guy in the program that dose that! I think every team has their own fool. But im usualy the one that feels compelled to injure them with my mouse and keyboard.... lol.. And well for the news letter we dont have one, but i would say to include upcomming events, meeting times, and maybe history about the team and its members... Good Luck!

[Josh Murphy]

Chief Delphi does an entire newspaper every year. It is usually 5 to 6 pages long, and contains articles from our students about what thier role to the team is or what thier sub team is responsible for during the build season. Our engineers and Coaches also write selections for the paper. Articles also come from the F.I.R.S.T. VIP's Dave, Woodie, and Dean. This is completely a student made and written newspaper. It is also a sub team called Communications/Publications and that is thier main project to tackle during the season. This would be a good thing for any team to start, I think that it would be interesting to hear about what other teams are doing during the year.

[LPaton716]

We have one that comes out once a year or so...We do a lot of community fundraising and we send one to each of our sponsers.

But the mother who got it together daughter is graduating, and she is focusing more on Lego robotics at her school. So I would love to start one...say once a robotics season (build, off, competition, pre)

I also would like our local newspaper to have a technology column every week. (And well environmental too, the natural world is my passion, be where else can I get hands on experience with hand tools?...I certainly don't have a jig saw)

Newsletters are important for building up your extended community. There are many people who want to know what kids are doing these days but don't know how to ask or where to find out. A newsletter scattered around the school is a great start.

Do any teams have technology nights/forums to discuss and showcase their work that is open to the public and well advirtised? I think it's a great idea but advertising can be difficult.

Best of luck writing and spreading the word to all teams,


BTW How is everyone doing with Dean's challenge?

[nobrakes8]

newsletters fell under the responsibility of the website team on my old team, however they were always given other stuff to do, which is why the website and newsletters were never done (except in 2005, it seemed everything went as planned, but that was the only time)..

Also our team did an hours system.. Where you had to do so many hours to go to be on the drive team (they figured if you're not there then you don't know enough about the robot to be on the drive team), and you had to do so many hours to go to the event on thursday, so many hours to go on friday, etc..

We'd always have like 3-4 students just hanging around with nothing to do everynight trying to accumlate hours... So like they always got stuck on the jobs nobody wanted to do since they really weren't part of any subteam.. One night they might be organizeing tools for us, another night they might be machining parts with loose tolerances so somebody like me could dedicate time to other stuff, maybe they'd go work on an old robot to get something working and do troubleshooting etc..

Those people ALWAYS turned out to be critical since without them important stuff wouldn't get done.. They maynot have worked on any particular critical part of the robot, but without their work the little stuff would never get done and we would have had lots of problems come ship date..