HELP! We need help NOW!!!

[aksimhal]

Hi,

My team 1123 is practically "dead ." We just lost our only building location (which we've had for 3 years). We are down to about 2 members, have only about $200 in our bank. We need help!! I was wondering if anybody had any ideas on what we should do? Should we find a whole mentor team, or merge with another team? (I know we need to get mentors (we have none), but how are we supposed to exactly find a mentor if we don't even have a building location?)
So as you can see, ALL comments and suggestions are welcome. If anyone wants more info on the team they can PM me.

Thanks,
Anish

[Billfred]

It's not over until the fat lady sings.

What has become of your other members? Have they just quit coming? Do they know about meetings? Are they graduating? (This isn't exactly the easiest time of year for students--they might be tied up with classes.) If you are genuinely down to two members, then start recruiting through any means you know of.

Build space can be a tough one, but hit the ground running. Ask your school/sponsors/whoever you're affiliated with about using space. (We have a closet--it's plenty for us, although we're starting to run out of room for robots.) If nothing else, find a member whose parents are awesome and build there (Great robots have come out of garages--just ask 1902.)

Money is arguably the easiest one. There are dozens of white papers on how to raise money on CD, everything from raffling off a Segway to duct taping teachers to the wall. This also has the benefit of raising awareness at the same time--you never know who's going to see this and write a larger-than-usual check.

Hope this helps--good luck. (Remember, you have until November to truly get things together. Problems now can be fixed.)

[dhitchco]

Anish,

take a deep breath and hang in there.

Your team is located in Alexandria VA just outside of Washington DC correct? The first thing to do is to focus your story/plight on those teams in your immediate geographical area.

Your next major step is to start recruiting freshman and sophomore students to your team for next year (regardless of your money or build location situation). You need team members first!

Once you have re-kindled a team, go out and fund-raise; even if it's just doing car washes! You need to get your "story" out there even more than raising actual cash. There may be some philanthropist in your area that will cough-up the warehouse space and/or money, but only if your story is well-publiscized. Have your parents spread the word through their friends; make up a solicitation tri-fold brochure that they can pass-around.

Speaking of build space; it's not a HIGH priority this time of the year, but scout around and build a database of commercial real estate brokers that own/manage small shopping malls. You may be able to "borrow" a store next January-March to do your build/practice. In the mean time, get out there and demo your robot to every social group you can think of.

It'll be OK.....

[GoSparx]

Originally Posted by aksimhal

Hi,

My team 1123 is practically "dead ." We just lost our only building location (which we've had for 3 years). We are down to about 2 members, have only about $200 in our bank. We need help!! I was wondering if anybody had any ideas on what we should do? Should we find a whole mentor team, or merge with another team? (I know we need to get mentors (we have none), but how are we supposed to exactly find a mentor if we don't even have a building location?)
So as you can see, ALL comments and suggestions are welcome. If anyone wants more info on the team they can PM me.

Thanks,
Anish

This is how great teams are made Anish. We all have remember that FIRST not just about building a robot and winning. Its all about the learning and having fun. I'd recommend looking to your community. Maybe you guys can get another sponsor or maybe look to other people to help out. PM me for more help. We can talk on aim to and idbe glad to help.

Dante DiLella

[Freddy Schurr]

If there are just two members and you don't have any money, I think that you have to go find another team.

[KenWittlief]

You are in a very difficult situation. You need to have: students, funding, a build space, at least one HS mentor (teacher), + professional mentors if possible.

the problem is, you need them all - leave out one factor and you dont have a team

and its very hard to get people to sign up for one if the rest are all in doubt. It can be done, but understand that for all practical purposes you are starting over to rebuild the entire team.

[artdutra04]

Don't Panic

Your team won't die out until the last member "dies" out. You are not the first team (no pun intended) to be in this situation, nor the last either. You have two members left, and as long as you keep your nose to the grindstone you will find some way for your team to survive.

Consider this basically starting from scratch for your team. You need to try to accomplish everything that rookies need to go through every year just to survive, let alone thrive. It may be tough, and times may be lean, but if you just keep trying to find more sponsors, members, mentors, and a build space then your team will survive.

Sure, your team may end up building your robot in someone's garage or basement, and you may only have like five students and one teacher. But none of this matters much; just the fact that your team can overcome such difficulties will make whoever joins your team have a much higher appreciation for the team, knowing they played a role in the rebirth of your team.

Here's a few things you might want to consider as you rebuild your team:

• Have the students on the team talk to their friends about the team. It may sound kind of dumb, but if you talk to a bunch of your friends about how much fun and exciting FIRST can be, they may be more likely to join. Once they join, they may talk to their friends about the team, and the exposure of your team will dramatically increase.
• Go out to twenty local companies and ask each one if they would be willing to sponsor your team for $250. It may be a lot of work, but 20 x $250 = $5,000.
• Look for educational grants from the state. These can be real lifesavers for a team getting started. When our team first started, we applied for a $40,000 grant for 1999-2001, our first three years, to help get the team started and off on a sound financial base.

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Go out to twenty local companies and ask each one if they would be willing to sponsor your team for $250. It may be a lot of work, but 20 x $250 = $5,000.

From my experience finding new sponsors the postive response rate is no where near 100% - it was more like 1% - we cold-pitched about 300 companies, and got 3 that were willing to be partial sponsors.

Not to discourage you, knowing what to realistically expect will make your job easier. If you have to knock on 300 doors, or make 300 phone calls, then thats what you have to do.

[aksimhal]

Thanks to everyone for their support. I really appreciate it. I forgot to mention that we are a home school team, so we get no school support and recruiting is a bit challenging. To be perfectly honest with you all, I not really worried about sponsorship and fund raising yet, cause as some of you mentioned, we have until December to deliver the $6,000. Recruiting isn't (now that I've read all your suggestions) seem to be so hard, and I think I'll be able to manege it.

What I'm really worried about is finding a building location where we can place our bins and our robots. We can have some meetings at a library (or someone's house), but we still need to fix our robot (it wasn't working as we hoped it would). Does anybody have any suggestions, idea, or techniques on how to get a building location?

Thank you all so very much,
Anish

I found that offering food at every meeting helped get people to come

P.S. What type of food do you guys suggest we bring? (Nothing too expensive or fatty though )

[Joe_Widen]

Our team wasnt formed until 2 weeks into the build season last year. A member at GE contacted the school to take part in this program. A high school science teacher that taught physics accepted not knowing that FIRST requires tools. Our school has no tools, at all, I mean it, no lie. Well anyways we had about 3 dedicated members when the program was introduced, and one sponsor. Well, one member on the team went down to the public technical school (we're a public school too), and got in touch with a teacher there. The student explained everything and the teacher was sold. From there on, the team grew to 12 members, several sponsors, and we ended up with a robot that competed well and placed 24th in the Galileo division. We also won the rookie allstar award at the Chicago regional. Anything is possible, who knows, it may be a knock on the door away. Goodluck to you and your revival of the team.

[Lil' Lavery]

I am confident that 116 would be thrilled to help you wherever we can. We're from Herndon, Virginia, not much further away than 612. We will be willing to help you guys rebuild however we can.
Ultimately, the decisions are up to you guys, but we will be behind you whatever you chose.

[windup zeppelin]

welllll how about the next time your school has an assembly to you should mention the team and how long it has been in the school and demosntrate your best robot.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by windup zeppelin

welllll how about the next time your school has an assembly to you should mention the team and how long it has been in the school and demosntrate your best robot.

If you had read the thread, you would have known that this team is homeschooled. This makes your suggestion rather tricky. However, if they are in a homeschool group (very likely, as homeschoolers tend to stick together), then definitely this is a good idea, assuming you have space. Our group has a Night of Excellence every year, and Beach Bot has not missed a year since the team started to my knowledge.

And hey, if someone in the group has connections, why not use them?

[Dan Petrovic]

Look around for sponsors that we know support FIRST teams. Like BAE Systems, Raytheon, GM, and the like. 2002-2005 166 did all of their work in an area BAE Systems had lent to us. Our situation was not unlike yours.

As for recruiting members... If you have any friends who are thinking about joining but aren't sure if they really want to, bring them to a mini-competition if there are any in your area. I got one of my friends to join by dragging him to a competition, now you'd have to drag him out of our work area.

[wendymom]

P.S. What type of food do you guys suggest we bring? (Nothing too expensive or fatty though )[/quote]

For the first meeting I had chick fil a nuggets..they turned into one of our better sponsors too! From then on it varied..sometimes cheese and crackers, subs, chips and salsa. Durning build season some of the kids approached local restaurants and they fed us nightly.

Being a home school team you might consider approaching other public or private schools in the area that don't have FIRST teams and ask if you can partner or at least recruit there. We have 4 schools on our team. Also check with a science musem or society in your area.

Dont rule out a good garage as a build space. We used one of our college mentors garages and just fed all his roomates every night so they didn't mind

Good Luck